Austria’s centre-left aims at the country’s CO2 price

11 months ago 33

Austria’s centre-left SPÖ wants to suspend the country’s carbon price to soften the blow of persistently high inflation, echoing a previous demand from the far-right.

Austria started pricing CO2 in late 2022, kicking off the scheme by making climate-damaging activities like driving and heating more costly to €30 per tonne of carbon. The price will steadily increase to €55 by 2025 and is already being returned to citizens via rebates.

But the centre-left SPÖ (S&D) wants to get rid of it, at least temporarily.

“We are calling for the CO2 tax to be suspended until energy prices have been reduced to a reasonable level,” said Philip Kucher, who heads the party’s parliamentary group.

Given the recent rise in the cost of living – Austria is among the worst affected countries in Europe and continues to lag behind neighbouring Germany – continuing with the CO2 price would be tantamount to “pouring petrol on the inflationary fire”, he added.

The party’s demand echoes a similar initiative by the far-right FPÖ (ID), which called for the carbon price to be scrapped earlier this year.

Austria heads to the polls in Spring 2024, and if elections were held today, it would pave the way for a serious government shake-up.

While the far-right FPÖ is currently polling at around 30% and the SPÖ is inching towards 25%, the centre-right ÖVP, which heads the current government, is in third place with about 20%.

(Nikolaus J. Kurmayer | Euractiv.de)