Criticism of Klingbeil: Greens and Left warn against accounting tricks in the household!

Criticism of Klingbeil: Greens and Left warn against accounting tricks in the household!

The discussion about the federal budget for 2025 seems to have already reached its climax. The Greens and the Left sharply criticize Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) and accuse him of inadmissible accounting tricks in the planned spending on climate protection and investments. In particular, Sebastian Schäfer, the budget spokesman for the Green Party parliamentary group, warns that the changes to the Basic Law require indispensable additional investments.

Schäfer emphasizes that no misappropriation of investment funds through the accounting tricks presented should be permitted, especially not in the area of ​​climate protection. These concerns are reiterated by Ines Schwerdtner, leader of the Left, who criticizes the Climate and Transformation Fund as a “shunting yard”. According to Schwerdtner, the funds are increasingly being used for measures that are not related to real climate protection. She also expresses her fears that the Greens' approval of a special fund for Friedrich Merz will now have negative consequences.

Criticism of financial policy

Schwerdtner describes the cuts demanded by Klingbeil as part of a “chainsaw policy”. The Federal Minister of Finance has distributed a circular to the ministries on the preparation of the 2025 federal budget, in which it is proposed to transfer planned investments in the special fund for infrastructure and climate protection projects to the Climate and Transformation Fund (KTF). This decision is causing unrest among political parties and raising questions about prioritization in the area of ​​climate protection.

On February 28, 2025, the Federal Ministry of Finance published the allocation report for the green federal securities issued in 2024. The report contains information on federal spending in 2023 in the areas of climate, environmental and nature protection that is recognized as “green”. These expenses are allocated to the proceeds from the issue of the Green Federal Securities issued in 2024. The impact report for the Green federal securities issued in 2022 was also published on November 4, 2024.

Sustainability and financial policy

The impact report provides information about the effects of the green expenditure in the 2021 financial year, which is allocated to the proceeds from the issue of the Green Federal Securities in 2022. The BMF departmental report Sustainability 2024 shows the essential importance of a sustainable financial policy for the development of Germany. It emphasizes that fiscal resilience and growth through supply-side policies can make a significant contribution to the international Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 8).

The German Sustainable Finance Strategy, which was approved by the Federal Cabinet on May 5, 2021, aims to develop Germany into a leading location for sustainable finance. In addition, the German Sustainability Strategy pursues goals to protect nature and the climate and to promote social cohesion. The climate protection program represents the overall plan for the federal government's climate protection policy and lists measures that are necessary to cope with climate change and to implement the Paris World Climate Agreement.

The upcoming budget debate will further advance discussion of these critical issues and could be crucial to the country's future climate policy.