The study by the Federal Environment Agency comes to significantly higher CO2 savings through a speed limit than the FDP report.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin The President of the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), Dirk Messner, reacted calmly to a report commissioned by the FDP parliamentary group on a general speed limit on motorways. “I’m very relaxed about it, also because our report was prepared by experts who don’t come from the Greens or the Environment Corner,” Messner told the Handelsblatt.
According to the FDP report by the transport economists Alexander Eisenkopf (Zeppelin University of Friedrichshafen) and Andreas Knorr (University of Speyer), a speed limit would save significantly less CO2 than previously assumed.
It states that “realistically” with a limit to 120 kilometers per hour CO2 savings of “maximum 1.1 million tons can be expected”. The UBA study published at the end of January, on the other hand, showed savings of 6.7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents.
Messner said that if a speed limit of 80 kilometers per hour were introduced on federal roads, a total of almost 50 million tons of CO2 emissions could be saved by 2030. “The speed limit would also have an important symbolic value: namely to show that things are being tackled.”
Messner called on Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) to give in on the issue. “I find it very irritating not to implement the speed limit, even though it costs almost nothing,” he said. Especially since the minister does not reach the goals set out in the Climate Protection Act. “He should initiate measures that bring us closer to the goals,” he said. “A speed limit is part of it – even if that’s not the whole solution.”
FDP opposes speed limits on German autobahns
The Climate Protection Act stipulates how much greenhouse gas must be saved by 2030. There is a reduction path for each sector. If a sector fails to meet the annual target, the responsible ministry must submit an emergency program within three months to get back on track.
>> Read here: Opinion: Minister Wissing violates the Climate Protection Act
For example, the transport sector may only emit 86 million tons of CO2 in 2030 instead of the current 150 million tons. However, emissions are currently increasing.
The FDP is firmly against a speed limit on German autobahns, the Greens and the SPD are in favour. Germany is the only country in Europe where there is no general speed limit on motorways. In the other EU countries, the maximum speed is usually 120 or 130 kilometers per hour.
The study by the FDP raises serious allegations against the Federal Environment Agency. The economists Eisenkopf and Knorr certify that the authority makes unrealistic assumptions and uses incorrect data sets.
The transport policy spokesman for the FDP, Bernd Reuther, told the “Bild am Sonntag” that the UBA study was “unscientific and deliberately misleading”. The report shows that clearly. The Federal Environment Agency “calculates the effects of speed limits that are demonstrably unsustainable and meaningless”.
The 361-page UBA study was carried out by experts from the Chair of Traffic Planning and Traffic Control Technology at the Institute for Roads and Transport (ISV) at the University of Stuttgart, the Institute for Roads and Transport (ISV) at the University of Graz and PTV Transport Consult GmbH created.
The “Welt am Sonntag” had reported that the expertise should have cost 200,000 euros. “This number is wrong,” UBA boss Messner dismissed the report. “The entire study cost around 435,000 euros, with the calculations for the speed limit only accounting for a comparatively small part of the budget.”
More: Why Germany is stepping out of line when it comes to the speed limit