In a letter to Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP), the Bund Naturschutz (BN) demands that plans for the expansion of the B 12 between Buchloe and Kempten be removed from the Federal Transport Route Plan. The federal highway is to be expanded to four lanes, but the latest calculations by the Federal Ministry of Transport have shown that this will result in more than 25,000 tons of additional annual CO₂ emissions – the expansion would be the lower after the expansion of the A 8 between Munich and Salzburg Environmental aspects considered the second most damaging road construction project in Bavaria. “We are calling for all Federal Transport Routes Plan projects to be stopped that have a negative climate balance,” says BN State Commissioner Martin Geilhufe. “Since the B-12 expansion between Buchloe and Kempten has a particularly negative climate balance, the planning must be ended immediately.” When calculating the emissions, interventions in carbon sinks, i.e. in forests or soil, which would result in expansion, are not even taken into account. The cost of the project is estimated at 270 million euros, with conservationists fearing massive increases in construction costs. The Bund Naturschutz is already collecting money for a possible lawsuit.
Bund Naturschutz criticizes the expansion of the B 12 in the Allgäu – Bavaria
