AfD on climate and energy

The AfD wants to immediately end state intervention in the energy mix, from the coal phase-out to subsidies for renewables. It sees decarbonization as a threat to Lower Saxony as an industrial location and to jobs in the auto industry.

The AfD wants to stop the energy transition. The state should no longer favor or disadvantage any type of energy. People should choose for themselves how they drive and heat. The AfD says this protects factories and jobs.

The program calls for stopping the relocation of industry to countries with lower costs and standards. According to the AfD, current policy threatens up to one million jobs in the auto sector and its suppliers. Citizens should decide freely which energy sources they use, for example for cars and heating. To depend less on Russian gas and oil, the program names deliveries from Iran and Venezuela as a possible alternative while stressing price as a criterion. Ending the energy transition is meant to relieve domestic businesses.

The AfD regards climate protection policy as a wrong path because, in its view, there is no proof that CO₂ has a significant effect on the climate. It calls for abolishing the CO₂ tax immediately, leaving the Paris Agreement and ending emissions trading. It rejects the Climate Action Plan 2050 and the EU's Green Deal.

The AfD does not believe that CO₂ changes the climate much. So it wants to end climate policy. The tax on CO₂ should go at once. Germany should leave the Paris climate agreement. The AfD rejects the EU's climate plan.

According to the program, the climate changes mainly because of variations in solar radiation, and more CO₂ helps plants grow. The party wants to keep the energy mix of coal, natural gas, oil and nuclear power. In its view, decarbonization leads to deindustrialization and a lower standard of living. Funding for climate research that the AfD describes as politically shaped is to end. The posts of climate protection officers are to be eliminated.

The AfD wants to abolish the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) because, in its view, the subsidies have failed and endanger supply security. Wind and solar plants should only be built without subsidies. It rejects subsidized plants on farmland and in nature reserves.

A law supports power from wind and sun today. The AfD wants to abolish this law. Wind turbines and solar plants should get no more state money. Fields should mainly be used to grow food. There should be no subsidized plants in nature reserves.

The program argues that weather-dependent plants sometimes deliver too much and sometimes too little power, so conventional plants remain necessary and costs double. Citizens bear the costs while operators and investors profit, it says. Farmland should mostly serve food production. Biogas plants are seen as useful if they mainly use local residues such as manure. Nature protection restrictions are to keep applying to EEG building projects.

The AfD wants the three remaining nuclear power plants to run as long as is technically safe in order to avoid a supply gap. Research on new reactor types and nuclear fusion is to resume and get better funding. It considers a geological final repository unnecessary.

The AfD wants to keep using the last three nuclear plants. Otherwise, it says, there will not be enough power. Germany should research new reactors again. Used fuel rods should be used again. The AfD says a deep underground storage site is not needed.

According to the program, the three plants supply about 7 percent of reliable baseload power, and a final exit would risk a blackout. Research is to cover Generation IV reactors, the use of thorium and the dual fluid reactor with reprocessing. The AfD regards spent fuel elements as valuable materials that can be reprocessed. The remaining fission products are to be stored above ground and recycled after 100 to 300 years.

The AfD considers coal and gas power plants indispensable because, in its view, renewables do not deliver plannable power. It rejects the coal phase-out as an ineffective German solo effort and demands reliable economic conditions for these plants.

The AfD wants to keep coal and gas power plants. It says wind and sun do not give secure power. The AfD rejects the exit from coal. Old plants should be replaced by new ones.

According to the program, shutting the plants down soon is technically impossible. Older plants are to be replaced by newer ones with higher efficiency and fewer pollutants, which would also secure jobs. The AfD points out that more than 400 coal plants are under construction or planned worldwide.

The AfD rejects a price on CO₂ on principle. As long as it exists, farmers and forest owners should be paid for the CO₂ they store. Diesel for farming should be exempt from tax.

The AfD is against a price on CO₂. CO₂ is a gas that comes from burning things. As long as the price exists, farmers and forest owners should get money. Their plants and trees take in CO₂. Diesel for farmers should be free of tax.

Every ton of CO₂ stored should be paid for at the market price, based on recognized calculation models and funded from carbon levy revenue. Any shortfall should come from the second pillar of farm funding. On farm diesel, the AfD points to other European countries such as France; until the rules are revised, the current refund should stay. Existing farm biogas plants that use leftover materials should keep running to stabilize the electricity market. The party rejects new large projects that produce methane as a substitute for natural gas, saying they disrupt the market for leased farmland.

As a first step against rising costs, the AfD wants to abolish the EEG surcharge (the levy funding renewable power) and lower taxes on energy. It cites inflation and growing climate and environmental levies that weigh on incomes and pensions.

Energy has become expensive. So the AfD wants to end the EEG surcharge. This is an extra charge on power bills for green electricity. Taxes on energy should also go down. People should have more money left over.

In the AfD's view, inflation threatens savings, life insurance policies and company pensions. Costs for food, heating and fuel are taking up an ever larger share of incomes. The party criticizes that value-added tax is charged on top of the carbon price, so that the state earns more whenever prices rise.