German industry called on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s administration to take action to address rising energy costs, saying that some companies are considering relocating.
“The rising power and gas prices threaten to crush the economy,” Siegfried Russwurm, president of the BDI industry lobby, said in an interview with the Rheinische Post newspaper yesterday. “Rapid political action is required.”
Germany has long had some of the developed world’s highest energy prices, but the situation has worsened as Europe’s largest economy shutters nuclear plants and winds down coal as well.
With an expansion of renewable power generation struggling to keep pace, the country has become more reliant on gas imports from Russia, and prices have surged amid tensions on the Ukrainian border.
A BDI survey found that 23 percent of companies see their existence threatened by higher energy prices, while 65 percent deemed it a significant challenge.
About one-third of companies are delaying climate-related investments because of energy costs, Rheinische Post reported.
German Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Action Robert Habeck has promised quick support for company efforts to invest to become climate neutral.
In an interview with Handelsblatt published on Sunday, he vowed to require power companies to completely pass on savings directly to customers from the end of renewable power fees.
Russwurm said the price of emissions certificates is pushing up energy costs and that the government needs to react by cutting taxes and fees.
“The increase in energy costs is higher than at any point since the oil crisis of the 1970s,” he said.
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