Grüne on climate and energy

The Greens want a climate protection law for Saxony that makes climate neutrality by 2040 binding. It would be based on a CO2 budget and include interim targets for each sector. The aim is for the state and its municipalities to contribute their share to the climate targets.

The Greens want a climate law for Saxony. Saxony should be climate neutral by 2040. That means Saxony no longer harms the climate. The law sets how much CO2 is still allowed. Each sector gets its own targets.

The law would set out measures, deadlines and indicators. The state government would have to check progress every two years in a climate report. A panel of outside experts would assess the measures and monitor the target paths. If targets are missed, the state would have to respond with an additional emergency program. Municipalities and counties would get support with their own climate plans. The existing Energy and Climate Program (EKP) would be updated on the basis of the law.

The Greens want the public sector in Saxony to operate climate neutrally by 2035 at the latest, because the program sees it as a role model. In addition, all state funding programs, laws and regulations would be aligned with the climate targets.

The public sector in Saxony should be climate neutral by 2035. The Greens say the state should set an example. All state funding programs should also fit climate protection. The same goes for laws and rules.

The 2035 target comes five years before the 2040 date sought for Saxony as a whole. The state government would be required by law to align state funding programs, laws and regulations with the climate targets. This applies to new rules and programs as well as existing ones.

The Greens want far more electricity from renewable sources and a faster exit from coal. In the program's view, sticking with coal beyond 2030 harms the environment and is expensive. The shift in power and heating is to be designed in a socially fair way.

The Greens want much more power from wind and sun. Saxony should stop using coal sooner. The party says coal after 2030 is costly and harms the environment. The changes should stay affordable for everyone.

The program names the goal of the energy transition as combining climate neutrality, secure supply and low prices. It describes renewables as a key factor for attracting businesses and as a source of new jobs. Saxony is to remain an energy state while moving quickly away from fossil fuels in power and heating. The measures would be anchored in the updated Energy and Climate Program.

The Greens want to expand the power grid more strongly and develop various kinds of storage. Controllable generation capacity is to step in when wind and sun do not deliver. Renewable power would also be linked with transport and heating and used close to where it is produced.

The Greens want to build more power lines. They also want storage for energy. When there is no wind, other plants should supply power. The power should also be used for transport and heating. It should be used near where it is made.

The program names short- and long-term storage for electricity, heat and hydrogen as a central building block. Sector coupling means connecting the power system with mobility and heat supply. According to the party, local use would make the overall system more efficient and secure supply in the region.

The Greens want to prevent bottlenecks at the authorities as applications for wind turbines rise. Lower-level authorities would get more expert support and statewide guidelines. Fast procedures should not come at the expense of nature and the environment.

The Greens want more wind turbines in Saxony. Offices should be able to check applications quickly. They get more help from experts for this. The state should provide clear guides. Nature should stay protected.

The program points out that two percent of the state's land will be designated for wind power by 2027, allowing turbines with more than eight gigawatts. Advice services and exchange of experience for municipalities and citizens would be strengthened. The party wants to keep helping resolve local conflicts between goals. Through public outreach it wants to inform people about the benefits of wind energy and counter misinformation with factual arguments.

The Greens want all municipalities to receive mandatory payments from wind turbines and solar parks nearby. According to the program, the expansion should first benefit local people and strengthen municipal finances.

Towns should get money when wind turbines stand nearby. This also applies to large solar plants on open land. The Greens want to make this a fixed rule. That way local people benefit.

The program lists business tax revenue and the option of a fixed levy per kilowatt-hour as benefits. It says wind energy also strengthens local companies and cooperatives. The party contrasts this with fossil business models whose profits, in its account, help finance Russia's war of aggression, for example.

The Greens want to require solar installations on all public buildings and parking lots owned by the state. A mandate would also apply to new commercial buildings, apartment buildings and parking lots. The goal is to make full use of already built-up areas for solar energy.

The Greens want a solar mandate. State buildings should get solar panels. The same goes for state parking lots. New business buildings and new apartment buildings also need solar panels.

On public-sector sites, at least ten megawatts of capacity would be added every year. For new construction, the mandate does not apply if it is shown to be economically or technically unreasonable. The party justifies this with the aim of tapping the potential of already built-up areas.

The Greens want to support solar installations on existing buildings with low-interest loans, with higher subsidies for modules made in Saxony. Ground-mounted solar parks would follow strict sustainability criteria. Balcony solar and solutions for listed heritage buildings would also be supported.

People who put solar panels on their house should get a cheap loan. There is more money for solar modules from Saxony. Solar parks should also help nature. The Greens also want to support small panels for balconies.

Modules "made in Saxony" would receive higher repayment subsidies, meaning a larger share of the loan is waived. For ground-mounted plants, the party wants criteria that raise the ecological value of the land, and it wants to advance combined uses such as agri-PV, floating PV and biodiversity PV. At the federal and EU level it wants to push for good market conditions for Saxony's solar industry. For protected building ensembles, neighborhood-based solar concepts would be funded.

The Greens want to keep using biomass for electricity, heat and fuels, as long as it cannot be used as a material and does not displace food production. A biomass strategy for Saxony is to be drawn up for this purpose.

Biomass means things like organic waste, manure and slurry. The Greens want to keep making energy from it. This must not get in the way of growing food. The plants should mainly run when there is little wind and sun. Saxony should get a plan for this.

Priority goes to organic waste, harvest residues, solid manure and slurry. Biomass plants are to run more flexibly and supply energy at times when little wind and solar power is available. Biogas plants, which are mostly run by farms, are to be kept and expanded only moderately at most. The planned strategy is to take into account how much biomass is available, how biodiversity is protected and how materials can be used several times in sequence.

The Greens rely on energy storage and gas power plants that can run on hydrogen to secure the power supply alongside wind and solar. Saxony's hydrogen economy is to grow on the basis of green hydrogen.

Wind and sun do not always deliver power. So the Greens want energy storage. They also want gas power plants that can run on hydrogen. Saxony should make and use more green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is made with power from wind and sun.

To finance such plants, some of which run only a few hours a year, the party wants to take part in developing concepts at the federal level. Saxony's hydrogen strategy is to be pushed forward and developed further. The program welcomes the European IPCEI projects and wants to strengthen the hydrogen alliance of Saxony's universities. In the party's view, green hydrogen will stay scarce for now and should mainly help industry move away from fossil energy.

The Greens want energy to be used more sparingly in all areas of life. Advice on saving energy is to be strengthened, and Saxony's businesses are to get support in tapping their savings potential.

The Greens want everyone to use less energy. There should be more advice on saving energy. Companies and trades should also get help with saving. The state should set a good example itself.

The program argues that energy that never has to be generated is the cheapest. It names efficient appliances, insulated buildings and electric vehicles. Advice services, such as those of the consumer advice center, are to be expanded. Industry, commerce and trades are to get help in using the 30 percent savings potential identified by the German Energy Agency, which is meant to make them more competitive. The public sector is to lead the way.

The Greens want to subsidize energy-saving renovation and the replacement of fossil heating systems, mainly in low-cost rental, cooperative and social housing. The funding is to be linked to local energy advice in order to prevent energy poverty.

The Greens want to give money so that homes need less energy. Old oil and gas heaters should also be replaced. The money should mainly go to low-cost rental homes. There should also be advice on saving energy. Towns should get more money for climate protection.

The program treats work on the building shell as the most important way to cut energy use. Advice is to come from local bodies such as social welfare offices, municipal utilities, welfare organizations and neutral providers. The Leipzig pilot project on energy advice for low-income households, running since 2015, is to be examined and supported for other municipalities. The municipal "Klimamillion" (climate million) is to continue as a permanent climate budget with more money.

The Greens want to anchor state-specific rules on municipal heat planning in the climate protection law and give municipalities sufficient resources for it. Which climate-neutral technology is used should depend on security of supply and price, with the program highlighting heat pumps in particular.

Towns should plan how to heat without oil and gas in the future. The Greens want rules for this in the climate protection law. Towns should get enough money and advice. Which technology is used should depend on price and reliability. The Greens see heat pumps as especially suitable.

The plans include suitable funding programs and more networks, information and advice for residents and municipalities, including through the Saxon energy agency SAENA. Cross-regional and cross-border projects, such as a shared district heating network for Görlitz and Zgorzelec, are to get special support. Besides heat pumps, the program names industrial waste heat, large-scale solar thermal and power-to-heat. The party is very critical of new plants that burn residual waste or substitute fuels. It is also skeptical about heating individual buildings mainly with hydrogen, biomass or wood, because in its view the supply is not assured.

The Greens want to involve residents more in the energy transition, including financially. Energy cooperatives are to get advice, land and exemptions from tendering requirements so that public acceptance grows.

The Greens want many people to take part in the energy transition. Residents should also be able to earn money from it. Energy cooperatives should get advice and land. In a cooperative, residents run energy plants together. This should make more people support the energy transition.

The rules are to be designed so that citizen energy and decentralized installations in neighborhoods stay attractive. Local heating run by cooperatives is also to become possible. Easy-to-reach advice, for example at SAENA, is to be expanded to reduce uncertainty. In the party's view, people need to feel the benefits of green energy more clearly.

The Greens demand that Saxony exit coal well before 2038 and burn only as much coal as Germany's 1.5-degree budget allows. The village of Mühlrose is to be preserved; no more villages should make way for open-pit mining.

The Greens want to stop using coal earlier than planned. The current date is 2038. Saxony should burn only as much coal as the climate goal allows. The village of Mühlrose should stay. No more villages should disappear for coal.

The program justifies the earlier exit with climate protection and with the claim that rising costs and CO2 prices will make coal uncompetitive long before 2038. A planned exit is meant to secure supply and avoid the risks of a disorderly or late end. The conditions for this are to be created now. According to the party, the coal beneath Miłoraz/Mühlrose is not needed for the energy supply.

The Greens reject any further extension of the Polish lignite mine Turów on Saxony's border. They call for cross-border environmental assessments in line with EU law and promise help to affected towns such as Zittau.

The Turów coal mine is in Poland, right at the border with Saxony. The Greens do not want it to run longer. They demand a proper check of the effects on the environment. The check should apply across the border. Towns like Zittau should get help.

According to the program, Turów is among Europe's largest open-pit mines and air polluters, and its effects are clearly felt on the Saxon side. An extension would run counter to the climate targets. The program says Zittau and other towns face ground subsidence because the groundwater level is falling sharply.

The Greens want to use former open-pit mining land for wind and solar farms. This land should be open not only to coal companies but also to citizen energy cooperatives, mid-sized firms and municipal utilities, so that coal regions remain energy regions.

Wind turbines and solar panels should stand on old mining land. The Greens do not want only coal companies to get this land. Citizen cooperatives, small firms and local utilities should also be able to build there. This way the coal regions can keep earning money with energy.

The land is to be used in a regionally balanced way. The program also names crowd-investing companies as possible operators. At the same time, the party supports the coal companies' shift to new business models and welcomes their contribution to the energy transition. The goal is to preserve the lignite regions' role in the energy sector and the value created there.

The Greens want to make sure that mine operators pay for restoring the land. To this end they are to be required to make payments or provide securities so that the costs do not fall on the state budget. The party also proposes a foundation for the long-term consequences of lignite mining.

After mining, the land must be made usable again. That costs a lot of money. The Greens want the coal companies to pay for it. The companies should set money aside or give guarantees in advance. Otherwise the state might have to pay. There should also be a foundation with the federal government and other states.

The program sees a disorderly coal exit or an insolvency of the coal business in Lusatia as one of the biggest risks to the state budget. The size of the payments into the special funds of the purpose-built companies is to reflect the risk. Long-term effects on water, such as sulfates and iron compounds, are also to be covered; a scientific pilot project is planned for iron ocher sludge. The foundation is to be set up together with the federal government, Brandenburg and Saxony-Anhalt and must not release operators from their duties.

The Greens want the state of Saxony to modernize its own buildings so that they are fully climate neutral by 2035. They also call for a solar mandate for public properties in new construction and major renovations.

The state of Saxony owns many buildings. The Greens want them to stop harming the climate by 2035. New public buildings should be planned as climate neutral from 2025. Public buildings should get solar panels. The state should set an example this way.

The state-owned real estate and construction agency SIB is to be bound to the 2035 goal and to plan all new public buildings as climate neutral from 2025. The solar mandate is to cover photovoltaics or solar thermal, depending on what suits the building. The state and municipalities are to lead on heating with renewable energy and exceed federal minimum standards early. Digital planning and documentation are to become standard for public buildings.

The Greens want to preserve farmland in order to secure the food supply in Saxony. Solar installations are therefore to go first on roofs, parking lots and unused land. On farmland, solutions that combine power generation with farming are to take priority.

Fields should stay fields. Solar panels should go on roofs and parking lots first. On fields, both should work: power and crops. This is called agri-photovoltaics.

Where farmland is used to generate energy, installations that also benefit food production and biodiversity are to be preferred. In the program's view, agri-photovoltaics can resolve conflicts between farming and the expansion of renewable energy. To that end, technical standards such as minimum heights for panels above cropland and pasture are to be set. According to the party, this gives farms an additional source of income.

The Greens want to increase the climate budget for municipalities and anchor it permanently in the fiscal equalization law. The platform calls it a success story because local climate action works well when procedures are simple. It is meant to serve as a model for building future-oriented tasks into fiscal equalization.

Towns in Saxony get money for climate protection. This money is called the climate budget. The Greens want to raise the climate budget. Towns should get it for good. To make sure, it should be written into a law.

The platform sees the municipal climate budget as proof that climate investments in towns succeed when the process is simple and low on red tape. The budget is to grow and become a permanent part of the Finanzausgleichsgesetz (FAG, the fiscal equalization law). The platform also calls for more state support so that municipalities can develop in a climate-friendly and livable way.