Grüne on climate and energy

The Greens want Bavaria to be climate-neutral by 2035. A new climate law with a legally binding CO2 budget aligned with the Paris climate goals is meant to ensure this.

The Greens want Bavaria to be climate-neutral by 2035. Climate-neutral means the state no longer harms the climate. A new climate law should make this happen. The law sets how much CO2 Bavaria may still emit.

At the core of the planned law is a binding CO2 budget for Bavaria. Annual sub-targets would apply to the energy sector, industry, transport, buildings, agriculture and waste management, with the responsible ministries accountable for meeting them. A monitoring system and an independent scientific climate council would review the effects every year. If the measures fall short, they would be tightened. The program justifies this with the effects of the climate crisis in Bavaria and the goal of becoming independent of energy imports.

The Greens want to strengthen citizen energy projects, regional energy cooperatives and municipally owned utilities. This is meant to let people in Bavaria invest in the energy transition. They also plan a training and upskilling drive for skilled workers.

The Greens want to support energy projects run by citizens. Utilities owned by cities and towns should also get stronger. People should be able to put their savings into clean energy. More skilled workers should be trained for the energy transition.

According to the program, everyone in Bavaria should benefit from the energy transition, in rural areas and cities alike. Participation is meant to build trust and planning certainty. The training drive would cover jobs from skilled trades to project development. Electricity, heat and mobility are to be linked in the energy transition, which the program calls sector coupling.

The Greens want to increase wind power generation in Bavaria sixfold to 30 billion kilowatt-hours by 2030. To get there, two percent of the land in every region would be designated for wind power by the end of 2024, and procedures and grid expansion would be sped up.

The Greens want much more electricity from wind. By 2030 there should be six times as much as now. Every region should set aside land for wind turbines. Permits should come faster. The power grid should also grow faster.

According to the program, the target amounts to about three to four new wind turbines per county per year. After the end of the 10H distance rule, planning, permitting and court proceedings would be sped up further and new turbines connected to the grid right away. For grid expansion, especially distribution grids, the plan calls for forward-looking planning, more staff at permitting agencies and technology requirements for grid operators. Sites of old turbines would be kept and fitted with more powerful ones, even outside new priority areas, as far as emissions law allows.

The Greens want to quadruple solar power generation to 60 billion kilowatt-hours by 2030, primarily on rooftops. A solar requirement would apply to new buildings of all kinds and to major roof renovations.

The Greens want four times as much solar power by 2030. The panels should mainly go on roofs. New buildings should have to have solar panels. This should also apply when someone renovates most of a roof.

The guiding rule is to build as many systems as possible on roofs and only as many as needed on open land. According to the program, half of the amount can come from rooftops if they are fully used. The rest would need 30,000 hectares of open land, about 0.45 percent of the state's area. Under the solar requirement, photovoltaic or solar thermal systems must cover at least half of the roof area not used for other purposes.

The Greens want to expand electricity storage so that solar and wind power is also available at night and when the wind is calm. Climate-friendly backup power plants would provide additional security of supply.

Power from sun and wind is not always there. So the Greens want to build more storage. This includes large batteries in the power grid. Climate-friendly power plants should serve as a reserve.

Battery storage would be built at grid hubs, and the Happurg pumped-storage plant would be repaired and restarted. Surplus electricity would be converted into storable heat and hydrogen. An expanded, digital grid within a European network is meant to make it easier for companies to use cheap power. For biomass and hydropower, the program focuses on efficiency and ecology rather than new capacity and wants to use mainly residual materials for biogas and hydrogen.

The Greens reject any return to nuclear power. They commit to handling interim storage sites responsibly and to the search for a final repository.

The Greens do not want nuclear power anymore. Nuclear plants should not go back online. Nuclear waste should be stored safely. The search for a permanent storage site should continue.

The program calls nuclear power dangerous and expensive and wants to organize the energy supply without it. The search for a final repository should be science-based and transparent. Existing interim storage sites are to be handled responsibly.

The Greens want a Bavarian heat law so that all buildings are heated in a climate-neutral way by 2040. Municipalities would draw up heat plans, and funding programs would make renovations affordable for renters and owners. Heat pumps and heating networks would carry the supply.

The Greens want a heat law for Bavaria. By 2040 all buildings should be heated without harming the climate. Every town should make a heat plan. The state should give money to renovate homes. Heat pumps and heating networks should do the heating.

Every municipality would present a heat plan by 2024 at the latest. The plan includes a modernization program for social housing, a heat fund of 300 million per year for other rental housing and a renovation bonus for families with low and middle incomes. Heat pump noise would be limited by emission values instead of blanket minimum distances. A feed-in priority would let businesses sell their waste heat. Municipalities would get guarantees for deep geothermal drilling, and solar thermal energy would quadruple to 12 billion kilowatt-hours by 2030.

The Greens want to make energy saving a lasting habit. Public buildings would be checked for savings through an eco-audit, and low-income households would get help buying efficient appliances.

The Greens want Bavaria to save energy. Government offices should check where they can save energy. Citizens should get regular tips on saving. People with little money should get help to buy efficient appliances.

As examples for public buildings, the program names a reasonable room temperature in ministry offices, less hot water and less outdoor lighting. Video conferences would replace business trips. Campaigns would regularly give people concrete energy-saving ideas. The reasoning is that energy that is not used does not have to be produced in the first place.

The Greens want to buy back the hydropower plants on the Danube, Isar, Lech and Main from Uniper. They would become part of a new public energy company called Bayern-Energie that invests in renewable plants.

The Greens want to buy back hydropower plants. Today the plants belong to the company Uniper. Bavaria should also found its own energy company. This company should build plants for clean energy.

The program calls the earlier sale of the plants a mistake by the CSU. After the buyback, the revenue would benefit the public, and power generation, flood protection and nature conservation would be planned together. The new company would pay up front for exploratory geothermal drilling. It would build 1,000 solar installations a year on state roofs, facades and parking lots and have 400 wind turbines put up in the state forests.

The Greens want to make adapting to heat and flash floods a mandatory task for municipalities. To that end, municipalities are to receive at least one billion euros over five years through funding programs.

Heat and heavy rain are a danger. The Greens want towns to prepare for this. It should become a duty. Bavaria should give towns money and advice for it. The plan is at least one billion euros over five years.

The program calls for management plans for flash-flood risks, climate function maps and heat action plans for cities and towns. More green spaces, trees and green facades are to be both funded and required. Municipalities and counties are to get advice as well as staffing and financial support. The program justifies this with the threat that heat waves and flash floods pose across Bavaria.

The Greens want to upgrade ground-mounted solar installations ecologically so that additional biotopes emerge there. Participating solar parks are to receive a one-time payment in return.

Solar plants often stand on meadows and fields. The Greens want more plants and animals there. The operators should get money for this once. This way solar power and nature protection should fit together.

An ecological guideline is to set out how the installations should be designed. Existing and new solar parks that take part receive one cent per kilowatt-hour, once and for one year. By the program's calculation this costs around 40 million euros at the time of writing if all operators participate. Conventional nature conservation is not to be weakened in the process.

The Greens want to involve agriculture more closely in climate protection. By 2030, 40 percent of drained peatlands are to be rewetted, livestock numbers reduced by 20 percent and mineral fertilizer use cut by 20 percent.

The Greens want farmers to help protect the climate. Dry peatlands should become wet again. By 2030 there should be 20 percent fewer farm animals. In return, the animals should have more space. Farmers should use less artificial fertilizer.

Forests, grassland and wetlands are to be preserved and expanded as carbon sinks; farming adapted to peatlands will be supported. In the Greens' view, climate targets can only be met if fewer animals are kept, but with more space and quality of life. Manure is to be used more often in biogas plants first before it is spread on fields. Farms that scale back livestock are to get help building up other lines of production. Less mineral fertilizer is to be achieved through more efficient use and more organic farming.

The Greens want to make solar installations mandatory for new buildings and when roofs are replaced. Compliance with energy rules for buildings would have to be documented and checked. Families with low and middle incomes would receive a renovation bonus.

The Greens want a rule that requires solar panels. It applies to new buildings and to new roofs. The state should check whether buildings follow the energy rules. Families with little money get help with renovating.

According to the program, compliance with the Gebäudeenergiegesetz (Building Energy Act) and the accuracy of energy certificates are hardly checked in Bavaria so far. In future, proof would be required and the information effectively monitored to protect buyers and tenants. Homeowners would get help with extra costs so that eventually every building uses solar energy. The renovation bonus is meant to be flexible, for example for buying and renovating an existing house, insulation, a new roof or new windows.

The Greens want to retrofit all 4,800 Bavarian schools for energy efficiency and fit them with solar panels. In the platform's view, schools should be models of sustainability and climate protection; environmental education would get more money and time.

The Greens want to renovate all 4,800 schools in Bavaria. The schools should then use less energy. Solar panels should go on the roofs. Children should learn more about the environment and climate at school.

Construction would be scheduled around school vacations. Where possible, schools would switch to district heating or other renewable heating. Counties and municipalities would make daycare and school buildings climate-neutral, backed by funding programs. Outdoor classrooms, school gardens and modern school design would get more support. Schools' environmental officers would get more time, and environmental education centers outside schools would get higher subsidies.

The Greens want to develop plans against heat stress together with municipalities and counties. They argue that heat waves are becoming more frequent because of the climate crisis and especially endanger small children, people with pre-existing conditions and older people.

The Greens want plans against extreme heat. Every town should have such a plan. Heat is dangerous for small children, sick people and old people. More green on buildings and less concrete should help.

The platform lists green facades and roofs, unsealing paved surfaces, sponge cities and sponge landscapes, more natural building materials and additional fresh-air corridors. These measures are meant to improve air circulation and reduce health burdens. In the party's view, climate protection remains the decisive response, with adaptation taking place alongside it.

The Greens want to expand wind and solar power quickly and thereby keep electricity prices low in the long run. Municipalities would fit their roofs with solar panels, and residents would get support for their own systems and for energy cooperatives. A Bavarian hardship fund is meant to help groups hit especially hard.

The Greens want much more power from wind and sun. That should keep power cheap for a long time. Towns should put solar panels on their roofs. People should get help with their own solar panels. People with big money worries should get money from a relief fund.

The platform treats climate protection as a mandatory task for government and every municipality. Operators of wind turbines and ground-mounted solar plants would get incentives to offer cheaper rates to nearby residents and municipal buildings (energy sharing). A state funding program would make it easier to found citizen energy cooperatives. Easy-to-reach energy advice is meant to help people save. The party also endorses the federal rule under which landlords pay 90 percent of CO2 costs for outdated, climate-damaging heating systems.

The Greens want people and municipalities near wind turbines and solar parks to benefit financially. Operators are to get incentives to offer cheaper electricity rates, and municipalities are to receive an additional bonus for renewable energy produced on their territory.

Wind turbines and solar parks often stand in rural areas. The Greens want people nearby to benefit. They should get cheaper electricity. Towns should also get extra money. They could use it to pay for a swimming pool, for example.

The discounted rates are to apply at least to residents within three kilometers and to municipal buildings. The platform calculates that a discount of four to six cents per kilowatt-hour would save a household using 3,500 kilowatt-hours between 140 and 210 euros a year. The state is to advise municipalities so they can negotiate such terms with investors. Operators offering these rates would get reduced fees in the permitting process and a quality seal. On top of the local business tax, an "Energiegewinner-Bonus" (energy winner bonus) is planned for municipalities with wind, solar and geothermal plants, and feeding renewable power into the grid is to become easier.

The Greens want to establish a regional energy agency in every county and independent city. It is meant to be an easily accessible local contact point for the energy transition, since the platform says many strands come together at the municipal level.

The Greens want energy agencies all over Bavaria. These are offices that give advice on energy. Every county and every big city should have one. They help with solar panels and funding forms, for example.

The agencies would advise tenants and homeowners on energy matters and organize bundled solar panel campaigns. Guides would help businesses and municipalities with funding applications. The agencies would also involve residents in specific projects. The platform promises generous funding and sees the agencies as the hub of the local energy transition.