Gas prices rise and rise. Troubled times are ahead for consumers.
(Photo: imago images / Christian Ohde)
Anyone who needs a new heating system soon can create an Excel spreadsheet. The price for the heating is entered in it and the price for the gas, electricity or pellets with which the heating is operated. Which model is worthwhile depends heavily on how expensive gas and electricity will be in the future.
But that is difficult to predict. Not only do market prices fluctuate. Gas is also artificially made more expensive through CO2 certificates. And their future price is also hardly foreseeable. Is cheap gas heating worthwhile, even though gas could become more expensive? Or is an expensive heat pump worthwhile with the hope of cheap green electricity?
The homeowner is forced to bet on the future energy market. Even those who buy a car can hardly calculate today whether an electric or gasoline drive will be cheaper over the years.
German consumers are more relaxed
And that’s a bad development, as the heated discussion about gas prices in many European countries shows. Consumers there feel the fluctuations in the world market because their electricity and gas bills are based on the current wholesale price. In Germany, consumers are more relaxed because there are longer-term energy contracts here and you at least have more time to prepare for price increases. So it is not just the high price that is the problem, but that it is so unpredictable. The anger about these fluctuations also threatens climate protection.
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Since January 1st, taxes for CO2 certificates have been due in Germany for fossil fuels that are burned in cars or heating systems. In the future, the price for these certificates is to rise, and poorer EU countries are also to be included in the trade. The regulation of the market is particularly efficient – but only if the market participants have a chance to react to rising prices. Just buying another car because the prices at the gas station are too high, but it doesn’t work.
It is right to make climate-damaging behavior expensive. The CO2 emissions from buildings and cars are not decreasing, but are increasing. That is why we need strong incentives to invest in clean technology – even in poorer countries. Those who cannot afford that have to be supported by the state. It is wrong to turn consumers into speculators. Higher energy taxes would therefore be a better choice than leaving the price of CO2 in these sectors to the market.
More: Gas prices at record high – Europe’s answers are so different.