Grüne on the economy

The Greens want to gear Bavaria's business subsidies of about one billion euros a year entirely toward climate neutrality. This "Bavarian Green Deal" is meant to support companies through the transition and, according to the platform, give the state a competitive edge.

Bavaria gives companies about one billion euros in support each year. The Greens want to tie this money to climate protection. Companies should use it to become climate-neutral. The party calls this the Bavarian Green Deal.

Climate-friendly business models would become binding guidelines in the funding programs. Companies would be helped to convert their entire value chain, from raw materials to recycling and disposal. The platform sees the Green Deal as a pact with business that combines environmental protection, social justice and economic dynamism. It is meant to give workers and firms security, including suppliers, and to secure jobs together with companies and unions.

The Greens want to put one billion each year into expanding and modernizing infrastructure. This includes fast internet, power supply, buses and trains, rail freight and infrastructure for green hydrogen.

The Greens want to spend one billion each year on infrastructure. That means things like rail tracks, power lines and internet. Companies should be connected to rail more easily. Pipelines for hydrogen are also planned.

According to the platform, the lack of rail expansion holds back companies in rural areas in particular. Plans include additional tracks, new freight terminals and an advisory office for company rail connections. Together with the federal government and businesses, a Bavarian green hydrogen economy is to be built, with state funds going into the related infrastructure. Hydrogen would be used where it offers the greatest advantage as an energy source. The goal is a fully climate-neutral energy supply with a large share of local value creation.

The Greens want to support the Mittelstand (small and mid-sized businesses) in the ecological transition with a 300 million euro fund. Funding programs would become easier to access, with one-stop advice and fixed processing deadlines.

Small and mid-sized companies have to adapt. The Greens want to help them with 300 million euros. Applying for support should get easier. Offices should answer within a fixed time.

Support would go to training and continuing education, innovation and investment, mainly through start-up financing. Central contact points would advise firms, and applications would be low on paperwork. Existing programs would be checked for clarity and for contradictions. Changes to funding would be communicated openly to give planning certainty. The party also wants to speed up administrative and permitting procedures for businesses and expand online services.

The Greens want to promote regional economic cycles so that Bavaria is less vulnerable to global crises. A state strategy for resource efficiency and a circular economy agency would help firms with recycling.

The Greens want more goods to be made in the region. That way Bavaria should get through crises better. A new agency would help companies with recycling. Small breweries should also be kept.

Cycles would be strengthened from plant engineering through energy and vegetable growing to trades and retail; this is also meant to reduce traffic. The planned agency would mainly help small and mid-sized companies recycle raw materials better and use products longer. The variety of small and mid-sized breweries is to be preserved. For start-ups, the party wants to promote cooperatives and social enterprises. Small and mid-sized firms would get easier access to state funding programs.

The Greens want a procurement law for Bavaria that sets binding environmental, social and human rights requirements for public contracts. Small and mid-sized companies and start-ups would get a bigger share.

The state buys many things and awards contracts. The Greens want a new law for this. Companies would then have to follow rules on the environment and human rights. Small companies should get contracts more easily.

The platform justifies the law with a special responsibility of the state and municipalities for the environment and human rights. The criteria are to be mandatory and clearly laid out. The law is also meant to strengthen the participation of small and mid-sized firms and young companies in public contracts.

The Greens plan a start-up drive for young companies in all regions, with special offers for women and for people with a migration background. In the cultural and creative industries, social protection and minimum fees would apply.

The Greens want to help people start a company. Women and immigrants would get their own advice services. Artists and creative workers would get a minimum pay. Bavaria should also become a good place for game companies.

Starting a business would be a topic in school and at universities, including outside business studies. Women founders would get better advice and a networking program. Existing start-up centers would become decentralized advisory agencies; migrants would get multilingual advice and a dedicated award that is also open to people with disabilities. People who want to start a business after studying or training in Bavaria would face fewer residence-law hurdles. Under the motto "Fair Art," funding programs and public contracts would be adapted to minimum fees, and Bavaria is to become Germany's best location for the gaming industry.

The Greens want to raise spending on research and development in Bavaria from 3.41 to 4 percent of economic output. Research funding would be guided by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

The Greens want to spend more money on research. Today it is 3.41 percent of economic output. It should become 4 percent. Research should serve sustainability.

The platform sees research and development as a precondition for transforming the economy. The share of gross domestic product would rise by a little more than half a percentage point. The UN Sustainable Development Goals are the benchmark for funding.

The Greens want to use public money to double private investments in diverse founding teams, up to 50,000 euros. The aim is more founders and more investors from these groups.

Some groups rarely start companies, for example women or people with a migration background. The Greens want to change that. People who invest in such teams get the same amount on top from the state. This applies up to 50,000 euros. There will also be a second center for women founders.

The initiative is called "Diversität gewinnt" (Diversity Wins). The program gives all-female or migrant founding teams as examples of diverse teams. The grant applies to investments by private individuals and business angels and is capped at 50,000 euros. In the Greens' view, different perspectives lead to technological and social innovation, and such teams are also more successful economically. In addition to the existing women founders' center guide in Munich, a second one is to be set up in Bavaria, also as a contact point for financing questions.

The Greens want stronger support at universities for start-ups with sustainability goals. Think tanks are to bring together academia, business and society, and founders are to be allowed to use university rooms and technology.

The Greens want to support start-ups at universities. This is about ideas that help the environment and society. Founders should be able to use university rooms and data centers. That makes starting less risky.

The planned think tanks are meant to create incentives for founding a company, an association or an initiative. Support for impact-oriented entrepreneurship is to become permanent and a fixed part of start-up advice at universities. The party also backs the creation of founders' centers at universities. In the Greens' view, desirable innovation goes beyond pure technology transfer and covers social, economic and ecological sustainability.

The Greens want to refocus Bavaria's tourism funding on sustainability and adaptation to global warming. State money for snow cannons would end. Workers and residents in tourist regions are also meant to be better off.

The Greens want tourism that protects nature. The state should stop paying for snow cannons. Towns get advice and money to make the change. People who live and work there should have better lives and jobs.

Municipalities and counties would receive advice and funding to make local tourism sustainable and adapt it to higher temperatures. The cable car funding program would be tied more closely to sustainability criteria. The program also plans regional brands, restructured tourism marketing, support for organic regional food, rangers and visitor management in sensitive areas, and a „Naturerlebnisdörfer“ (nature experience villages) label for communities outside the Alps. The sector is to become more attractive through wider collective bargaining coverage, better training and easier immigration of workers. The party wants to curb vacant second homes and the conversion of housing into vacation rentals, and tourism is to become accessible for people with disabilities.

The Greens want to boost sales of regional products with digital marketplaces, delivery services and funding. In every county, regional managers are to advise and connect producers and retailers.

Many people like to buy products from their region. The Greens want to support this. There should be online marketplaces for these products. Every county should have regional managers. They advise local producers and shops.

The plan includes platforms and networks through which regional producers can also sell their goods online. Dedicated delivery services are meant to support local retail. The state would provide funding structures and a framework of digital marketplaces that regions or individual municipalities can use. Municipal or cooperative infrastructure for processing and distributing food, such as dairies, mills and breweries, is also to be supported. Newly created regional manager positions are meant to ensure short production and marketing chains.