National Council wants to bury KELS

Incentive taxes to control energy consumption are actually a good thing, as a ETH study recently showed. Nevertheless, as already proposed by the Federal Council, the National Council now rejected the constitutional amendment that would have enabled the climate and energy steering system KELS, as reported by the news agency SDA.

This does not mean, however, that the National Council is fundamentally opposed to a steering system: none of the parties is fundamentally opposed to such a system. But the instruments proposed with KELS are insufficient. This is also said by Energy Researcher: The proposed system promotes electricity imports instead of incentives for the development of renewable energy in the country.

Future unclear

It is not yet clear what should now replace the KELS in order to replace the cost-covering feed-in tariff and achieve the goals of the Energy Strategy 2050. The Federal Council still wants a steering system. The SP and the Greens are calling for previous measures such as the CO2 tax to be expanded and also levied on fuels. At the same time, renewable energies should be further promoted. The GLP wants a steering system without constitutional amendment, to be introduced gradually. The CVP, BDP and FDP recognize that measures are necessary. Only the SVP shies away from such measures.

However, Federal Councillor Ueli Maurer wants to continue without idiological blinkers: After the probable end of KELS, pragmatic solutions are needed to approach the sometimes contradictory goals of a secure, cheap and environmentally friendly energy supply.

The Swiss Energy Foundation SES welcomes the decision and calls for an incentive system to expand renewable energies.