Berlin The fight against climate change will require significant investments. Depending on the study, there is talk of up to more than one trillion euros in the next ten years. But fewer and fewer German industrial companies still want to invest. This is shown in a survey by the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DIHK), which is available exclusively to the Handelsblatt.
According to this, only 35 percent of companies in the industry are currently planning to invest money in new products. At the beginning of the year it was 37 percent. The industrial middle class is particularly reluctant. Of the companies with fewer than 200 employees, only 30 percent want to invest. At the beginning of the year it was 33 percent – despite the corona crisis.
The effects of reluctance can already be seen. In terms of equipment investments, according to the DIHK, Germany will only reach 90 percent of the pre-crisis level of 2019 this year. More than one in ten companies also reports that they are currently postponing climate protection measures.
In view of the well-filled order books, companies have recently been more optimistic, says DIHK President Peter Adrian. “But rising energy and raw material prices, the increasing shortage of skilled workers and, in an international comparison, higher burdens from German climate policy could ruin these plans,” warns Adrian.
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The emerging new federal government made up of the SPD, Greens and FDP has also recognized this. Their coalition agreement speaks of the “decade of future investments”. In addition to plans for higher public investment, they also want to promote private capital. Scientists assume that overcoming the climate crisis will require investments from the private sector that are eight times higher than those from the public sector.
In order to activate more private capital, the traffic light parties want to examine “which contributions public development banks” can make. Above all, the state-owned KfW bank is to be expanded and support the private sector. In addition, the future government wants to work with public development banks such as the European Investment Bank.
Lukas Köhler, who headed the climate working group in the coalition negotiations for the FDP, says: “The coalition agreement contains numerous measures to leverage private investments.” The expansion of KfW alone will be a huge step. “Almost the whole world is already envying us for KfW,” enthuses Köhler. KfW could do even more in the future, especially when it comes to hedging private investments against risks.
The expansion of KfW is not enough
In addition, the traffic light plans to introduce so-called contracts for difference. The state would co-finance entrepreneurial investments in climate protection. In addition, energy-intensive companies are to be relieved by the abolition of the EEG surcharge and the waiver of short-term price increases in national CO2 emissions trading.
These are good approaches, says DIHK President Adrian: “But that’s not enough. In order to actually shape the transformation, industrial companies need significantly more incentives to invest. “
The Federation of German Industries (BDI) agrees. The two central associations recently did not always agree on the role of the market and the state in future investments. They are now all the more amicable when evaluating the traffic light plans.
In a 29-page analysis, the BDI states: “The coalition agreement lacks measures to enable more private capital to be activated for transformation projects.” Strengthening KfW could be a promising approach, “but certainly not the only one”.
Extend depreciation and lower taxes
The BDI also praises the program for super depreciation, which wants to get the traffic light on the way. It should be possible to deduct costs for climate protection measures and digital goods from tax profits in 2022 and 2023. The BDI criticizes that this does not increase the attractiveness for investments after 2023.
The Ifo Institute agrees with the association and also criticizes the restriction to goods from the areas of climate protection and digitization. “A smaller but broad-based investment subsidy is preferable to a narrower but more intensive subsidy,” says President Clemens Fuest.
Such a broad promotion of corporate investments by shortening the depreciation period to 40 percent of the previous period would initially result in tax losses of around 17 billion euros, shows an Ifo study. In the long term, however, additional tax income of 8.5 billion euros per year can be expected.
According to the BDI, the tax burden also stands in the way of investment activity. With corporate taxes of 25 percent, Germany is one of the countries with the highest burden internationally.
The director of the Institut der Deutschen Wirtschaft (IW), Michael Hüther, says: “Politicians must act by making Germany more attractive for investments.” The government urgently needs to address corporate tax reform.
The FDP wanted to fulfill this wish of the economy. The Bundestag member Köhler says: “Of course we would have liked to have turned the company taxes, but in a coalition you have to be realistic.” But Köhler gives hope. According to the coalition agreement, a fundamental review of all taxes, duties and levies is planned, “in which the burdens for companies will certainly be an issue again”.
More: Financing of the traffic light projects wobbles considerably