Grüne on climate and energy

The Greens want to protect people in Bremen and Bremerhaven from the effects of climate change through both climate protection and adaptation. This includes dikes against storm surges, trees to cool the cities in extreme heat, and transport routes for climate-friendly travel. Expanding renewable energy is also meant to end dependence on energy imports.

The Greens want to protect people from the effects of the climate crisis. Dikes should protect against storm floods. Trees should cool the city in hot weather. New routes should make climate-friendly travel easy. There should be more power from wind and sun.

The program names three ways to tackle the climate crisis: more renewable energy, adaptation measures in both cities, and a structural shift in the economy. In the Greens' view, renewables should end dependence on imports from autocratic states. Specific measures mentioned are building dikes, planting trees for cooling, and creating new transport routes. Bremen and Bremerhaven are also meant to take on a central role in the emerging European hydrogen economy.

The Greens want to switch heating to renewable energy as fast as possible, relying on district heating and heat pumps. Municipal heat planning is meant to show where and when a district heating connection will arrive. This is intended to give owners and tenants planning certainty.

The Greens want homes to be heated without oil and gas. They want more district heating and heat pumps. The cities should make a plan. The plan shows where district heating will come and when.

The platform names district heating and heat pumps as the preferred options because the party sees them as low-cost, climate-neutral and a protection against price shocks. Through heat planning, people in Bremen and Bremerhaven should be able to easily find out whether and when their location will be connected to the district heating network. Where that is not possible, heating systems are to be converted to heat pumps or other renewable technology as early as possible. The medium-term goal is independence from imported fossil fuels. At the federal and EU level, the party wants to push for affordable energy costs and incentives to save energy.

The Greens want to create additional state funding for energy-saving renovations in cases of social hardship. The aim is to keep high renovation costs from being passed on to tenants. Advice on renovation and saving energy is also to be expanded considerably.

Renovating a house costs a lot of money. The Greens want to give more money when people have little. Tenants should not have to pay the costs. There should also be more advice. Energy guides should help people in poorer neighborhoods save energy.

The new funding is meant to supplement existing federal programs. Advice services such as the Klima-Bau-Zentrum (climate building center) are to be expanded considerably and kept up to date through training, with as little red tape as possible. The party wants to support neighborhood initiatives that organize their heat supply together, for example through cold local heating networks. Through the state program "Lebendige Quartiere" (lively neighborhoods), energy guides are to work in areas at risk of poverty. They are meant to reach low-income households that do not use existing advice services.

The Greens want to protect people from the health effects of hot summers with climate-adapted infrastructure and a heat action plan. Heat protection is to become mandatory at large summer events, and workplace safety rules in hot weather are to be checked more strictly.

Summers are getting hotter. That is dangerous for people's health. The Greens want a plan against heat. Authorities should warn people about heat. Big summer events must plan for heat protection.

The platform bases the proposal on an aging population and rising temperatures, which it says make tropical diseases and new pandemics more likely, among other things. The heat action plan is to include official warnings, behavioral advice on public display boards and organized neighborhood help. Care homes, senior facilities and hospitals are to be contacted directly. Compliance with workplace safety rules is to be monitored more closely, especially for physical labor.

The Greens want to convert existing buildings to be climate-neutral or climate-positive and change planning and building rules to that end. A "renovation code" (Umbauordnung) would favor existing buildings over new construction so that existing structures are preserved.

The Greens want to rebuild old buildings instead of tearing them down. The buildings should no longer harm the climate. New rules should make this easier. Bremen should push for these rules at the national level.

The program argues that the building sector causes almost 40 percent of German greenhouse gas emissions and 60 percent of waste, the latter through demolition. Existing buildings should be assessed differently in law and engineering than new ones, because they often cannot meet new-build standards and would otherwise face demolition. The "gray energy" already embodied in existing buildings should count in their favor. Through a "Bremen Initiative Renovation Code," the Greens want to campaign at the federal level for changed legislation and support existing efforts.

The Greens want all universities in the state to become climate-neutral, both in teaching and on campus. To that end, a binding sustainability strategy for all universities is to be developed and climate management made permanent.

Universities should stop harming the climate. This goes for studying and for the buildings. The Greens want a fixed plan for all universities. Climate experts should work there for the long term.

The path is to run through study and research projects on climate research, climate adaptation, climate neutrality and climate justice. The Greens back the climate-friendly conversion of science facilities as well as sustainable learning, teaching and research. The strategies for converting the campuses are also meant to have an effect on society at large. Climate management at the universities is to be strengthened and made permanent.

The Greens want to further speed up the energy transition in Europe and diversify international energy sources. The goal is independence from fossil fuels, especially those from Russia. In the party's view, this would also strengthen the foreign policy autonomy of Germany and the EU.

The Greens want a faster energy transition in Europe. Energy should come from more different countries. Germany should no longer depend on oil and gas from Russia. Then Russia can put less pressure on Germany.

According to the platform, Russia was able to put political pressure on EU countries, and Germany in particular, because of their dependence on its fossil fuels. The party names two steps in response: expanding renewable energy and spreading international supply sources more widely. This is meant to produce lasting energy security.

The Greens want the state of Bremen to become climate neutral by 2038 and to carry out all recommendations of the climate inquiry commission. The administration is to get more staff, and a steering system at the top political level is to monitor CO2 savings. The climate strategy is to be written into law.

Bremen should be climate neutral by 2038. This means Bremen will then no longer harm the climate. A commission has made proposals for this. The Greens want to carry out all of them. For this, there should be more staff and fixed checks.

The party treats the inquiry commission's report as a minimum that must not be undercut. Priorities are converting the steel plant, which the platform says causes half of Bremen's CO2 emissions, low-carbon mobility, expanding local and district heating, and renovating buildings. A staffing plan for the projects is due by the end of 2024, and the required positions are to be filled. An action plan is to set out which projects start and get funded in which year. Bremen's climate and energy law is to be revised, and the climate office in Bremerhaven and the agency energiekonsens are to receive state funds.

The Greens want a state heating law that shifts heating to district heating, local heating networks and heat pumps. Once municipal heat planning is complete, renewable heat is to become mandatory when a heating system is replaced. District heating providers are to produce almost entirely CO2-neutral heat by 2030.

The Greens want a new law on heating. Homes should stop heating with gas or oil. They should use district heating or a heat pump. District heating is heat that comes through pipes from a plant. People who put in a new heating system must follow this rule later. The party wants to help people switch.

Bremen and Bremerhaven are to present heat plans by mid-2025 that set the size, expansion and sequence of the network. If a heating system breaks down before district heating is available, temporary boilers are allowed as an exception. By 2038, 220 kilometers of pipes are to be added through tenders or joint projects with the utility swb; small local heating networks fed by solar thermal energy, wastewater or geothermal heat are to be built as well. The use of water from the Weser river as a heat source and geothermal drilling on public land are to be examined. Where no network is possible, heat pumps are to be installed and distance rules adjusted for them. The party considers pellets and hydrogen suitable for heating only in exceptional cases.

The Greens want to expand wind power in the state of Bremen to 300 megawatts and solar power to 500 megawatts by 2030. This is meant to generate more renewable electricity within the state. Existing wind power sites are to be kept.

The Greens want more electricity from wind and sun. By 2030, Bremen should have many more wind turbines and solar panels. All places with wind turbines should stay. New and better turbines should stand there.

According to the platform, Bremen has nearly reached the goal of using two percent of its area for wind power. Even so, all further potential for wind energy is to be used, on commercial land as well as open land. Every current site is to be kept and fitted with new, more efficient turbines. On solar energy, the party points to the solar roof requirement already in place, which is meant to turn Bremen and Bremerhaven into "Solar Cities."

The Greens want to consistently apply the Klimavorbehalt (climate check) that has already been adopted. A CO2 balance is to be drawn up for all larger new projects decided by the state government and parliament. The party also plans annual targets and mandatory plans for all sectors.

The state should consider the climate in new projects. For each larger project, the CO2 output is calculated. The harm to the climate is also counted in money. Every area should get targets each year.

A climate check means that government projects are examined for their climate impact before a decision is made. Climate damage is to be calculated using a CO2 price that matches the actual cost of the damage. The annual targets and mandatory plans are meant to improve the climate performance of every sector. The party argues that reaching climate neutrality requires knowing how projects affect the climate.

The Greens want to open up more sites for wind power and to approve new commercial zones in the city of Bremen only if their wind potential is fully used. Land is also to be made available for storage, grid lines and other energy transition facilities, combined with ecological compensation.

The Greens want more wind turbines in Bremen. New business zones should only be allowed with wind turbines. The Greens want to check all possible sites again. Storage and power lines also need space. Harm to nature should be made up for elsewhere.

All conceivable sites are to be reassessed, including land in landscape protection areas that lies outside EU bird sanctuaries. A study is to identify further potential areas. Areas that become suitable under new federal rules are to be opened as long as bird populations are not put at risk. Businesses are to get more advice on wind power at their sites. For heat storage, solar thermal fields, large heat pumps, electrolysis plants, and power and hydrogen lines, the party wants to look for land of lower ecological value and require compensation measures elsewhere.

The Greens want a solar mandate for roofs on new buildings and roof renovations, plus photovoltaics above larger parking lots. By 2030, Bremen's roofs are to carry systems with about 500 megawatts of capacity. Ground-mounted systems and fewer hurdles for balcony solar units are also planned.

The Greens want many more solar panels in Bremen. New houses and new roofs must have solar panels. Large parking lots should get solar panels too. People will get advice on this. Small solar units for balconies should become easier.

At least 70 percent of the roof area on new buildings and 50 percent on renovated existing roofs is to be fitted with solar technology. After a change of owner, a system is to be installed within three years. Parking lots with 25 or more car spaces are to be covered with panels, and their owners are to be obligated as well. Systems along highway edges, on former military or industrial sites, and combined with farming are also planned, including a pilot project. At the federal level, the party wants simpler tenant electricity rules, a higher full feed-in tariff, and an end to requirements for balcony units such as a separate socket. Where possible, solar systems are to be combined with green roofs.

The Greens want the state of Bremen to lead with its own buildings and make them climate-neutral by 2035. Strict energy standards are to apply to renovations and new construction, and the public housing companies are to meet higher standards as well.

All public buildings should be climate-neutral by 2035. That means they no longer harm the climate. New buildings should be made of wood and use little energy. New heating systems will no longer run on gas or oil. Public housing companies should also renovate better.

Renovations of public buildings are to meet the Effizienzhaus 40 standard (a strict German efficiency class) right away. New buildings are to be timber-built passive houses with a photovoltaic system. Where no connection to district or local heating is possible, a heat pump is planned; the party rules out new natural gas or oil heating. Buildings owned by the housing companies GEWOBA, BREBAU and STÄWOG are all to reach at least the Effizienzhaus 55 standard.

The Greens want to advance energy retrofits of private residential and commercial buildings with subsidy programs, loans and more advice. The stated reason is that heating energy use must fall because electricity and district heating are limited.

Private houses should need less energy for heating. The Greens want to give money and advice for this. Poor older people should get special loans. They do not have to pay these back during their lifetime. Energy advisers should visit every home.

The focus is on buildings with a poor energy efficiency class; the program names Effizienzhaus 55 and timber construction as the minimum standard. The Bremer Aufbaubank (Bremen's development bank) is to offer renovation loans that seniors in need never have to repay during their lifetime. Retrofits and solar systems on listed buildings are to be made easier, and adding stories or converting attics is to be used more. The Klima-Bau-Zentrum advice center is to grow, get a site in Bremerhaven and offer door-to-door advice for owners, tenants and firms. Pilot projects for serial renovation with federal funding are planned with large housing companies.

The Greens want to fund neighborhood climate projects permanently and set up contact points in every district. Publicly owned companies are to be required to become more sustainable, and the state is to get its own sustainability strategy.

The Greens want climate action in every neighborhood. There should be advice, courses and repair cafés. In a repair café, people fix broken things together. Public companies must do more for the environment and for people. Bremen should get a plan for sustainability.

Special attention goes to districts with major social problems, where measures on public land are to be developed with local actors. As examples of services, the program names renovation advice, courses on climate-neutral eating and repair cafés. Publicly owned companies are to run their operations in a more ecologically and socially sustainable way, with sustainability officers where it makes sense. For private firms, training and advice such as the Klimalotsen (climate guides) are to be expanded. Implementation of the sustainability strategy is to be secured permanently in staff and funding.

The Greens want to launch a peatland protection program for Bremen that identifies suitable areas for rewetting. The program justifies this by saying peat soils store far more CO2 per area than forests.

Peat bogs store a lot of CO2. So the Greens want to protect bogs better. Dry bogs should become wet again. The state should buy such land or pay farmers. The Fehrmoor bog in Bremerhaven should be protected.

The program is to collect data and find land that can be rewetted. The state wants either to buy this land back or to fund other forms of farming on it. Federal money is to be sought for this as well. The Fehrmoor in Bremerhaven is to be given protected status and rewetted. According to the program, today's peat-friendly farming rests on cooperation between farmers and the environmental authority.

The Greens want to implement and tighten the environmental rules for new construction known as the "Bremer Standard." Every new building would need a green facade, which the platform says is inexpensive, cools, stores water and offers habitat for insects.

The Greens want stricter rules for new buildings. Every new building should have plants on its walls. New buildings should cope better with heavy rain. New neighborhoods should have enough green space for everyone.

New construction projects would have to meet higher standards for heavy rain and provide areas where water can seep away, if needed also for the already built-up surroundings. New neighborhoods would need at least six square meters of public green space per resident and 1.5 square meters per employee. If nearby neighborhoods lack green space, the requirements for developers would rise. Existing public buildings are to set an example too, with green roofs, bird-safe glass and insect-friendly lighting.

The Greens want to make Bremen and Bremerhaven a central part of a European hydrogen infrastructure. Plans include electrolysis plants, a pipeline and the conversion of gas networks, for which the party pledges large public investments. Hydrogen is to be used on a large scale only where electrification is not possible.

The Greens want to build plants and pipelines for hydrogen. Hydrogen is a gas that can store energy. The steel plant, ships and planes should use it. The party wants to spend a lot of public money on this. Hydrogen should only help where electricity is not enough.

As key steps, the platform names approving and supporting electrolysis plants in Mittelsbüren, a pipeline to Huntorf to connect to northern German cavern storage, and converting gas networks. Because the steel plant will need very large amounts of hydrogen, local electrolysis capacity is to rise; a large share will still have to be imported. The party wants to examine whether import facilities in Bremen's ports become necessary. The state's hydrogen office (Geschäftsstelle Wasserstoff) is to be expanded and moved to Bremerhaven to coordinate activities and build links beyond the region. Green hydrogen is meant to serve steel production, aviation and shipping, and as storage for surplus electricity.

The Greens want public land in the city of Bremen to go to companies only under strict climate and environmental criteria. Any firm that wants to set up or expand would have to present a plan for becoming climate neutral by 2038 at the latest.

The city of Bremen gives land to businesses. The Greens want strict climate rules for this. Businesses should show how they become climate neutral by 2038. New business buildings should get solar panels.

The platform cites the criteria catalog of Bremerhaven's business development agency BIS as a model. The climate plan is to cover both business processes and on-site operations such as office buildings, cafeterias and mobility. Sites are to be designed with green roofs and facades, little sealed ground and wildflower meadows. Solar panels would be mandatory on all new commercial buildings. Wherever possible, wind turbines are to be built in or at the edge of new commercial districts.

The Greens want to help wind energy in Bremerhaven recover after, by their account, thousands of jobs were lost there. They rely on federal and EU support and on a structural policy that gives special consideration to wind industry locations.

Bremerhaven had many jobs in wind energy. Many of them were lost. The Greens want the industry to grow there again. Germany and the EU should keep supporting wind energy.

The platform attributes the job losses to what it considers misguided federal policy. When German structural policy is redesigned, former and future wind industry sites such as Bremerhaven are to be taken into account. It mentions possible financial aid, more science and research, and stronger port infrastructure. In addition, expertise in recycling offshore wind turbines is to be built up at Container Terminal 1.

The Greens want to build up expertise in Bremerhaven for repowering and recycling offshore wind turbines. This is meant to let the city benefit from the expected expansion of offshore wind. They reject building a new open harbor basin in the Weser on ecological grounds.

Many wind turbines stand out at sea. Old turbines must later be taken down or replaced. The Greens want Bremerhaven to do this work. That should bring jobs to the city. The Greens do not want a new harbor basin in the Weser.

The platform expects that far more offshore turbines will be dismantled toward the end of the decade because of age or output. Space at Container Terminal 1 could be used for shipping during repowering, meaning the replacement of old turbines with more powerful ones, and for taking apart old turbines. The Offshore Terminal Bremerhaven is considered finished after a ruling by the Federal Administrative Court. The Greens reject the so-called Greenport because, for ports, maintaining what exists should take priority over new construction.

The Greens want to switch ships, ferries and vehicles in the port from diesel to climate-friendly propulsion. All of Bremen's ferries are to become climate neutral as quickly as possible. Shipbuilding is meant to benefit from retrofitting existing ships and from new propulsion technologies.

Many ships and vehicles in the port run on diesel. The Greens want to change that. They should run on electricity or other clean engines. All ferries in Bremen should become climate neutral. Climate neutral means they no longer harm the climate. This should also bring new orders to shipyards.

For publicly owned port vehicles such as ferries, workboats and shunting locomotives, battery-electric options in particular are to be examined, depending on cost-effectiveness and vehicle type. Shore power facilities are to be expanded further, and a strategy for sustainably powered cargo-handling equipment is to be drawn up with terminal operators. Bremenports' infrastructure is to be greenhouse-gas neutral as early as 2023. At the federal level, Bremen is to push for new funding programs for ship retrofits, less red tape in existing funding and permanent testing of climate-neutral fuels in Bremerhaven. The Greens also see opportunities in wind propulsion and want fueling infrastructure for hydrogen-based fuels for research vessels.