"Higher prices are necessary to change behavior and provide incentives for innovation and investment." According to Wieland, this will initially lead to an increase in costs for companies and households. Only when the economy has undergone a strong transformation and technological progress toward less use of fossil fuels has taken place will the hitherto major role of oil and gas prices in inflation recede, he said. "It also depends, of course, on how the transformation is pursued," Wieland continued.
The increase in the price of fossil fuels affects all segments of the population, he said, because everyone pays the same CO2 price. However, he said, the share of total spending on energy is higher for lower-income households. Therefore, they are relatively more affected, he said. "The state could very easily counter this by reducing the burdens on electricity in the form of the EEG surcharge and the electricity tax, and it could do so with the help of the revenue from the CO2 price levied." This would also be an incentive for households to switch more quickly, Wieland said.
FAZ: "Ein relativer Preisanstieg für fossile Brennstoffe ist unvermeidlich" (€)