The parliamentary group of CSU and Free Voters accuses the town hall coalition of Greens and SPD of inaction on climate protection. According to a joint statement, “the green-red partners have so far hardly gotten beyond announcements or basic work”. “Climate change is coming. That’s why we need functioning climate protection measures and an effective and sustainable environmental protection policy here and now,” said CSU parliamentary group leader Manuel Pretzl. “The pure announcement, the hesitation and the setting of wrong priorities by the green-red town hall coalition and the city administration must therefore finally come to an end.”
The environmental policy spokesman for the CSU/Free Voters in the city council, Sebastian Schall, also criticizes the “announcement coalition” in the climate and environmental area: “In view of the urgency of climate change, we must finally take action. Passing resolutions is one thing – implementing it is another . Here we still see considerable room for improvement.”
The CSU and Free Voters have therefore submitted a package of inquiries to Mayor Dieter Reiter (SPD). In view of the shortage of skilled workers, especially in the areas of construction, energy-related renovation and heat and energy consulting, the opposition parties are asking themselves whether the political goals of having a climate-neutral city administration by 2030 and even the whole of Munich climate-neutral by 2035 are feasible – or are they “Current plans built on sand?”
“The mere announcement, the hesitation and the setting of wrong priorities must finally come to an end,” demands CSU faction leader Manuel Pretzl.
(Photo: Florian Peljak)
A year later, nothing was heard of the so-called climate bond, which was announced last summer by the then new Department for Climate and Environmental Protection (RKU). “A mirage?” Pretzl and his party friend Schall ask themselves. The neighborhood approach that the RKU, led by speaker Christine Kugler, presented a year and a half ago has not yet been implemented, although according to the CSU and Free Voters, this should start this year. In Munich, for example, it is to be examined in city districts how the climate protection goals can be implemented.
The climate budget of 500 million euros has not yet been touched
The opposition’s criticism goes even further. “With great pathos” the statutes for the implementation of socially just climate goals in Munich were passed in July 2021. A year later, Pretzl and Schall are wondering whether the climate statute only exists on paper. According to Manuel Pretzl, the climate budget of 500 million euros, which was budgeted for climate and environmental protection measures by the end of 2026, has not yet been touched – at least he does not know of any million euros that have been used from the pot. His conclusion: “Nothing happened at all.” The two parties accuse the climate protection officer Kugler of setting the wrong priorities. Work is being done on restructuring the management of the department instead of implementing urgent climate protection measures.
Despite all the criticism of the town hall coalition and the lack of communication between the department heads in the field of climate protection: Pretzl and Schall did not present any concrete proposals at the press conference on Wednesday. When asked by the SZ, CSU faction leader Pretzl said that he could certainly imagine the increased expansion of wind power in the Munich area, and that there was also a lot to do with photovoltaics on public roofs in the city.
Economics officer Clemens Baumgärtner (CSU) had already announced on Tuesday that it was “crucial” to “expand renewable energies quickly and massively”. The Munich CSU parliamentary group has long been in favor of a possible temporary extension of the service life of the Isar 2 nuclear power plant. Among other things, she encounters massive criticism from the Federal Nature Conservation Union.