Offenbach wants to drastically reduce emissions

• fromEast Tinç

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The city of Offenbach is launching a new climate concept until 2035. The greatest pent-up demand is in the transport sector.

Get out of the coal by 2026, Tempo 40 on polluted roads and promote electromobility. These are just some of the more than 60 measures included in the city of Offenbach’s new climate concept, which the city council is due to vote on this Thursday. By 2035, CO2 emissions per capita are to be reduced from seven to four tons. “This is the necessary municipal contribution to limit the rise in global warming to two degrees Celsius,” the Greens write in a press release.

Create two new jobs

“We have regularly drawn up a CO2 balance and it is very clear that more efforts have to be made,” says Heike Hollerbach, the head of the environmental agency. Among other things, electricity consumption in the city has increased. The electricity generated in Offenbach produces significantly more greenhouse gas emissions than the German average due to the use of coal. In 2016 it was 1070 grams per kilowatt hour compared to 600 grams in the federal mix. Therefore, the city now wants to “use all legal and political options to end coal firing in Offenbach by 2026”.

The verdict in the climate concept on the subject of traffic is downright devastating: “In no traffic category have there been any clear positive trends to be seen in the last ten years, especially against the background of the expected increase in traffic volume due to population growth,” it says. Heike Hollerbach also demands that the transport sector now has to move. “It starts with the management of public spaces,” she says – both with parking space and with funding for cycle and pedestrian paths through to funding other climate-friendly forms of drive. Tempo 40 on busy roads is already being checked.

In addition, measures are to be taken against heavy rain and against the heat on buildings. “We have already seen twice that the S-Bahn stations were under water,” says Hollerbach. In addition, the Rhine-Main region is the region with the most heat deaths in Germany.

In order to stimulate and implement all the measures, two full-time positions are to be created. The funding for the climate adaptation manager will expire and will no longer be funded by the federal government. “It is assumed that all municipalities have long had this in their portfolio as a permanent task,” reports Hollerbach. “This means that we are missing out on a lot of funding because we cannot write applications, because nobody is there, we need to write them.” The city of Offenbach intends to provide 6.7 million euros for the implementation of the climate concept from 2021 to 2035.

“In order to continue to operate successful climate protection and a good climate adaptation strategy in Offenbach, the climate concept is essential,” says Sybille Schumann, the Greens’ top candidate for the local elections. The fact that it is available is a basic requirement for the development of funding that Offenbach urgently needs as a relatively financially weak municipality.

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