Frankfurt

Frankfurt receives praise from climate activists for its energy-saving building and renovation schemes.

While the world is meeting in Copenhagen for the UN Climate Change Conference, a climate protection organization has praised the city of Frankfurt for its measures towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions and economical use of energy.

According to the Climate Alliance of European Cities, Frankfurt has done “quite well” in reducing CO2 emissions and careful use of energy. The foundation stone for this was already laid twenty years ago with the establishment of a municipal energy department.

“Frankfurt employs block heat and power plants, and decentralized, combined production of heat and electricity more efficiently uses primary energy,” explains Angela Hanisch, the press relations officer of the European secretariat of the Climate Alliance. Frankfurt has taken up the obligation to drastically reduce its CO2 emissions by the year 2020. In order to achieve this ambitious goal, the city has focused on the construction of low-energy houses with a heating demand that is 20 percent lower than that required by the Federal government, on power-saving measures in residential and commercial buildings and in industry, on the promotion of solar electricity, solar heat and photovoltaics as well as on systematically supporting the construction of small or medium-sized, local block heat and power plants. The Climate Alliance praises this. One example is provided by the Deutsche Bank with the renovation of its headquarters in the Taunus complex. Not only is an environmentally friendly high-rise building being created, but also, according to the responsible Milan architect Mario Bellini, more attractive surroundings and a healthy link to the city. In this way, the global investment bank wishes to visibly signalize its aim of a resource-saving and high-quality working environment.

The project’s lower energy consumption and use of renewable energies aim to reduce CO2 emissions by 89 percent. By the year 2013, the “Greentowers” will be practically carbon neutral. At present, their annual CO2 output is 11,600 tonnes. The project will also lower total energy consumption by 55 percent.

According to Angela Hanisch, the annual CO2 per capita output in Germany averages 10.8 tonnes and in Frankfurt approximately 12 tonnes. The Climate Alliance pursues the ambitious goal of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by ten percent every five years and to cut per capita emissions in half by 2030. “For the long term, the cities and towns that have joined the Climate Alliance want to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions – through energy savings, energy efficiency and the use of renewable energies – to a sustainable level of 2.5 tonnes per year.” However, the climate protection organization also points out that Frankfurt has not yet attained state-of-the-art use of renewable energies. “Currently, energy efficiency and thermal insulation measures can save far more energy and money, since they keep the rooms cooler,” said Hanisch. Other cities are also getting involved, but with varying degrees of success. The Climate Alliance’s message to the Climate Summit: “The world needs ambitious goals.”