AfD on climate and energy

The AfD wants to end the energy transition in Saxony-Anhalt and return to a broad energy mix that includes fossil fuels. Instead of climate protection, the state would get a strategy for adapting to the climate. The platform cites high energy prices and the burden on low-income households as reasons.

The AfD wants to end the energy transition in Saxony-Anhalt. Energy should again come from coal, oil and gas too. The AfD does not want to protect the climate. The state should adapt to the climate instead. This is meant to make energy cheaper.

The platform calls the energy transition a failed planned-economy project and blames it for high costs, energy shortages and the loss of industry. An AfD-led state government would introduce a market-based energy mix that includes fossil fuels. In the party's view, support for renewables shifts money from the bottom to the top and hits poor pensioners hardest. The AfD rejects what it calls globalist climate ideology and questions the idea of man-made climate change. The state would develop an adaptation strategy because, according to the party, the climate has always been changing.

The AfD wants to cut all state subsidies for renewable energy while honoring existing commitments. In the Bundesrat, the state would push for the federal government to stop its support as well and for the feed-in priority for green power to be dropped. In the party's view, renewables should hold their own on the free market.

The AfD wants to stop state money for wind and solar power. Old promises would still be kept. The federal government should also stop this support. Green power should no longer go first into the power grid. It should manage without help from the state.

The platform argues that 25 years of support for renewables have not produced low electricity prices. It puts the total cost of the energy transition at around five trillion euros and cites federal EEG subsidies of 23 billion euros a year by 2029. State funding worth millions would be cut entirely, with existing commitments protected. Through the Bundesrat, the AfD wants to end all federal subsidies for the energy transition and the feed-in priority. Feed-in priority means that electricity from renewable sources is fed into the grid ahead of other power.

The AfD wants to dissolve the state energy agency and repeal the state law meant to increase acceptance of renewable energy expansion. The party considers the agency a waste of taxpayer money. It says the law uses financial incentives to pressure municipalities into approving wind and solar projects.

The state has an energy agency. The AfD wants to close it. It says the agency costs too much. A law should go too. It gives towns money if wind turbines or solar parks stand there. The AfD says this puts pressure on towns.

According to the platform, about ten million euros are budgeted for the state energy agency from 2023 to 2026. The agency is meant to support the expansion of renewables in the state. The acceptance and participation law contains financial incentives for municipalities, which the AfD says coerce cash-strapped towns into agreeing. The party sees itself as an advocate for citizens' groups opposing wind turbines, solar parks and power lines. Municipal finances are instead to improve through general government policy.

The AfD wants to push in the Bundesrat for repeal of the Heat Planning Act and the Building Energy Act and to scrap the related state law. Funding for heat pumps would end. Households, landlords and municipalities should decide for themselves how to heat, including with natural gas, heating oil and wood.

There are laws on heating and on heat planning. The AfD wants to get rid of these laws. Everyone should decide how to heat their home. Gas, oil and wood should stay allowed. There should be no more public money for heat pumps.

The platform rejects government requirements in the heating sector that are justified by climate protection. Households, builders, landlords and municipalities should weigh energy savings against investment costs themselves. At the federal level, the state would work to end both laws and their follow-up rules. The AfD wants to repeal the state law that implements heat planning and the decarbonization of heating networks. Heat pump subsidies would end, with existing commitments protected, so that this technology competes on the market without support.

The AfD wants to adopt a wind power moratorium so that no new wind turbines are approved in the state for the time being. It rejects large solar parks in cultural landscapes and on farmland. It also wants to examine whether operators can be required to set aside reserves for dismantling their installations.

The AfD wants to allow no new wind turbines for now. Large solar parks should not stand on fields. Solar panels should go on roofs. Owners should pay to take down their plants later. The state should not pay for that.

The platform justifies the halt by saying wind power cannot supply steady baseload electricity and by citing harm to the landscape, health risks, falling property values and damage to animals, plants and soil. In the Bundesrat, the state would work to repeal the Wind Energy Area Requirements Act, which sets land targets for wind power in each state. Farmland and grassland should remain reserved for agriculture and food supply. The AfD considers solar panels acceptable on already sealed surfaces, such as roofs in commercial zones. A reserve requirement is meant to prevent public authorities from being liable for removing decommissioned wind and solar plants.

The AfD wants to end the state's hydrogen strategy immediately and cut all state funding for green hydrogen. In the party's view, hydrogen is not competitive as an energy source. The money set aside for a hydrogen network would be saved.

The state supports green hydrogen. That is a gas made with green power. The AfD wants to stop this support. It says hydrogen costs too much. The state should save the money.

The platform considers the current strategy a failure and points to subsidized projects that are close to collapse. The state would leave the "Initiative Wasserstoff in Ostdeutschland" (an eastern German hydrogen initiative) and stop paying the annual membership fee of 100,000 euros. The funding program "Sachsen-Anhalt Zukunftsenergien" would also be cut. The AfD wants to save the 54 million euros planned for building and expanding a hydrogen network.

The AfD wants to continue generating electricity from lignite and increase the state's energy autonomy. A blackout strategy would be drawn up for a large-scale power outage. The platform argues that expanding wind and solar power has made the supply unreliable.

The AfD wants to keep making power from lignite, a kind of coal. The state should supply itself well with energy. The AfD also wants a plan for big power outages. The plan should protect people in an emergency.

According to the platform, power supply during periods with no wind and no sun can only be secured with coal and gas plants. An AfD-led state government would take steps toward greater energy autonomy and a secure supply. The blackout strategy is meant to protect the population and maintain public order in the event of a power outage across several regions.

The AfD wants to use the Bundesrat to push for an end to energy sanctions against Russia and a return to normal trade relations. The Nord Stream pipelines are to be repaired and used for gas imports. According to the platform, fracked gas shipped by sea cannot replace Russian pipeline gas.

The AfD wants to buy gas from Russia again. The sanctions on energy should end. Sanctions are penalties against a country, such as trade bans. The Nord Stream gas pipelines should be repaired. The AfD says Russian gas is cheaper.

An AfD-led state government would press in the Bundesrat for ending the energy-related sanctions on Russia. The damaged lines of Nord Stream 1 and line A of Nord Stream 2 are to be repaired as quickly as possible. In the meantime, the intact line B of Nord Stream 2 should immediately carry Russian gas again. The platform argues that fracked gas imported by ship is expensive and harmful to the environment.

The AfD wants to stop Germany's coal phase-out and keep using lignite in Saxony-Anhalt beyond 2038. It also wants new gas-fired power plants, preferably in the state as well. The platform expects lower electricity prices, stable grids and secure industrial jobs.

The AfD wants to keep making power from coal. The coal phase-out should stop. Coal plants should keep running in the state after 2038. New gas power plants should be built too. The AfD says this makes power cheaper and more reliable.

The state government would oppose the coal phase-out in the Bundesrat and work to keep the state's coal industry going past 2038. Once local reserves run out, the plants are to keep operating on imported lignite. For new gas plants, the AfD wants to examine sites in Saxony-Anhalt, with waste heat used for heating. The platform cites baseload power, grid stability, fewer electricity imports and well-paid jobs as reasons.

The AfD wants Germany to generate electricity from nuclear power again and would advocate for this in the Bundesrat. As a first step, nuclear energy research is to be re-established in the state. The platform calls Germany's nuclear exit a special path while other countries expand nuclear power.

The AfD wants nuclear power plants in Germany again. First, the state should do nuclear research again. Later, nuclear power should be produced again. Until then, coal and gas should supply the power.

Research is to focus on new reactor types such as the dual-fluid reactor. This includes reusing old fuel rods that are already in storage. In the medium term, nuclear power generation, which the platform describes as low-cost, is to resume. For the transition period, the AfD relies on coal and gas.

The AfD rejects current climate protection policy and instead wants locally focused environmental and homeland protection along with climate adaptation. Wind and solar projects that it believes endanger the local microclimate would not be approved. State funds for climate protection and the federal government's international climate aid are to be cut.

The AfD wants to end current climate policy. It says Saxony-Anhalt cannot save the world's climate. Instead, it wants to protect nature locally. Some wind turbines and solar parks should no longer be allowed. The state should stop spending money on climate protection.

The platform presents human-caused climate change as a mere hypothesis and argues that, given rising global energy demand, the world's climate cannot be influenced from Saxony-Anhalt. According to the AfD, wind turbines and large solar parks on farmland promote dry soil and local warming. As examples of spending to cut, the platform lists budget items from 2023 to 2026, such as 597,000 euros for climate protection and climate impacts or 244,500 euros for a climate-neutral state parliament. In the Bundesrat, the AfD also wants to end international climate aid.

The AfD wants to create an institute to study the consequences of the climate policies of previous federal and state governments. Scientists critical of climate policy should be able to do research in Saxony-Anhalt undisturbed. The findings are meant to prepare a parliamentary inquiry.

The AfD wants to found a new research institute. It should check what effects climate policy has had. Researchers who criticize this policy should be able to work in the state. Later, a committee in the state parliament should investigate climate policy.

According to the platform, critical climate researchers are rarely heard in the debate, while in the AfD's view unsound studies with catastrophe forecasts shape political decisions. The institute would study, among other things, how wind power and solar installations affect people, animals and plants. Its work is meant to provide the scientific basis for an inquiry committee on the political and social consequences of climate policy.

The AfD wants Germany to leave the Paris climate agreement, the European Green Deal to be terminated and the Federal Climate Protection Act to be abolished. Emissions trading is also to end. The platform argues that global climate protection has effectively failed and that the CO₂ price puts domestic companies at a competitive disadvantage.

The AfD wants to leave the Paris climate agreement. The German climate protection law should also go. Companies should no longer have to pay for CO₂. CO₂ is a gas that is produced when things burn. The AfD says these rules hurt companies in the state.

The state government would use every initiative available to it for this purpose. The platform points to the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and says China and India are allowed to increase their emissions sharply. It says Germany will probably miss its 2030 climate targets and that emissions in Saxony-Anhalt rose by 1.75 percent in 2024. The AfD blames emissions trading for deindustrialization and the loss of well-paid jobs.

The AfD wants a state government under its leadership to push in the Bundesrat for scrapping the CO₂ levy. The platform justifies this with the extra costs for consumers on fuel and heating and with what it sees as growing energy poverty in the state.

The AfD wants to get rid of the CO₂ levy. This is an extra charge on gasoline, heating oil and gas. The AfD says the levy makes energy too expensive for many people. It wants to push for this in the Bundesrat, the chamber of the German states.

The platform lists extra costs for 2026: 185 euros a year for a gasoline car driven 15,000 kilometers, 350 euros for an oil heating system using 2,000 liters, and 265 euros for a gas heating system using 20,000 kilowatt-hours. The AfD doubts that the levy helps the climate and sees it as a cause of energy poverty in Saxony-Anhalt. It cites a 2021 survey in which 80 percent of people in the state favored abolishing it. Because the levy is federal law, the route is to go through the Bundesrat.

The AfD rejects rules meant to limit people's consumption for climate reasons, such as on eating meat. Under its government there would be no CO₂ budget for the state or for individual citizens; people should decide about their own consumption themselves.

The AfD does not want climate bans on what people buy and eat. For example, nobody should have to eat less meat. There should also be no CO₂ budget. That is a fixed amount of emissions that is allowed. Everyone should decide for themselves what to buy and eat.

The platform points to calls by climate researchers to cut meat consumption by 70 percent and to a 2023 recommendation that meat intake should fall to 10 grams a day. It also cites a 2023 motion by the Left Party's group in the state parliament for a CO₂ budget for Saxony-Anhalt. The AfD sees this as a step toward a budget for each individual and speaks of a "climate dictatorship." A state government under its leadership would not introduce such rules.

The AfD wants Saxony-Anhalt to take part in research and development projects on nuclear fusion. The platform's goal is to secure access to this technology, share in the economic value it creates, and depend less on energy imports.

The AfD wants to support research on nuclear fusion. Nuclear fusion is a new way to produce energy. Saxony-Anhalt should join research projects. This way Germany should need to buy less energy from abroad.

As an example, the platform names the "Allianz zur Fusionsforschung" (fusion research alliance), which an AfD state government would join. It would also examine whether Saxony-Anhalt can build up its own expertise in fusion technology and fund this where appropriate. The AfD describes fusion energy as safe, environmentally friendly and nearly inexhaustible, and sees it as close to industrial use.

The AfD wants to change the state's forestry rules so that no new wind turbines are built in forests. Animal and forest protection would take priority. The platform cites cleared corridors, higher fire risk and damage to plants and wildlife.

The AfD wants no new wind turbines in forests. It wants to change state rules to do this. Protecting forests and animals should matter more. The forest should stay a place to relax.

The party points to a motion with the same demand that its state parliamentary group introduced in 2023. It describes the forest as part of German culture and history. Building and maintaining turbines, it says, means cutting wide corridors through the woods. The change of course is also meant to preserve forest areas as places of recreation for people in the region.