Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) signed the Climate Pact 2030 investment package together with 22 state-owned companies on Tuesday. It involves “huge sums of money, crazy numbers,” praised Wegner.
In fact, the sum of around 15 billion euros is a novelty in Berlin’s climate policy, after the current black-red government has not exactly stood out for its climate policy commitment. The joint declaration by the state of Berlin and the state-owned companies is “a clear commitment to a sustainable Berlin,” says Wegner. Of the 15 billion euros, the Senate contributes 2.3 from the state budget as its own contribution. The companies take out the rest of the sum as a loan.
According to the Senate, one focus of the capital injections is electricity supply. The greatest decarbonization effects are to be expected there, according to the press release. The district heating company Berliner Energie undwärme is to receive 550 million euros by 2030. This will make Berlin’s electricity generation “largely self-sufficient,” said Environment Senator Ute Bonde (CDU).
A main focus of the investments is also “the performance and protection of the power grid,” says Bonde. 500 million euros went to Berlin Energie und Netzholding, the operator of the electricity network, so that it would no longer be so dependent on external factors in the future. This is how politicians react also to the massive power outage at the beginning of the year.
Win-Win-Situation
Appropriations also go to the Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) with a total of 465.9 million euros and to the municipal real estate company Gewobag with 113 million euros. Stefan Evers (CDU), Senator for Finance, describes investments in the real estate sector as a “win-win situation”. The climate pact should “also do something for tenants”. In addition, the Berlin pools and the municipal health system, together with Vivantes and the Charité, will receive donations totaling almost 6 million euros, which “Berliners will notice in the end”.
With the “billion-dollar” investment package, the Senate wants to make it clear: “Climate protection is also an investment in Berlin as a business location,” says the press release. In fact, the climate benefits of some projects are questionable. The planned switch from hard coal to charcoal in the Reuter West thermal power plant is also taking place as part of the “energetic transformation”. That charcoal should be used as an interim solution when phasing out coal, even though burning wood causes more emissionsexplains the operator BEW with reference to “different calculation methods”: the balance is central, not the actual CO₂-emissions.
However, a positive balance depends on the origin of the wood, which BEW has already concluded contracts to secure. The wood to be used should mostly be “residual forest wood” that cannot be used for any other purpose, explains BEW press spokeswoman Caroline Nöppert to the taz. Meanwhile, the CEOs and politicians present toast the signed deal with champagne flutes.