Citizens' initiative Get out of the coal

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The aim of the citizens ' initiative Get out of the coal is the early exit from coal burning in Block II of the Munich North thermal power station in 2022. The citizens' initiative was initiated in 2015 by the city councils of the ÖDP Munich, who had already made this demand during coalition negotiations for the 2014 local elections. The legal representative of the citizens' initiative was Michael Schabl, later candidate for the 2018 Munich state parliament for the ÖDP.

From the announcement of the 2015 Paris Climate Conference to the submission of signatures in June 2017, over 52,000 signatures were collected. The necessary quorum of 3% of Munich's eligible voters for a referendum was thus exceeded. Since the city council rejected the referendum, the implementation of a referendum was scheduled. On November 5, 2017, the people of Munich decided in a referendum in favor of the early shutdown of Block II in the Munich North thermal power station in 2022. The referendum was successful as the quorum of at least 10% positive votes was achieved. 60.4% of the EU citizens eligible to vote in Munich voted for the referendum.

Get out of coal alliance

The initiators of the referendum were the councilors of the ÖDP Munich Tobias Ruff and Sonja Haider, as well as the Munich ÖDP chairman and later initiator of the referendum for biodiversity and natural beauty in Bavaria "Save the bees", Thomas Prudlo, and his deputy at the time Klaus von Birgelen. Campaign manager and legal representative is Michael Schabl, the later District Councilor Markus Raschke is his deputy. Michael Schabl, later Munich state parliament candidate in 2018 for the ÖDP, is also the spokesman and legal representative of the citizens' initiative.

The alliance was founded in 2015 by the ÖDP Munich. In the meantime, over 75 other partners have joined the alliance and its demands.

In addition to the ÖDP Munich, the LINKE Munich, the Environmental Institute Munich , the non-profit non-governmental organization Protect the Planet , GreenCity eV , Fossil Free , Extinction Rebellion and Attac Munich are important sponsors . After two years of rejection of the referendum because of the withdrawal date, the Munich Greens also joined the alliance in July 2017.

In July 2019, the Climate Protection Alliance Munich-Must-Act also joined the demands. The alliance and its 500 supporters stand behind the 32 demands of Fridays for Future for Munich with regard to the [City Council election 2020]

Justification of the referendum

Citizens' decision - result
11/5/2017
60.4%
39.6%
Yes No

In the cogeneration plant Munich North (HKW Nord) of Stadtwerke München approximately 800,000 tonnes annually of coal burned. 40% of this coal comes from the Czech Republic and 60% from a mixture of North American and Russian coal. According to the information provided by the Federal Environment Agency, the incineration in the entire HKW Nord with units 1 and 3 leads to a release into the air of 2.57 million tons of CO 2 , as well as nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides, nitrous oxides and mercury in the 2015 reporting year considerable scope. In comparison, traffic in Munich only caused CO 2 emissions of 1.219 million t CO 2 in 2014, or 15% of the total CO 2 emissions of the state capital of Munich.

Referendum on November 5, 2017

The referendum took place on November 5, 2017. The question on the ballot was “Are you in favor of Block 2 (hard coal-fired power station) of the northern thermal power station being shut down by December 31, 2022 at the latest? - Yes or no."

The turnout was 17.8%. The quorum of 10% "yes" votes was achieved. This required at least 110,862 yes-votes. 118,731 were reached. No-votes: 78,000

Valid were 99.8% of the votes (196,731), invalid 0.2% (389)

Resolutions and expert opinions

With the fundamental decision of August 17, 2008, the City of Munich committed itself to reducing per capita CO 2 emissions by 10% every 5 years and to halving CO 2 emissions per inhabitant on the basis of 1990 by 2030 at the latest .

An expert opinion by the Öko-Institut from 2016 confirms that an early shutdown of Unit 2 in the Munich North thermal power station is basically possible as early as 2020. Due to an early shutdown in 2020, the CO 2 emissions could lead to a total emission reduction of 8.2 to 10.6 million t CO 2 in Munich over the period up to 2035 , although the Öko-Institut's report also includes A relocation of emissions to other power plants is assumed and the result is: "Therefore, the change in emissions in Munich should not be decisive for the ecological evaluation of a decision to shut down HKW Nord 2." .

The climate protection goals and strategies of the state capital Munich are currently largely determined by the assumption that Block 2 Munich North will only be switched off in the period between 2025 and 2030. In this case, Munich misses the target of 50% CO 2 reduction for 2030 in the per capita calculation by a missing 6 percentage points, and when applying absolute CO 2 quantities by 21 percentage points. The Oeko-Institut Freiburg recommends that the city of Munich decommissioning the coal-fired block 2 of the Munich North thermal power station as early as possible. The earlier the shutdown takes place, the greater the sum of the emissions saved. This is due to the saving of the high specific emissions of hard coal compared to natural gas.

Reasoning

The City of Munich has invested around € 31.5 million annually for the Climate Protection Plan (KSP) 2013 over a period of 2 years, and around € 32.5 million annually in a total of 150 measures for the 2015 KSP over a period of 3 years. With this investment volume of around € 160.5 million, cumulative over the years, only a forecast CO 2 saving of 1% (KSP 2013) and 1.5% (KSP 2015) per capita should be achieved. Further savings of 15% are required to achieve the city's climate protection goals by 2030. The referendum "Get out of the hard coal" predicts the savings from the shutdown of the Munich North Block 2 with 7.5% of the CO 2 emissions based on 1990.

Citizenship decision and consequences

On November 5, 2017, 60.4% of the voters voted for Block 2 of the Munich North thermal power station to be shut down by 2022 at the latest. The turnout was 17.8%. A total of 196,731 valid votes were cast. The quorum, the minimum number of votes cast for a majority, when voting is 10% or 110,862 votes. With the 118,731 votes cast, the requirements for phasing out hard coal were met.

In July 2019, however, it was reported that the Federal Network Agency is likely to veto the shutdown of the power plant in order to secure the district heating supply. It can therefore be assumed that the power plant will continue to run with reduced output until around 2026 to 2028.

On July 24, 2019, the Munich City Council decided to have independent experts check again by October how the Stadtwerke München, as the operator, could come as close as possible to the original goal of the referendum before a possible repeal of the referendum. The report came to the conclusion that a shutdown in 2022 could endanger the district heating supply and advocated operation with reduced output beyond 2022.

At the end of October, the Federal Network Agency put in the expected veto against the shutdown, block 2 of the power plant must be operated at least until the end of 2024.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/52-000-unterschriften-gesammelt-oedp-entscheid-ueber-steinkohle-kommen-1.3612715
  2. ↑ Heiner Effern: The move away from coal is also a victory for the ÖDP . In: sueddeutsche.de . November 6, 2017, ISSN  0174-4917 ( sueddeutsche.de [accessed January 2, 2019]).
  3. ↑ a b https://www.raus-aus-der-steinkohle.de/impressum/. Retrieved January 2, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung: ÖDP: Decision about hard coal is coming. Retrieved November 17, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Does Munich have to get out of coal? Referendum is coming. August 2, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2019 .
  6. ↑ muenchen.de: Information on the referendum "Get out of the coal!" Retrieved October 31, 2017 .
  7. ↑ Who is participating? - Get out of the coal . In: Get out of the coal . ( raus-aus-der-steinkohle.de [accessed October 31, 2017]).
  8. ↑ Abendzeitung Germany: SWM should check: Kraftwerk Nord: Earlier exit? - Munich evening newspaper. Retrieved November 17, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Heiner Effern: Stadtwerke plan gas power plant in Unterföhring. Retrieved November 17, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Combined heat and power plants of Stadtwerke München, combined heat and power plant north. Retrieved October 31, 2017 .
  11. ↑ Emissions data and sources of supply for coal. Retrieved October 29, 2017 .
  12. ↑ SWM Heizkraftwerk Nord. Retrieved October 29, 2017 .
  13. ↑ Tanja Kenkmann et al. Öko-Institut eV: Climate protection target and strategy Munich 2050 . Freiburg July 2017, p. 34 .
  14. ↑ State Capital Munich Editor: Steinkohle. Retrieved November 17, 2019 .
  15. ↑ Citizens' decision "Get out of the coal!" - City of Munich - Results. Retrieved November 17, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Overall conclusion on the Integrated Action Program for Climate Protection in Munich IHKM. P. 4 , accessed on October 31, 2017 .
  17. ↑ a b Investigation of different scenarios for the exit from coal combustion at the northern location. September 14, 2016, p. 3 , accessed October 29, 2017 .
  18. ↑ Tanja Kenkmann et al. Öko-Institut: Climate Protection Goals and Strategy Munich 2050. July 2017, p. 122 , accessed on October 31, 2017 .
  19. ↑ Tanja Kenkmann, Christof Timpe, Öko-Institut: Zukunftsmusik Klimaziele München. September 14, 2017, p. 6 , accessed October 31, 2017 .
  20. ↑ Tanja Kenkmann et al. Öko-Institut: Climate protection target and strategy Munich 2050. July 2017, p. 40 , accessed on October 31, 2017 .
  21. ↑ a b Tanja Kenkmann et al. Öko-Institut: Climate protection goals and strategy Munich 2050 , July 2017, p. 248 , accessed on October 31, 2017 .
  22. ↑ Overall conclusion on the integrated action program for climate protection in Munich IHKM. P. 6 , accessed on October 31, 2017 .
  23. ↑ Overall conclusion on the Integrated Action Program for Climate Protection in Munich IHKM. P. 8 , accessed on October 31, 2017 .
  24. ↑ FROM BECAUSE "EXPENSIVE". Retrieved October 31, 2017 .
  25. ↑ election results. Retrieved November 10, 2017 .
  26. ↑ Nothing will come of the quick exit from coal. sueddeutsche.de, July 3, 2019, accessed on July 8, 2019 .
  27. ↑ Heiner Effern: New report on the coal block in Munich. sueddeutsche.de, July 24, 2019, accessed on September 4, 2019 .
  28. ↑ Dispute over the thermal power station. sueddeutsche.de, October 11, 2019, accessed on November 3, 2019 .
  29. ↑ Munich's coal phase-out by 2022 burst. sueddeutsche.de, October 31, 2019, accessed on November 3, 2019 .