Climate-neutral Bundeswehr By 2030, please also upgrade to green

Climate-neutral Bundeswehr by 2030: Please also upgrade to green! There is a dispute about the expensive military training of the Bundeswehr But it should soon also be CO2-neutral.

Doesn't that cost billions? Not only the tank is interesting for the Bundeswehr climate goal, but also the hall behind it Photo: David Inderlied/Imago BERLIN taz | The federal administration is under particular pressure when it comes to the German climate protection and sustainability goals: it should be climate-neutral by 2030, 15 years earlier than the whole of Germany The traffic light coalition set this goal in the Climate Protection Act.

And the Bundeswehr is part of the federal administration In order for this to be able to meet the requirements, billions of investments are necessary.

However, it is still unclear how high the need is and where the money will come from The problem is the building sector, which accounts for 40 percent of national greenhouse gas emissions.

To date, the Bundeswehr has owned around 1,500 properties and around 33,000 buildings And the stock could still grow, because due to the ongoing military expansion, further command buildings, camps and accommodation will be necessary.

According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior and Homeland, more than half of the current federal construction projects are of a military nature 40 percent went to the Bundeswehr, 15 percent to partner armies.

At least the buildings for the Bundeswehr must be raised or renovated in a climate-neutral manner This requires new building materials and better insulation.

In addition, the buildings must also be operated sustainably According to the Bundeswehr's sustainability report published at the end of last year, solar systems and geothermal energy are the methods of choice here.

Concrete figures are missing Otherwise, the report is not of much help when it comes to how and at what cost the Bundeswehr intends to create the ambitious targets - it is characterized by the effort to piece together figures and reference values ​​to form a positive picture of the situation Just one example: In order for reductions in emissions to sound as impressive as possible, they are always compared with base years that were before the downsizing rounds of the armed forces, around 1990 or 2005.

The Bundeswehr's infrastructure projects are implemented by the building authorities of the federal states Planning and control are the responsibility of the Federal Office for Infrastructure, Environmental Protection and Services of the Bundeswehr (IUD) in Bonn.

But even there, nobody knows how high the costs will be to make the properties climate-neutral by 2030 In 2023, the Bundeswehr will invest a little more than one billion euros in the construction sector, said an IUD spokesman for the taz.

"The extended targets set by the federal government mean that a large number of construction measures have to be reconsidered in terms of planning This is currently taking place and represents a very complex planning challenge.

” Up to 23 billion euros extra However, the IUD apparently has doubts that the goal can be achieved at all After all, energy-efficient construction depends on the "performance of the building authorities, the availability of building materials and the corresponding capacities in the construction industry".

A forecast is therefore "not possible under the current market conditions" so the spokesman.

After all, there is a rough outlook in the "Federal Buildings Master Plan" of the Interior Ministry for 2021 It states that the annual federal construction volume of 3 billion euros must be increased by 2 to 3 billion euros per year in the future, with the Bundeswehr's share of this amounting to 40 percent .

This would bring the armed forces to a whopping 19 to 23 billion euros by the end of the decade Ancillary construction costs - such as fees for architects and experts as well as building supervision - are not even included.

These usually make up a third of the total costs, but this part of the cost is higher for special needs of the Bundeswehr, such as security standards General contractors also demand surcharges of 20 percent and more.

For example, the Bundeswehr has the Büchel air base modernized for the upcoming F35 fighter jets that are to replace the Tornado fleet In addition, the expansion of electromobility at the Bundeswehr locations is pending.

According to the Bundeswehr's sustainability report, there are currently 300 charging points, and 2,700 are to be created by 2025 However, the legally formulated requirement is 30,000 charging stations, according to the report.

Critical report expected When the government took office, the traffic light coalition had agreed on a “critical review of the Bundeswehr of the future” In the still unapproved draft of the Defense Ministry, which is available to the taz, the military planners calculate that an investment volume of 24 billion euros will be necessary for the infrastructure area.

An extra 20 billion euros would have to be added for the implementation of the climate and sustainability goals The defense budget, with its 50 billion euros, which the medium-term financial planning provides, does not reflect this immense need.

If there are no extra funds to achieve the goal of climate neutrality, the rising costs will compete with investments in military upgrades These are not good prerequisites for an army that is currently being made militarily fit again.

The Bundeswehr was partly saved over three decades, partly it budgeted poorly, mainly because of its procurement system, which was in need of reform In the meantime, even 100 billion euros in special funds are only start-up financing to tackle renewals.

Example ammunition: The Bundeswehr has stated here that to have a need of 20 billion euros in order to sustainably replenish their stocks But there was no more room in the special fund.

But the defense budget is also too small He has only budgeted 10 billion euros for the entire armaments investment.

The Climate Protection Act stipulates that the federal administration must present a program of measures in the current year on how it intends to achieve the climate goals It was developed by the Coordination Office for the Climate-Neutral Federal Administration, which is based in the Federal Ministry of Economics.

For this purpose, it has set up so-called innovation teams made up of officials and experts, including for mobility and real estate The Bundeswehr is also represented in each of these teams.

This program is currently still being coordinated by the departments When it can be decided is still unclear,.