On a bridge over the Landwehrkanal in Berlin, a team of climate activists reminds citizens of the climate referendum that will take place on Sunday. In the first spring sun, passers-by seem susceptible to the enthusiasm of the campaigning foursome. They stop to accept the bright green-red-blue flyer, or express their support – one of them just received an ice cream from a supporter.
However, much remains to be done to make the referendum a success. It only succeeds if 25 percent of the eligible voters in the city vote ‘yes’. “So the most important thing is that we get people to the polls,” says activist Jessamine Davis.
That is why several teams of activists are on the street somewhere in Berlin every day. “I’ve calculated that I’ve spoken to regarding 20,000 people so far,” she laughs. Davis joined Klimaneustart Berlin in 2021, just as this citizens’ initiative decided to force a change of law through a referendum.
The climate activists want the city to become climate neutral as early as 2030 and not, as planned, in 2045. Climate neutral means that the city may not produce more greenhouse gases than it can reduce. The bill was drawn up in consultation with experts and lawyers and makes the climate plans binding.
Expensive plan
In general, Berliners react positively to the referendum, the activists on the bridge note. 25-year-old activist Liz Steinwandel joined following she herself was approached on the street by a campaigner. The student in ecological sustainability was already involved with the climate at a young age. “I found it frustrating at the time that others didn’t seem to really care,” she says. But here in Berlin it is different now. “I think it’s great that we can all make a difference together. It is within reach.”
However, there is also opposition to the bill. The plan is hugely expensive. The activists themselves estimate 113 billion euros, some estimates are higher. The plan is therefore called ‘unfeasible’ in politics and business. Except for the Greens, who recently made a turn, all political parties are once morest the bill.
In the ‘unlucky capital of Berlin’, renovations can take decades, and the city also suffers from a shortage of workers and a limited budget. Felix Creutzig, physicist and professor of sustainability economics at the Technical University in Berlin, also calls the plan unrealistic. “My criticism is that this goal is extremely ambitious and very difficult to achieve,” he says.
The climate goal that the city has already set itself seems sufficient to him: 70 percent less greenhouse gas emissions in 2030 compared to 1990 and climate neutral in 2045. “You can probably bring it forward a few years, but that seems a more reasonable goal to me .”
Energy transition seems feasible
The amendment to the law by Klimaneustart should oblige the Berlin government to take action in three sectors: transport, energy and the city’s buildings. Creutzig is not worried regarding the feasibility of the plans for the energy transition. “It is well organized by the Ministry of Economy at the federal level,” he says.
The city can rely on the spacious surrounding state of Brandenburg for wind energy. “In addition, Berlin itself has a good strategy in the field of solar panels.” According to Creutzig, it will be more difficult to make buildings in Berlin climate-friendly. “Renovating large buildings like universities takes at least a decade,” he says.
The city will also have to build heat pumps to organize the heating of the gas-dependent city. This requires the necessary financing, planning and infrastructure. But setting up such a project takes a lot of time, because the Berlin administration is struggling with a shortage of staff, complicated bureaucratic processes and a lack of digitization. “If that can be solved, it might speed up the process by two to three years.”
Political resistance
Creutzig also foresees problems in the Verkehrswende, the traffic transition. “This is the only sector where greenhouse gas emissions are actually increasing,” he says. “Here we need a radical policy. The easiest would be a ban on cars with a combustion engine in the city, so that only electric cars are allowed to drive.”
But such a policy runs counter to the views of parties such as the CDU, which stands up for motorists and became the largest party in the elections in Berlin in February. And that, according to Creutzig, is ultimately the underlying problem. “There is a broad consensus that we have to meet the climate goals,” he says. “But when we talk regarding specific tools, that we have to do A to achieve B, you encounter great political resistance.”
Claudia Kemfert, professor of energy economics, thinks that the bill from Klimaneusstart will remove political stumbling blocks. “Regardless of which party is in power, what discussions and interests are involved, they have to do it,” says Kemfert. “Because if this referendum succeeds, it will be enshrined in law. That is of course never a guarantee in politics. But at least they can’t get around it anymore. Party interests are no longer the most important thing.”
Stuck on ideology
She cites the traffic transition as an example. That debate has stalled on ideology, “while it makes a lot of sense in a city like Berlin to shift the focus from the car to public transport.” According to her, the city needs safer and wider cycle paths. “It’s not difficult and it’s not expensive either,” says Kemfert. No new highways should be built and the range of electric shared cars should increase. “That is all achievable. That is why we now have to put pressure on politicians.”
Kemfert thinks that the amendment will create more clarity. “We have climate targets in Germany, but we have not determined what this means for each region, for example how many emissions each city can emit,” says Kemfert. Berlin, like other German cities, has set itself climate goals. “But it is too late, too little and not binding enough,” she says. “There is a great lack of ambition.”
According to the activists of Klimaneustart, the city therefore has an ambitious moonshot-mindset necessary, referring to the American moon landing. Under pressure from the competition with the Soviet Union, that country managed to send the Apollo 11 to the moon in seven years, instead of the planned ten years. If it really has to be done, much more will turn out to be possible than previously thought, the activists argue.
One-on-one conversations
And on the street, people change their minds every day, the four activists on the Kreuzberg bridge notice. “There are people who have certain fears, regarding the energy crisis, or a ban on cars,” says Davis. One-on-one conversations help enormously, she says. “We make it clear that there is no climate justice without social justice.”
“We want to make it clear that we will not deprive them of cars without making public transport so accessible, comfortable and usable that they no longer need their car.”
Such conversations have an immediate effect: “The day before yesterday, a colleague spoke with an older woman for 15 minutes,” she says. “She had already written in her agenda: don’t forget to vote ‘no’ on Sunday. But following the conversation with my colleague, she crossed out ‘no’ and wrote down ‘yes’.”
Despite his objections, Professor Creutzig also voted in favor of the bill on Sunday. “A ‘no’ implies that people don’t want to do climate protection,” he says. “Then it is easy for political parties to put it all off the table. So voting once morest is not really an option.”
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