Offenbach: CO2 emissions are falling too slowly

• fromJonas Nonnenmann

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The energy balance of the city of Offenbach is mixed. For the next few years the city council has set itself more ambitious goals.

The city’s energy and greenhouse gas balance for the period 2017 to 2019 is sobering. For Offenbach, it shows “a clear need for action”, as stated in a communication from the municipal authorities.

Since 2011, the first year after the shutdown of the chemical industry in the industrial park, emissions have fallen by 15 percent, according to the report (compared to 2005 it is 35 percent less). The city’s voluntary commitment to reduce emissions by 10 percent every five years was “only just barely” complied with, according to Environment Department Head Paul-Gerhard Weiß (FDP).

The fact that a coal-fired power station is still running in the city is of little help. This is one of the reasons why the emissions from the Offenbach electricity mix are well above the national average. The share of renewable energies in Offenbach was only six percent in 2019. The value has hardly changed since 2010; More solar modules were installed, but at the same time the generation of electricity from hydropower was cut back due to species protection requirements.

Main problem traffic

According to statistics, the largest share of energy consumption in Offenbach is traffic, which was responsible for 38 percent of final energy consumption in 2019 – above all “motorized individual traffic”, i.e. cars. Emissions from traffic have stagnated for ten years. Offenbach’s balance sheet is a little better when you consider that the population increased by 18 percent from 2005 to 2019. Therefore, the fact that the final energy consumption of households has hardly changed in ten years means an improvement in the per capita values.

The emissions of the economy have also decreased by 31 percent since 2011. In the current energy report, the city recognizes that the previous savings target is not sufficient to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees. The city has therefore set itself new goals, according to the report – the current value of around seven tons of CO2 emissions per person is to be reduced by one ton every five years in the future. This would mean that the city would be CO2-neutral in 2055 – provided that the requirements are met. Heike Hollerbach, Head of the Office for the Environment, Climate Protection and Energy, sums it up: “The way things are currently going cannot go on in the long term”.

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