How Sustainable is the Federal Budget?
#ZEWPodcast // 2026#ZEWPodcast How Sustainable is the Federal Budget?
Current investments in the future are primarily funded through temporary special funds rather than drawing from the core budget. Consequently, there is a high risk of insufficient resources being available in the long term for vitally important areas such as climate action and education. This is one of the key findings of the Future Ratio calculations for the 2025 budget, made by ZEW Mannheim in collaboration with WWF. In the latest episode of the ZEW podcast “Wirklich Wirtschaft”, the authors of the study, Prof. Dr. Friedrich Heinemann and Viviane Raddatz (Climate Alliance Germany/WWF Germany), discuss the proportion of the federal budget allocated to future-oriented expenditure, as well as the impact of special funds on this.