Bundestag passes BEHG amendment: CO₂ price stays at 55 to 65 euros in 2027

What the Bundestag passed on 16 October

On 16 October 2026 the Bundestag passed, in second and third reading, the amendment to the Fuel Emissions Trading Act (BEHG), the Third BEHG Amendment Act (Drucksache 21/7869). The core: the national CO₂ price on heating oil, natural gas, petrol and diesel stays within a corridor of 55 to 65 euros per tonne in 2027 — as it did in 2026. The change became necessary because European emissions trading for buildings and transport (EU-ETS 2) was postponed by a year to 2028. Without the amendment, the 2027 price would have followed the fluctuating average of the existing EU-ETS 1; the property association GdW expected 75 to 85 euros per tonne in that case. What the CO₂ price means for heating-cost settlement between landlord and tenant is set out in our guide to the 2027 CO₂ price.

Who the fixed corridor affects

The difference between 65 and up to 85 euros is paid by whoever heats with fossil fuels. That means, first, households and landlords with gas and oil heating, who bear the CO₂ price via the fuel bill and may, under the Carbon Dioxide Cost Allocation Act (CO2KostAufG), pass part of it on to tenants depending on the building's energy standard. It also affects businesses with fossil process or space heat, logistics and trades with diesel fleets, and everyone who buys heat through fuels. For them the capped corridor is relief compared with what an uncapped ETS-1 reference would have meant in 2027 — but not an all-clear, since against 2026 the price still rises at the upper edge.

Why predictability matters more here than the cent amount

For owners and businesses, what matters about this amendment is less the number than the fact that there is a fixed number at all. Anyone financing a heating system over 15 years or calculating a service-charge statement needs a CO₂ price they can rely on, not a market value that lands somewhere between 55 and 85 euros in 2027. The corridor takes the peak out of the risk and makes the sum plannable for another year.

But the relief is borrowed. In 2028 EU-ETS 2 arrives, and then the market sets the price, no longer a national corridor. The real message of this amendment is therefore not “the CO₂ price stays cheap”, but “the last calm year is running”. Anyone operating a fossil heating system has 2027 to work out the alternative — after that, fossil heating is left to the market.

What to do now

1. Extract the CO₂ share from the last gas or oil bill and carry it forward at 55 to 65 euros per tonne for 2027.
2. As a landlord, check which CO2KostAufG tier applies to the building and what share stays with the owner.
3. Use 2027 as a planning year: calculate the heat supply before the ETS-2 start in 2028, rather than waiting for the next price jump.