The Federal Ministry of Finance has not set a specific timeline for the introduction of climate money, according to a response from the CDU. Originally, the federal government wanted to establish the legal and technical framework for payments this year, with citizens receiving payments for the first time in 2025. The goal of climate money is to offset rising CO₂ prices and alleviate high heating and refueling costs for citizens, as outlined in the coalition agreement of the traffic light government.
Christoph Ploß, a member of the Bundestag, inquired about the status of climate money implementation, as no payment method or responsible authority has been determined yet. The Federal Ministry of Finance is responsible for this process. Parliamentary State Secretary Katja Hessel stated that coordination within the federal government on direct payment mechanism needs to take place before a more precise schedule can be established. A decision on administrative structure will be made in due course.
Ploß expressed concerns that it’s increasingly unlikely that climate money will be introduced as promised in this legislative period. This could lead to disillusionment with politics and undermine acceptance of important climate protection measures. Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner stated that a decision on payment will not be made until next legislative period, indicating that climate money is not a current priority for him at present time.
Since then, Lindner has faced pressure from various groups to expedite implementation of climate money. Climate money involves returning revenue generated from CO₂ pricing to citizens through per capita payments. Despite rise in CO₂ price, government has been using revenue to fund projects in Climate and Transformation Fund instead. Discussions are ongoing about alternative forms of social compensation such as tax discounts or long-distance commuter allowances as replacement for climate money.
Overall, it seems that while there is still work being done behind closed doors regarding implementation details, there may be some uncertainty surrounding when citizens will start receiving payments under this program.
In summary: While there is no specific timeline yet set by the Federal Ministry of Finance for introducing climate money as promised under coalition agreement with traffic light government, discussions about administrative structure are ongoing within federal government coordination and there are discussions about alternative forms of social compensation such as tax discounts or long-distance commuter allowances instead of direct per capita payments as previously planned under original plan by federal government .
