Merkel Party Weighs Extending Carbon Trading to Roads, Heating

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party is leaning toward letting the market determine the cost of carbon dioxide emitted from heating and transportation, creating a stand-off with members of her coalition who favor a new government tax.

Merkel’s Christian Democrats and allies from the Christian Social Union currently favor broadening certificates similar to those issued to industry under the European Union’s emissions trading system, CDU Chairman Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told Germany’s ZDF TV. They’re mulling proposals that are expected to be presented at a government cabinet meeting next month.

“We’re talking at the moment rather about trading certificates” than a novel tax, said ...