CDU on climate and energy

The CDU wants to overturn the EU-wide phase-out of new combustion engine vehicles and make CO₂ fleet limits more flexible. The market is to decide which drive technology prevails. Synthetic and biogenic fuels are to count toward the CO₂ balance.

From 2035, the EU plans to stop sales of new gasoline and diesel cars. The CDU wants to scrap this ban. The rules on CO₂ emissions should also become looser. The market should decide which cars win. The CDU wants to secure jobs in the car industry this way.

The program names electric cars, synthetic fuels, hybrids, plug-ins and efficient combustion engines as equally valid paths. European regulation is to be fundamentally revised and take into account a vehicle's entire life cycle from production to disposal. In the CDU's view, CO₂ rules should be realistic and predictable. It wants regulatory support for the market ramp-up of synthetic and biogenic fuels, which it sees as a way to run existing vehicles climate-neutrally. The course is justified with value creation and employment in the auto industry.

The CDU wants to push for competitive energy prices and rejects a split into electricity price zones that would disadvantage the state. Grids for electricity, gas, hydrogen and CO₂ are to be planned together. Large battery storage and new power plant capacity are also to be built.

The CDU wants electricity and energy to stay affordable. Electricity should not cost more in the south than in the north. Lines for electricity, gas and hydrogen should be planned together. There should be more big batteries and more power plants.

Through the state development plan, gas, hydrogen and CO₂ pipelines, power grids and substations are to be developed in a coordinated way. Permits are to become leaner and faster. All regions of the state are to be connected to the nationwide hydrogen core network. A spatial concept is to designate sites for large battery storage. In federal tenders, the CDU wants 6.5 gigawatts of additional power plant capacity to go to Baden-Württemberg, with combined heat and power units, biogas, heat and industrial plants counted on equal terms.

The CDU wants to use many kinds of renewable energy and continue expanding solar power. It rejects a special priority for wind power over other concerns. Municipalities are to share in the revenue of local wind turbines because, in the CDU's view, acceptance comes from participation.

The CDU wants to use many kinds of clean energy. These include sun, wind, water, biogas and geothermal heat. But wind turbines should not get special priority. Towns should get money from local wind turbines. Nobody should have to build a solar system that does not pay off.

Municipalities are to receive at least 0.2 cents per kilowatt-hour from local wind turbines. For wind power, the CDU wants a competition-oriented adjustment of the reference yield model and attention to spatial compatibility. Solar power is to be possible without red tape, for example on parking lots, along state and federal roads, on low-yield land, as agri-photovoltaics and as floating systems. Nobody is to be obliged to build systems that are demonstrably uneconomical. The number of modern biogas plants is to rise and biomethane production is to be developed further. Priority goes to energy efficiency, renewables, hydrogen and synthetic gases; research on nuclear fusion is also to be funded.

The CDU wants to scrap the state's Erneuerbare-Wärme-Gesetz (Renewable Heat Act) and rely on freedom of choice in heating. The benchmark is to be the actual CO₂ savings, not a prescribed technology. Municipal heat planning is to be improved.

A state law requires using renewable energy for heating. The CDU wants to abolish this law. Everyone should choose how to heat. What should count is how much CO₂ is really saved. Heating should be affordable for all.

The program names less bureaucracy, clear responsibilities and relief as goals. Heating networks are to be planned where building them makes economic sense. Existing gas networks and combined heat and power units are to stay in use and be adapted to EU rules. The CDU wants everyone to be able to afford a warm home, whatever their income.

The CDU wants water law to give flood protection the status of an overriding public interest and to build protective structures faster. Cities are to be redesigned on the sponge city principle, and municipalities get more funding against damage from heavy rain.

The CDU wants to protect the state better from floods. Dams and retention basins should be built faster. Cities should get more green space and store rainwater. This is called a sponge city. Towns get more money for protection against heavy rain.

When basins, dams and polders are built, the required environmental compensation is to become more flexible. More greenery, unsealing of surfaces and rainwater retention are meant to cushion heat and extreme weather. Municipal flood risk plans will be updated and linked through a state portal. The water management funding guideline will be revised so that precautions against heavy rain can be taken quickly and with little bureaucracy; funding for this is to rise significantly.

The CDU wants to implement federal and EU climate requirements in the state without adding stricter rules of its own, and to amend the state climate law accordingly. Measures are to be ranked by how much CO2 they save per euro spent.

The federal government and the EU make climate rules. The CDU wants to apply these rules exactly as they are. The state should not add stricter rules on top. The state climate law will be changed for this. Money should go where it saves the most CO2.

The state's Climate Protection and Climate Adaptation Act is to be adjusted to the one-to-one principle. The CDU says it wants to reach greenhouse gas neutrality with more technology and less ideology. It relies on market-based European emissions trading that should not weaken the competitiveness of companies. Climate policy is to be open to all technologies, affordable and predictable.

The CDU wants to permit processes that capture, store or reuse CO2. Building the necessary infrastructure is its top priority, including examining onshore storage sites in Baden-Württemberg.

CO2 can be captured and stored underground. It can also be used as a raw material. The CDU wants to allow this in the state. It wants to check where CO2 can be stored safely. A pipeline for CO2 will also be examined.

CCS stands for carbon capture and storage, CCU for carbon capture and utilization. The CDU advocates further research and a clear legal framework, including bringing these processes into European emissions trading. Together with other states, it wants to examine whether a pipeline to suitable storage sites is feasible.

The CDU wants to introduce general insurance against natural hazard damage that works on the principle of "all for all." For agriculture, multi-peril insurance is to be expanded into comprehensive coverage.

Floods and storms can destroy houses. The CDU wants insurance for everyone against this. Everyone pays in, and everyone is protected. Farmers should also be able to insure better against weather damage.

Natural hazard damage means damage from events such as floods or heavy rain. The insurance is to apply generally and rest on solidarity among all policyholders. For agriculture, the platform justifies the expansion as strengthening farmers' own responsibility for covering climate risks.