Berlin The new federal government obviously wants to forego the transport sector achieving its climate targets every year in the future. At the presentation of the annual climate report, the State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics, Patrick Graichen, explained that “structural measures are necessary” so that the transport sector, like the building sector, can achieve its climate targets – by 2030. In future, the “leitmotif” will be: “What Do the measures that have been decided have an impact, and are they sufficient?”
According to the Climate Protection Act, Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) must now submit an emergency program within three months in order to achieve the goals again in the following years. The government wants to present an “Easter package” and a “summer package” for climate protection. But it no longer seems to be about achieving goals in the short term, as Climate Secretary Graichen hinted. Instead, the coalition of SPD, Greens and FDP should focus on the 2030 goal.
Drive slower voluntarily
Even the President of the Federal Environment Agency, Dirk Messner, did not insist on immediate measures, which could include a general speed limit. Rather, he referred to the voluntariness of the citizens: if everyone would only drive 100 kilometers per hour on the motorway and 80 on country roads, then “five million tons” of CO2 could be saved immediately, said Messner.
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By 2030, the government is already calculating, the sector will emit 270 million tons more than actually planned. This emerges from the projection report of the government. In it, she had assumed that the sector would emit around seven million tons too much in 2021. In view of the corona crisis, it has become less.
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The current value is lower, said Federal Environment Agency President Messner. But the structural problems still exist, so the “electrification of transport” is absolutely necessary. Graichen emphasized that in the transport sector there was “great pressure to act because it takes time to reduce emissions in these areas”. So it is important to initiate short-term measures that will have a medium-term effect. This includes, for example, expanding the railways.
The new line plays into the hands of Transport Minister Wissing, as does the fact that there is no longer any talk of a generally mandatory speed limit. The Greens had called for a speed limit, but the FDP had always rejected it and enforced it in the coalition agreement.
Measures cost more than 100 billion euros
Minister Wissing had all the measures already known and collected in the National Platform for the Future of Mobility compiled in his office that can be used to save CO2: These include tax incentives, special depreciation for electric cars, the expansion of charging stations, fleet limits for car manufacturers, incentives to buy and fleet modernization programs for example with buses and trucks. The measures should help to save 41 million tons in the medium term. The costs of the numerous support measures are said to amount to more than 100 billion euros.
A CO2-based truck toll alone is a burden for users. EU law allows them from 2023, in Germany the technical requirements should be in place by 2024. With it, the federal government could take in more than six billion euros.
Wissing never tires of emphasizing that as Minister of Transport he is responsible for enabling mobility. “In order to achieve the climate protection goals in the transport sector, we are working flat out to expand the charging infrastructure and to promote alternative drives in the transport industry. We want to decarbonize traffic in order to become less dependent on fossil fuels,” said a spokeswoman when asked. It was also said that the ministry was “introducing appropriate measures into the ongoing coordination on the immediate climate protection program so that the cross-sectoral national climate protection target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 65 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels can be achieved together.” .
In addition to the modernization of commercial vehicle fleets, the ministry is focusing on hydrogen in heavy goods traffic. Wissing also wants to shift traffic to rail and invest accordingly more in local and long-distance rail transport, which, however, costs not only money but above all time.
Car manufacturers should build more electric cars
Graichen, on the other hand, relies primarily on electrification, which includes more charging stations and a larger range from car manufacturers. He demanded of BMW, Daimler, Volkswagen and Co.: “The scarce chips should be installed in electric cars. We have a supply problem.” However, manufacturers are not yet making any money with e-cars, but they are making money with combustion engines.
By 2030, 15 million e-cars are supposed to be on the roads, but even that will only help to achieve half of the specified CO2 savings. At the same time, Graichen still sees “great savings potential in road freight transport”. He recommended to all transport companies, including those who recently bought gas-powered vehicles on political recommendation and can no longer drive economically in view of the skyrocketing prices: “Next time it should be an electric truck.” He announced that the budget 2022 to want to renegotiate reduced subsidies for the purchase of environmentally friendly commercial vehicles. Since a supplementary budget is planned in view of the Ukraine war, renegotiations are still being made accordingly. “We need to take action,” said Graichen.
Criticism came from the Agora Verkehrswende think tank. Deputy Director Wiebke Zimmer called for an immediate programme. “So far, the traffic light coalition has primarily made it clear what it does not want to do in traffic for climate protection: It is against a speed limit on motorways and also against a tightening of the CO2 fleet limits for cars beyond the EU Commission’s proposal,” criticized Room. “But sticking rigidly to the coalition agreement will not be enough for the climate protection goals.”
More: “Motivate people to think” – Wissing wants to achieve climate goals together with the citizens