CDU on climate and energy

The CDU rejects one-sided state mandates on heating and wants to preserve competition among gas, district heating and heat pumps. Climate protection is to come mainly from expanding and decarbonizing district heating; it rules out shutting down the gas grid.

The CDU wants heating to stay affordable. Gas, district heating and heat pumps should all stay allowed. District heating should become cleaner. The gas network should not be shut down. The CDU wants to explore geothermal heat.

Through the Klimapakt (climate pact), more than half a billion euros are to go into expanding and decarbonizing district heating and about half a billion into the power grid, while keeping district heating prices stable. Natural gas is to remain important for now because the grid provides seasonal storage. Water-law restrictions on shallow geothermal energy are to be reviewed, and 45 million euros from a special fund are earmarked for deep geothermal surveys. Municipal heat planning stays, with supply security and affordability as its main yardstick.

The CDU wants to combine security of supply, affordability and climate protection and review all parts of the energy system for cost cuts. It favors technology neutrality and wants to set up a hydrogen research cluster in Berlin.

Energy should be reliable and affordable. The CDU wants to lower costs in the energy system. It does not want to require one specific technology. Berlin should do more research on hydrogen.

All components of the energy system are to be reviewed for ways to lower costs and raise efficiency. Instead of requirements the CDU calls ideological, technology neutrality is to apply. The program sees hydrogen as an opportunity mainly for industry and power plants. A research cluster on hydrogen is to be supported through the state's research funding.

The CDU wants to make Berlin more resilient to heat and extreme weather by raising the number of street trees to one million by 2040. It also plans to convert forests into mixed broadleaf stands and create a new urban forest on parts of Tempelhofer Feld.

Berlin should get more trees along streets. There should be one million by 2040. Trees cool the city when it is hot. Forests should get more leafy trees. A new forest should grow on Tempelhofer Feld.

Planting targets are to be realistic, the districts involved, and funding for climate adaptation reliably secured. Pure pine stands are to be gradually converted into diverse mixed broadleaf forests to reduce damage and boost cooling and biodiversity. On parts of Tempelhofer Feld, an urban forest is to become a second "green lung" modeled on the Tiergarten. Berlin's climate adaptation law is to be implemented in a practical way.

The CDU wants heat protection built into planning and construction from the start, especially for daycare centers and schools. This includes shade, greenery, unsealed surfaces and free drinking water.

Schools and daycare centers should protect better against heat. There should be more shade. Schoolyards should be greener. Children should get free drinking water. There should be more drinking fountains.

Roofs and facades, especially of public buildings, are to be greened more. Playgrounds are to get sun sails and other shading, particularly in new neighborhoods with many children. Schoolyards, daycare grounds and sports facilities are to be unsealed, planted and equipped with water storage following a "blue-green infrastructure" approach, with fruit trees in schoolyards. Drinking fountains are to be expanded and supplemented by mobile water stations during heat waves.

The CDU wants renewable energy expansion to be driven mainly by markets and competition and rejects a solar mandate. Berlin's solar law is to be repealed because, in the party's view, the EU buildings directive already covers the relevant requirements.

The CDU does not want a solar duty. Berlin's solar law should go. Solar power should win on the market. Public roofs should still get solar panels. Permits should be faster.

Faster permits, less red tape and better investment conditions are to drive the expansion. The CDU rejects government mandates for solutions it considers uneconomical, arguing they raise costs for citizens and businesses. Solar power is to be used especially on large and public roofs and by state-owned housing companies. The party considers additional subsidy programs for private solar systems unnecessary.

The CDU rejects large wind turbines within Berlin's city limits and wants the federal land-area targets for wind power in city-states reformed. Instead it proposes joint solutions with Brandenburg, an energy treaty and decentralized combined heat and power.

No large wind turbines should be built in Berlin. Especially not in forests. Berlin should work together with Brandenburg. There should be a treaty for this. Small plants for power and heat should get support.

As a city-state, Berlin can hardly meet the requirements of the federal wind energy land-area law, so the federal government is to fundamentally change the targets for city-states. Berlin should be able to agree on flexible solutions with neighboring states, such as jointly counting the electricity actually generated. An energy treaty with Brandenburg is to coordinate regional energy and climate policy. Decentralized combined heat and power plants able to run off-grid are to be supported where district heating makes no sense, also for crisis preparedness.