The district of Munich intends to spend 1.24 million euros on CO2 offsetting in the future.
An investment that the District Treasurer considers “very significant”.
District – The district of Munich has been voluntarily offsetting its CO2 footprint since 2020 by purchasing climate protection certificates.
This year, 860,000 euros have been earmarked for this in the budget: This will compensate for emissions that the district office generates in its administration, through the vehicle fleet or the journey of employees to work, and that arise in the secondary schools and also in the accommodation for asylum seekers.
In addition, there are the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the 29 cities and municipalities, as well as emissions from public transport.
The district is now going one step further and wants to spend even more money on offsetting greenhouse gases in the coming years: emissions from waste disposal and the construction of public buildings, such as schools, are also to be offset.
For the year 2023, the district would then pay 1.24 million euros.
The Committee on Energy Transition, Agriculture and the Environment unanimously approved this sum in a preliminary consultation.
Now the district council still has to decide on December 12th.
Investment "very significant"
So far, the district treasurer has paid 10 euros for one tonne of CO2.
In the future she will pay twice as much.
As reported, the district will start the “Future Plus Campaign” from 2023, which it will oversee together with the Ebersberg-Munich Energy Agency and in which the Ebersberg district will also participate.
With the purchase of Future Plus certificates, climate protection projects in the district and worldwide are to be supported.
In the future, the energy agency will sell online one certificate per tonne of CO2 at a price of 20 euros.
The money that authorities, companies and citizens pay in is used, for example, to plant native, climate-stable trees in the Unterdill district in Forstenrieder Park.
While district administrator Christoph Göbel and the district councils want to do justice to their role model function by offsetting bad greenhouse gas emissions with good climate conditions, district treasurer Markus Kaspar sees the matter critically for professional reasons: “The CO2 compensation is a purely voluntary issue that so far only a few authorities have done so,” he writes in the memo.
He considers an increase to 1.2 million euros to be “very considerable” and advises staying at 860,000 euros, which is “quite extensive”.
More news from the district of Munich can be found here.