Linke on climate and energy

The Left wants to adapt Berlin to the effects of the climate crisis by investing in public infrastructure, public transit, and walking and cycling. The BaumEntscheid (tree referendum) is to be implemented. At the same time, electricity, heat, and water should be affordable for everyone.

The Left wants to prepare Berlin for hot summers. There should be more parks and clean air. The city should spend money on buses, trains, sidewalks, and bike paths. The tree referendum should be carried out. Electricity, heat, and water should be affordable for everyone.

Under the program, the city would get clean air, more parks, and cool places for hot summers. The energy supply should be environmentally friendly and affordable for all. No one should be left without power because of a high bill or have to choose between heating and groceries. The program describes parks, squares, and streets as important places to relax, especially for people with little money. The Left accuses the current Senate of not taking these tasks seriously.

The Left wants a binding roadmap for energy retrofits of municipal housing, backed by significantly more state equity. The modernization surcharge, which lets landlords pass costs on to rents, would be eliminated. Retrofits are meant to protect tenants from rising costs and benefit the climate.

The Left wants to renovate city-owned apartments so they use less energy. There should be a fixed plan for this. The state should give more money. Landlords should no longer add the costs to the rent.

The trigger is the completion of municipal heat planning in 2026. The renovation rate at the state-owned housing companies would rise, and the buildings with the worst energy efficiency would be brought up to a better standard first. For private landlords, the party wants to increase the funding program Soziale Wohnraummodernisierung, which supports rent and allocation restrictions in energy retrofits. The roadmap would also cover public buildings.

The Left wants construction waste recycled and building components reused, including through a municipal depot for used building materials. Under a revised building code, concrete would as far as possible be used only where it is strictly required; more building would be done with renewable materials instead.

The Left wants less waste in construction. Old building parts should be used again. The city should get a depot for used building materials. The Left says concrete harms the climate. It should be used only where it is required. Wood and similar materials should get support.

The platform calls for a municipal reuse depot for building materials and support for circular materials in municipal construction. Dismantling and reuse plans would become mandatory for public buildings. Public tenders for construction and planning services would include criteria for resource-saving building. Incentives would favor renewable and regional materials, taking their greenhouse gas impact into account. Concrete would be allowed only where rules such as fire safety demand it, and using salvaged components would become legally easier.

The Left wants to use planning law and the state building code to advance climate protection and climate adaptation. Solar installations and green facades are to become easier, and new buildings are to reuse graywater and include a minimum share of green space. No new building rights are to be granted for developments of single-family or two-family houses.

The Left wants to change Berlin's building rules. This should help the climate. Solar panels on roofs and walls should be easier to install. New buildings should reuse lightly used water. New buildings should always come with green space. There should be no new areas of single-family houses.

Minimum distance rules for rooftop solar panels are to be abolished. Solar installations on facades and green facades on residential and commercial buildings are to be made easier. The use of graywater and rainwater is to be written into the building code and become standard in new buildings. A minimum share of green space is to be set for new construction. Infrastructure built for the car-oriented city that is no longer needed is to be dismantled and put to new use. The districts' planning offices are to be strengthened.

The Left wants Berlin to be climate neutral by 2040 at the latest and to stay within its CO2 budget. Climate protection would be written into the state constitution as a goal. A climate proviso would mean that for government and legislative proposals, the more climate-friendly option is chosen in case of doubt.

The Left wants Berlin to be climate neutral by 2040 at the latest. That means the city no longer harms the climate. Climate protection should be in Berlin's constitution. For new laws, the more climate-friendly choice should come first.

Sector budgets for energy supply, transport, buildings and the economy would be fixed, along with mechanisms to enforce them. The targets are to be met mainly through energy savings, greater efficiency, renewables, reducing and shifting traffic, electric drives and land-saving construction. The party calls for better monitoring and wants to stress that the whole Senate (Berlin's state government) is responsible. Berlin's Energy and Climate Protection Program would be revised and adopted by the state parliament. According to the program, climate policy should not come at the expense of people with low incomes. Exchange with other cities would be stepped up.

The Left calls for large public investments in public transit, electric buses, district heating, the power grid and socially fair building renovation. Residents would take part in local climate measures through participation formats. The party wants closer cooperation with the neighboring state of Brandenburg on wind and solar power.

The Left wants to spend a lot of money on climate protection. The money should go to buses, trains, district heating and the power grid. Residents should have a say in local climate action. Berlin should work more closely with Brandenburg.

To pay for this, the climate pact with Berlin's state-owned companies would be carried out over its full term, supplemented by money from the federal special infrastructure fund. The districts would also get adequate funding for their climate measures. Citizens' assemblies chosen by lot and participatory budgets would be strengthened, and the mandate and resources of Berlin's Climate Protection Council expanded. The party supports a prompt end to coal use in Brandenburg. The effects of lignite mining on Berlin's water supply are to be reduced.

The Left wants at least 2 percent of buildings to undergo energy renovation each year, starting with the worst performers. Grants would be designed so that rent including heating does not rise afterward and no one is displaced. Coal, oil and gas heating systems would be replaced with climate-friendly ones as quickly as possible.

The Left wants to renovate more buildings so they use less energy. At least 2 percent of buildings should be done each year. Rent with heating costs should not go up afterward. Old coal, oil and gas heaters should be replaced quickly.

Public buildings would lead the way: renovation funding for them would rise significantly, and a dedicated program is planned for the worst-performing buildings of the state-owned housing companies. No more gas heating systems would be installed in public buildings. Landlords using state funding would have to provide a renovation roadmap and tenant counseling, among other things. Where legally possible, landlords would be required to use funding programs so that the modernization surcharge on rent falls. A central help desk would assist tenants in checking actual energy savings and weighing costs against benefits. Outside heating networks, the program sees electric solutions as the most efficient option in most cases.

The Left wants to implement municipal heat planning and the roadmap for fossil-free district heating, and to expand both district and local heating networks. From 2027, it would be determined where connection to a heating network will be possible. Heat is to be renewable, reliable and affordable.

The Left wants more district heating and local heating in Berlin. This heat comes into homes through pipes. From 2027, it should be clear where people can connect. A heat agency should advise people.

A heat agency would advise residents, alongside financial support. Districts would get more staff and money to develop neighborhood plans and involve residents. In areas still under review, the party wants clear guidance so that individual solutions do not make later networks more expensive. Outside the central network, neighborhood approaches and local heating networks would be supported and public buildings connected; sites for energy infrastructure would be secured. The state would push ahead with expanding the power grid and provide the necessary equity capital. Priority grid connection for essential public service facilities is under review.

The Left wants heat to come from a broad range of renewable sources and waste heat, such as geothermal energy, large heat pumps and wastewater. Burning wood and waste would play only a narrowly limited role because the party does not consider it climate neutral.

The Left wants heat from clean sources. These include heat from the ground, large heat pumps and heat from wastewater. Wood and trash should only be burned a little. New neighborhoods should be heated in a climate-neutral way.

Wood would be burned only to a very small extent, and only waste or damaged wood; for the Klingenberg plant, the party is looking for other solutions. Exploration of deep geothermal energy would be sped up, with more exploratory drilling backed by safeguards. More power-to-heat plants, which turn surplus green electricity into heat, and additional heat storage are planned. New development areas would be supplied in a climate-neutral way, for example through geothermal local heating or wastewater heat. Incineration of trash and organic waste would be limited to what is necessary, and nitrous oxide emissions from sewage sludge incineration reduced.

The Left wants solar panels on every suitable roof of public buildings by 2030 at the latest and more wind power, with residents and districts involved. It also wants the power grid better protected against outages following the attacks on it.

The Left wants more power from sun and wind. By 2030, public buildings should have solar panels on their roofs. Wind turbines should be built too. The power grid should become safer.

Compliance with the solar requirement for public roofs would be checked, and violations would have consequences. Obstacles to balcony solar units would be removed, and subsidies would favor low-income households more strongly. Wind turbines should go mainly in industrial areas, must not come at the expense of nature conservation, and districts would share in the profits. Stromnetz Berlin GmbH would get support for protective measures, along with emergency power, island grids, and battery storage for solar systems run by the municipal utility. Hydrogen should come only from renewables and be used only where direct electrification is not possible.

The Left wants to continue existing measures against energy poverty and against electricity and gas shutoffs, and to expand counseling. Through the Bundesrat, Berlin should push for socially tiered electricity prices and a ban on energy shutoffs.

Some people cannot pay for power and gas. The Left wants to help them. Nobody should have their power cut off. A basic amount of power should be cheap for everyone.

Energy debt counseling by the consumer advice center and other energy-saving advice services would be expanded. Low-income households would get more subsidies for efficient appliances. At the federal level, the party wants a low-cost basic allowance of electricity for everyone and a ban on shutoffs.

The Left wants to limit rising district heating costs so that heat stays affordable and the heating transition is accepted. It plans investment support, transparency requirements, price controls, and a price ceiling.

District heating is getting more expensive. The Left wants to limit the prices. Suppliers should show how prices are set. The state should check the prices.

The ceiling would be based on the cost of other ways of supplying heat and is meant to prevent monopoly pricing. With heat contracting, where an outside provider takes over a building's entire heat supply, the platform sees opaque pricing and too little tenant protection. The party wants to push at the federal level for clear, tenant-friendly rules on this.

The Left wants to remunicipalize or socialize the gas utility GASAG, provided the price is appropriate. Publicly owned energy companies would be reorganized and used to deliver a climate-neutral and socially fair energy supply.

The Left wants the state of Berlin to buy the gas company GASAG. But the price must be fair. The Berlin municipal utility should become its own company. Profits should go into grids and clean energy.

The Berliner Stadtwerke (municipal utility) would be split off from the water company and run as a separate enterprise. Profits of the energy companies would go mainly into grid expansion, renewables, and fighting energy poverty. The structure of the public energy sector would be reorganized, and all state-owned companies would work closely with the Stadtwerke. At Berliner Energie und Wärme (BEW), citizens and civil society would get a stronger say.

The Left wants Berlin to push in the Bundesrat for more federal climate action and funding and to have climate protection written into the Basic Law as a joint federal-state task. It also wants to abolish the modernization surcharge, which lets landlords pass renovation costs on to rent.

The Left wants more climate action from the federal government. Climate protection should be in the constitution. Landlords should no longer add renovation costs to the rent. People with little money should get more support.

The party wants better conditions for tenant electricity, meaning locally generated power delivered directly to tenants in the building. At the federal level, heating networks would be regulated more tightly, and their expansion and shift to climate-friendly sources would be subsidized. Subsidy programs would be tiered by income so that low and middle incomes benefit most.

The Left wants to raise the number of street trees in Berlin to one million by 2040 and introduce a heat protection plan with binding measures. It cites more hot days and drought, which hit disadvantaged groups especially hard.

Berlin is getting hotter and drier. The Left wants one million street trees by 2040. There should be a fixed plan to protect people from heat. Every neighborhood should have cool rooms.

The basis is the BäumePlus law; funding would come from the federal special fund and grant programs, and parking spaces would be used for trees if no other space is available. Compensation payments for felling trees would rise, parks departments would get more staff and money, and district maintenance yards and gardening units would be brought back under municipal control. The heat plan would differ by neighborhood, set uniform rules for districts, and be adequately funded. Structural heat protection would be mandatory in housing and in places such as hospitals, nursing homes, and prisons. Areas where cool air forms, such as Tempelhofer Feld, would stay undeveloped.