Less than nine years before the state administration was to become climate-neutral, the state government did not have any data on its carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. “Corresponding statistics are not yet available, but are to be compiled within the framework of the implementation of a climate-neutral state administration,” said a response from the Environment Ministry to a request from the FDP parliamentary group. There is also no uniform recording of CO₂ emissions for the ministries and downstream authorities. “The state government is diligently setting ambitious goals for climate neutrality, but has no idea how much greenhouse gases it has to save,” commented the environmental policy spokesman for the Landtag FDP, Christoph Skutella, on the answer. In flight blind, Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) could never achieve his goals of reforming the Free State by 2040 and the administration in a climate-neutral way by 2030.
According to the answer, only the Ministry of the Environment has been preparing its CO₂ balance as part of a pilot project since 2018 and offsetting the emissions by purchasing certificates from the Chinese program for “clean biogas for smallholder households” in Sichuan. Accordingly, emissions in 2018 were 630 tonnes of CO₂ and 587 tonnes of CO₂ in 2019. The largest item, each with around 340 tons of CO₂, was caused by heating. At the same time, the ministry emphasizes that the goal of a climate-neutral state administration will not only continue to apply until 2030 – it is even “intended to achieve the climate-neutral state administration in the Free State much earlier”. For this purpose, energetic building renovations and the installation of photovoltaic systems on the property were carried out. With regard to electricity consumption and the supply of heat to the ministries, there were “no significant changes”.
© SZ from 07/12/2021 / dpa