AfD on climate and energy

The AfD wants to scrap the CO2 levy, lower energy and electricity taxes and permanently reduce the sales tax on energy to 7 percent. Prices for electricity, heat and fuel should follow the world market. The platform cites the burden on households and the competitiveness of industry.

The AfD wants to make energy cheaper. The CO2 levy should go. That is an extra charge on gasoline, oil and gas. Taxes on electricity and energy should go down. The sales tax on energy should be only 7 percent.

According to the platform, Bavaria as an industrial state depends on cheap energy. The AfD rejects the energy transition and points to sharply higher prices since 2018, craft businesses closing and industry moving abroad. It wants supply security, affordability and environmental protection to carry equal weight again. The reduced 7 percent sales tax rate is to apply to energy across the board, as it does for everyday goods. The party says it will push for these goals at every level of government.

The AfD rejects a ban on wood stoves and wants to support all decentralized energy supply by households and businesses. Energy generated for one's own use should be free of levies. The party favors energy from renewable raw materials, but without state subsidies.

The AfD does not want to ban wood stoves. Everyone should choose how to get energy. People who make power or heat for themselves should pay no charges on it. The AfD likes energy from wood and plants. But the state should not pay for it.

The exemption from charges is to cover heat, cooling and electricity from modern systems that citizens or industry produce for themselves. The AfD describes itself as a conservative force that wants to conserve natural resources. The party is open to the production of synthetic fuels.

The AfD wants to restart existing nuclear power plants in Bavaria and have new ones built. This is meant to give industry and citizens low-priced electricity. Bavaria should also take part in research on new nuclear technology.

The AfD wants to switch nuclear plants in Bavaria back on. It also wants new nuclear plants. This should make power cheaper. Bavaria should do research on new nuclear technology. It should be possible to take nuclear waste back out later.

The platform notes that nuclear plants are running and being built worldwide, while Germany has shut down safe ones. The research is to cover technologies that would let spent fuel elements serve as an energy source for centuries or until fusion reactors are ready. For low- and intermediate-level waste, the AfD considers salt domes such as Gorleben the best solution and says Bavaria has no comparable deposits. Spent fuel residues could be stored above ground in Gorleben or at plant sites. If stored underground, the material must remain retrievable so new fuel can be made from it.

The AfD wants to end subsidies for new installations under the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) and slow the expansion of wind and solar power in Bavaria. The 10H distance rule for wind turbines is to stay. In the party's view, the climate cannot be influenced from Germany or Bavaria.

The AfD wants to stop subsidies for new wind and solar plants. Old contracts should stay valid. Wind turbines should stand far from homes. There should be no such plants in forests. The AfD does not think Germany can change the climate.

The platform argues that the law props up uneconomical technology and redistributes money unfairly; existing contracts with operators are to be honored. Forests and nature reserves are to stay free of such installations, and priority areas for wind power should be designated only with the consent of affected residents. The AfD wants to interpret federal and EU expansion targets as far as possible in favor of residents and the environment. The party considers Bavaria a poor location for wind and solar and sees harm to the landscape, tourism and wildlife. Instead it wants to expand infrastructure for energy imports from varied sources. The platform calls climate policy ideological steering and claims humans cause only 3 percent of CO2.

The AfD wants to invest in flood protection, sewer networks and drinking water reserves rather than build more wind turbines. In the program's view, adapting to natural climate change costs less than a climate policy the party considers useless and expensive.

The AfD wants to protect Bavaria better against floods. It also wants to find new supplies of drinking water. This matters more to the party than new wind turbines. The AfD thinks current climate policy is costly and useless.

The program calls for quickly expanding flood protection and sewer systems, including local plans for heavy rainfall. New drinking water reserves are to be developed, and farming and forestry are to adjust to changing climate conditions. The AfD argues that such adaptation is cheaper and does not restrict civil liberties. It describes climate policy as a business for a climate lobby. It also demands openness in climate research.

The AfD wants cheap electricity and a secure supply to rank above all CO2 reduction targets. It opposes shutting down baseload power plants in favor of wind and solar, arguing that this raises the risk of large blackouts.

The AfD wants cheap and reliable electricity. This matters more to it than cutting CO2. It does not want to shut down large power plants. It says wind and sun do not deliver power reliably.

According to the program, shutting down baseload power plants endangers supply in Bavaria as long as suitable large-scale storage is missing. The AfD says conventional plants also provide district heating for many households and a reserve for grid stability. The party favors combined heat and power. It names a stable, secure and affordable supply of electricity and heat as its top energy goal.

The AfD wants to use deep geothermal energy in southern Bavaria primarily for local and district heating. Electricity from geothermal heat should be generated only where heat is also needed, because the party considers this form of power generation too inefficient.

Deep in the ground it is hot. This heat can warm homes. The AfD wants to support that, also in rural areas. It wants to allow power from this heat only where the heat is used too.

The program points to the Malm aquifer in southern Bavaria, where heat can be obtained locally and independently of world markets. It says power generation in so-called ORC plants has an efficiency of well under 20 percent. Such plants should therefore be built only at sites with demand for heat. Starting from the Munich metropolitan area, the AfD wants to promote heating networks in rural regions.

The AfD opposes clearing forest to build wind turbines and calls wind energy as a whole a wrong path. It cites the protection of birds of prey, bats and insects as well as the appearance of the landscape.

The AfD is against wind turbines in forests. Nobody should cut down trees for wind turbines. The AfD says wind turbines kill birds, bats and insects. It also says they make the landscape ugly.

According to the platform, wind turbines are a major cause of the decline in birds of prey. It says they also kill thousands of protected bats and billions of insects every year. In the AfD's view, wind farms also spoil the landscape. The party therefore does not want environmental protection to take second place to the wind industry and wants to prevent forest clearing for such turbines.

The AfD rejects any obligation to insulate or carry out energy retrofits as well as bans on gas and oil heating. Energy requirements for new buildings are to be cut to a minimum. In the party's view, such obligations would push many owners into debt and raise rents.

The AfD wants no duty to insulate homes. It also wants no ban on gas and oil heating. The party says many home owners would otherwise go into debt. Rents would also go up.

According to the platform, rules for new buildings on insulation and the use of renewable energy should apply only as far as makes sense in terms of building physics. The state is also not to prescribe retrofits for existing buildings. The AfD wants to reduce the requirements of the Gebäudeenergiegesetz (Building Energy Act). The party doubts that there is enough electricity for the planned heat pumps. In the state parliament, it wants to get the state government to stop such obligations and bans or reverse them.