SPD on climate and energy

The SPD wants to continue the energy transition while keeping energy prices affordable for businesses and households. To that end it calls for a broad cap on grid fees, a lower electricity tax and digitalized grids.

The SPD wants more power from wind and sun. Power should still be affordable. So the cost of using the power grid should be limited. The tax on electricity should also go down.

The program holds that renewables are the cheapest way to generate power. Bioenergy and storage are to take priority over gas, which the SPD calls expensive. Surplus power would be stored to balance peak demand and periods without wind or sun. Low generation costs should reach customers quickly, for example through subsidized local direct purchase agreements. For the heating transition, the SPD relies on citizen participation, energy cooperatives, community power and energy sharing.

The SPD wants more of the profits from wind and solar plants to stay in the state. A state program would help municipalities invest in renewables and set up county utilities (Kreiswerke); low-income renters would get subsidies for balcony solar units.

The SPD wants towns and counties to make their own wind and solar power. The state should give them money for this. Then the profits stay in the region. Renters with little money should get help to buy small solar units for their balcony.

The program argues that returns from wind and solar plants have often gone to investors from outside the region. Municipal ownership is meant to raise acceptance and ease the burden on households. Low-income renters would receive support for balcony solar units and storage. For the heating transition, the SPD wants funding and guarantee instruments that lower capital costs for municipal companies. Deep geothermal energy is to be used more through better data and risk coverage.

The SPD wants a state climate protection law with fixed pathways for cutting greenhouse gases. It is meant to make targets verifiable and give municipalities, business and society planning certainty. The burdens are to be shared in a socially fair way.

The SPD wants a climate protection law for the state. It says how much greenhouse gases must fall. That way people can check the goals. People with little money should not carry more of the burden than others.

The law is to set reduction pathways for greenhouse gas emissions and disclose responsibilities and progress. According to the platform, burdens must not fall mainly on low-income households. The Ressortplan KLIMA (ministries' climate plan) is to continue in the next legislative term. The state wants to make its own buildings climate neutral and install photovoltaics wherever possible. The SPD sees climate protection as the foundation of industry and jobs, not as their opposite.

The SPD wants to gradually set up a climate fund that pays for measures to adapt to heat, heavy rain and drought. Municipalities are to get technical and financial help with climate protection, heat planning and heat action plans.

There is more heat, heavy rain and drought. The SPD wants to build a climate fund for this. That is a pot of money for protective measures. Cities and towns should get help from the state.

Statewide monitoring of climate change, open data and forward-looking planning are meant to reveal risks early. Building measures against heat are to be subsidized; the platform points to lighter surfaces on buildings and squares as an effective and often cost-neutral tool. Municipalities are also to get support in protecting green spaces in town and with clean-air and noise plans. Reusing land is to take priority over sealing new ground. Digital planning tools are to be initiated.