Law for the establishment of a special fund "Energy and Climate Fund"

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Basic data
Title: Law for the establishment of a special fund "Energy
and Climate Fund"
Abbreviation: EKFG
Type: Federal law
Scope: Federal Republic of Germany
Legal matter: Commercial administrative law , energy law
References : 707-26
Issued on: December 8, 2010
( BGBl. I p. 1807 )
Entry into force on: December 14, 2010
Last change by: Art. 3 G of December 12, 2019
( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2513, 2521 )
Effective date of the
last change: 		December 18, 2019
(Art. 4 G of December 12, 2019)
GESTA : N014
Please note the note on the applicable legal version.

The law for the establishment of a special fund “Energy and Climate Fund” (EKFG) is a German federal law through which a special fund “Energy and Climate Fund” (EKF) is established. The funds come primarily from emissions trading and federal subsidies. The sovereign wealth fund is intended to enable additional expenditure “to promote environmentally friendly, reliable and affordable energy supply and to protect the climate ”.

Adopted in autumn 2010, this law establishes a federal special fund . In contrast to normal budget titles, the special fund is not fed from tax revenues , but primarily from the income that the federal government generates through auctions as part of the EU emissions trading scheme . Furthermore, the auction proceeds from the German emissions trading system, which starts in 2021, are to be paid into the EKF. In addition, the fund can receive annual subsidies from the federal budget and loans can be granted up to a total of 20% of the EKF business plan.

The EKFG allows the financing of measures in the areas of climate protection , energy efficiency , renewable energies , energy storage , network technologies for energy supply , energetic building renovation , electromobility and international environmental protection. In addition, EKF funds can be used to offset certain burdens from climate protection measures: Payments to compensate for burdens caused by rising electricity prices as a result of CO 2 pricing and for the decommissioning of coal-fired power plants are permitted.

For the EKF, the federal government must submit an annual balanced business plan together with the budget law and it must report to the budget committee of the Bundestag on the use of expenditure in the previous year. The Federal Ministry of Finance must add the accounts to the federal budget invoice.

Origin and development

In the first version of the law, it was planned to feed the fund from 2011 onwards from part of the additional revenues that the nuclear power plant operators would have achieved with the term extension decided in autumn 2010 . To this end, the federal government agreed a "development fund contract" with the operators. The operators were to pay in EUR 300 million a year in 2011 and 2012 and EUR 200 million a year in 2013–2016. From 2017, payments should be based on the additional electricity volumes produced and consumer prices. In addition, from 2013 part of the income from EU emissions trading should benefit the fund. After the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, however, the federal government revised the extension of the term. Due to the moratorium on runtime announced on March 14, 2011 , the operators suspended their payments to the fund. In 2011, the EKF generated total revenues of EUR 75 million. The federal government therefore amended the EKFG in summer 2011. In its version of August 2011, it allowed a one-off allocation of federal funds for 2011. Since 2012, all income from the auctioning of certificates within the framework of the EU emissions trading has been flowing into the fund.

In 2012, the development and environmental organizations Oxfam and Germanwatch welcomed the earmarking of income from emissions trading for climate-related expenditure that was realized by means of the EKF. Germany has thus demonstrated its innovative spirit. The financing of fossil power plants and compensation payments to electricity-intensive companies, however, are counterproductive, and the promotion of electromobility does not belong in the fund. Since 2011, the Federal Audit Office has repeatedly reprimanded the federal government for the EKF and requested that the expenditure be included in the federal government's core budget. He saw no evidence of better performance of tasks and greater efficiency through the special fund.

Because the revenues from emissions trading fell sharply in 2012–2014 due to low certificate prices, the fund revenues remained far below expectations. At the beginning of 2012, for example, the price was below EUR 10 instead of the planned EUR 17 per tonne of carbon dioxide emissions . As a result, the federal government blocked around half of the allocations planned for 2012 from EKF funds. As a result, the financing of the market incentive program (MAP) for renewable heat and other funding programs, such as the mini CHP impulse program, got into financial difficulties. This problem was solved for 2013 when the Reconstruction Loan Corporation took over the financing of the programs it carried out. Another amendment, which came into effect on January 1, 2015, was intended to stabilize the EKF's income. It allows the federal government to allocate the EKF an annual federal grant from budget funds, for which an annual amount of around 800 million euros was expected until 2018.

As part of the 2019 climate package , it was envisaged that the income from the planned German emissions trading should also benefit the fund (→ Fuel Emissions Trading Act ). On the expenditure side, the change now allows the fund to compensate for higher electricity prices that may result from the introduction of emissions trading. Coal-fired power plant operators can be paid money from the fund to compensate for the shutdown of their power plants. In October 2019, the federal government planned fund revenues of just under 18.8 billion euros by 2023.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ EKFG, Section 2, Paragraph 1
  2. ^ Promotion fund agreement between the Federal Republic of Germany and the nuclear power plant operating companies and their group parent companies in Germany. September 27, 2010, accessed on January 3, 2020 (final draft of the contract).
  3. ↑ Energy Concept - Energy and Climate Fund. Federal Government, November 26, 2010, accessed on January 3, 2020 .
  4. ↑ Electricity companies stop paying to eco funds. April 9, 2011, accessed January 3, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Federal Ministry of Finance (Ed.): Report on the activities of the "Energy and Climate Fund" special fund in 2011 and on the income and expenditure development expected in 2012 . March 1, 2012 ( bundesfinanzministerium.de [PDF; 193 kB ]).
  6. ↑ EKFG-AmendmentG, Article 1
  7. ↑ Position paper special assets "Energy and Climate Fund". Germanwatch, Oxfam, June 2012, accessed January 11, 2020 .
  8. ↑ See for example: Bundesrechnungshof (Ed.): Comments 2011 on the budget and economic management of the federal government . S. 83 ( bundesrechnungshof.de [PDF; 3.5 MB ]). Or: Bundesrechnungshof (Ed.): Comments 2019 on the budget and economic management of the federal government . S. 43 ( bundesrechnungshof.de [PDF; 3.6 MB ]).
  9. ↑ Umweltbundesamt (Ed.): Draft law of the federal government of a second law amending the law establishing a special fund "Energy and Climate Fund" . Written statement on the occasion of the hearing in the budget committee of the Bundestag on October 13, 2014. ( Umweltbundesamt.de ).
  10. ↑ Government struggles with financial hole in the energy transition. January 18, 2012, accessed January 3, 2020 .
  11. ↑ Also in 2013, mini-CHP units will be funded as part of the mini-CHP impulse program. CHP information center, April 19, 2013, accessed on January 3, 2020 .
  12. ↑ BSVermÄndG, Article 1
  13. ↑ German Bundestag (ed.): Draft law of the federal government - Draft of a second law to amend the law to establish a special fund “Energy and Climate Fund” . Drucksache 18/2443 18th electoral period, September 1, 2014, A. Problem and goal, D. Budget expenditure without compliance costs.
  14. ↑ KSGEG, Article 3
  15. ↑ Criticism of the federal government's climate fund - “fragmented and ineffective”. In: Der Tagesspiegel. October 9, 2019, accessed January 11, 2020 .