Both welfare and green energy groups, as well as economic research institutes and politicians, have said more needs to be done to make sure the Energiewende is implemented in a socially equitable manner. The Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam, for example, has a working group of experts focused on the social side of the Energiewende, which has proposed ways of ensuring a “socially fair” distribution of costs. According to IASS head and former environment minister Klaus Töpfer, dealing with social hardship is just as important as helping industry deal with costs associated with the Energiewende. “We have to try this in the social area too,” Töpfer told the Evangelische Pressedienst in early 2015.

A more “socially fair” Energiewende?

The Energiewende enjoys broad support in the general public, and rising incomes have kept the average share of monthly household spending on power steady at just under 2.5% for many years. This might be why rising electricity costs haven’t undermined support for the transition to renewable energy. But people in low income brackets pay a greater share of their income for power – over 4% for the bottom two tenths since 2008, according to a 2012 study by economic research institute DIW “Households with the lowest income are especially adversely affected by the current price increases,” DIW said in the report. Given these figures, it does not come as a surprise that approval of the Energiewende is lowest among people on low incomes.

Many poor can’t afford to save energy

Many people on the verge of poverty are trapped in a vicious circle of high consumption and high prices, because they simply can’t afford to save energy. A more efficient washing machine or LED bulbs, both of which would cut their electricity bills, are often out of reach financially. Energy efficiency measures, such as building insulation, often push up rents, even if they also cut costs in the long run. These problems are compounded when power and heating prices rise, say poverty experts like the Federation of German Consumer Organisations (VZBV), welfare group Deutscher Caritasverband, and the German Institute for Economic Research, DIW.

Germany is considered a wealthy country with a high standard of living, but 16% of the population had to get by on less than 979 euros a month in 2013, the level at which the government says people are at risk of impoverishment. The number of citizens in this category has increased by seven percent since 2009, according to the federal statistics agency Destatis. In contrast, average disposable household income in the total population rose by seven percent between 2009 and 2012, the latest year for which data is available.

In the same period until 2013, German household electricity prices jumped 24%, mainly due to the rising surcharge Germans pay to fund the Energiewende, the transition to a low carbon economy, data from the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) shows. In Europe, German electricity prices rank second only to Denmark. In 2014, prices eased for the first time in 15 years, but only by one euro to around 84 euros a month for a family of three, the BDEW said in April. The price comparison website, Verivox, said in April that Germans had to work 70 hours to pay for a year of electricity for one household in 2015, compared to 53 in 2005.