Lower Saxony passes climate protection law

On Wednesday, December 9, 2020, the Lower Saxony state parliament passed what Lower Saxony's Environment and Climate Protection Minister Olaf Lies called a "very important and groundbreaking" law: With the Lower Saxony Climate Act, the topic of climate protection is anchored in the state constitution, the state-wide energy demand is to be completely covered by renewable energies by 2040 and Lower Saxony commits to climate neutrality by 2050. Lies: "With this, we have a law that does justice to the importance of climate protection as the central social task for the coming years and decades. It sets an important course for the future. This is what this state government and the parliamentary groups that support it stand for - setting realistic goals that can also be implemented. We are setting standards and probably have the most ambitious climate law in the whole of Germany! We are consistently pursuing our goal of making Lower Saxony the No. 1 climate protection state. We are already the No. 1 energy state, and we will also achieve this in climate protection!"

The full speech by the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change:

19:26 min, 9/12/2020.

The goal is to cover 100 percent of the energy demand in Lower Saxony with renewable energies by 2040. "To achieve this, we need a massive acceleration in the expansion of wind energy and photovoltaics that exceeds the best expansion year of the last 20 years many times over - and we need to do this consistently and permanently until 2040. This is an enormous challenge, but it is urgently necessary. The Federal Government must now set the right course for this in the Renewable Energy Sources Act," said Lies.

In addition, Lower Saxony could become a driver of innovation in climate protection, the Minister emphasized: "Through strong, courageous companies, through motivated, well-trained employees, through a functioning and trusting social partnership - employers and trade unions will go hand in hand here - I am convinced of that - and last but not least through a state government that has its sights firmly set on the future of Lower Saxony and creates incentives." With the programme of measures for energy and climate protection alone, which was recently approved by the cabinet, the state government is investing more than one billion euros. Lies: "And it is doing so in order to invest well in the future - among other things in climate-friendly mobility, in the energy refurbishment of our buildings, in solar technology, in hydrogen or the transition to a greenhouse gas-neutral economy. This will create additional demand, which in turn will contribute to higher production and employment - in the skilled trades, in the construction industry or in manufacturing."

What is always needed is "a clever mix of different instruments", which has been achieved with the present programme. In future, the programme of measures will be integrated into a comprehensive climate protection strategy for Lower Saxony.

"State objective, climate law and climate protection strategy: this is Lower Saxony's climate path," said Lies, "our contribution to national and international climate protection targets and the engine for our business and industrial location. We are already the No. 1 energy state in Germany. Now we have the legal basis to also become the No. 1 climate protection country. We don't just want to be on the climate protection train, we want to be the locomotive. We owe that to future generations. They have just as much right as we do to a habitable planet - also in the future."

Links
Download the draft version
www.niedersachsen.de/download/116752
Information from the Climate and Energy Agency of Lower Saxony (KEAN)
www.klimaschutz-niedersachsen.de/themen/klimaschutz/klimaschutz-in-niedersachsen.php
Comment from 10. 12. 2020
https://taz.de/Niedersachsen-bekommt-Klimaschutzgesetz/!5730550/

Keywords: Movies, Movies 11 to 45 Min, Climate protection, News Blog Lower Saxony, Environmental policy

Published 1 November 2019

89% of citizens want renewables

Berlin, 18 October 2019 - Hardly any other topic has been as prominent in recent months as climate protection. A major building block in stopping man-made climate change is the implementation of the energy transition. "Renewable energies can make a huge contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Germany, in the electricity, transport and heating sectors," says Dr Robert Brandt, Managing Director of the Renewable Energy Agency (AEE). "The German population knows how important renewables are for this. Our new acceptance survey shows that people want the energy transition."

In the current representative survey of the Agency for Renewable Energies (AEE), which was conducted by the opinion research institute YouGov*, nine out of ten citizens (89 percent) are in favour of greater use of renewable energies in Germany. 66 percent even stated that the increased use and expansion of renewable energies was very and extremely important.

Only six per cent consider them to be less important or not important at all. "Citizens have clearly positioned themselves on the role of renewables in the climate issue," says AEE Managing Director Dr Robert Brandt: "Renewable energies are the most important part of the solution."

The approval of renewable energies is also reflected in the fact that 64 per cent of respondents would find it very good or somewhat good if renewable energy plants were located in their neighbourhood. This figure is only eight per cent for coal and nuclear power plants. "It is particularly remarkable that approval even increases if the respondents already have experience with these plants in their neighbourhood," says Brandt. For example, support for a solar park in one's own neighbourhood increases from 66 to 78 percent if there is already a solar park in the immediate vicinity. This positive effect can also be seen with wind energy and biogas plants.

The results of the 2019 acceptance survey clearly show that the German population is far more open to change than is generally assumed.

A total of around 6.4 billion euros was invested in the expansion and maintenance of the electricity grid in 2018. Although there have been protests against the construction of new overland power lines in recent months, overall acceptance of their expansion is very high.

86 per cent of respondents consider the expansion of overland power lines to be important or very and extremely important. For only eight per cent, this is less or not at all important.

However, it is not only electricity generation for private households that is crucial for the implementation of a successful energy transition in the fight against climate change, but also for industry. After all, final energy consumption for electricity totalled 530 billion kilowatt hours in 2017. 57 per cent of citizens surveyed believe that solar energy is the best source for industrial electricity, while 45 per cent consider offshore to be ideal. "Our acceptance survey this year shows that the majority of citizens are behind renewable energies," summarises Brandt. "We can and must show the renewables sector with words and deeds that the German population and politicians recognise and value their role in the much-needed energy transition."

Methodology

The AEE acceptance survey is a Germany-wide, population-representative survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of the Agency for Renewable Energies. A total of 1,003 people aged 18 and over were surveyed online. The survey was conducted between 10 and 13 September.

*This year, the Agency for Renewable Energies has changed the survey institute and the type of survey for its acceptance survey: Instead of the telephone survey by Kantar Emnid among people aged 16 and over, the online survey by YouGov was now conducted among people aged 18 and over. In this respect, comparability with the results from previous years is not readily possible.

Keywords:
100% EEs, Stakeholders, DE-News, Renewable, Climate protection, New books and studies, Transition Town, Environmental policy

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