"The City of Bonn and its subsidiaries have an impact on around 40 percent of the city's total greenhouse gas emissions. It is therefore all the more important that the entire City of Bonn Group fulfills its role as a role model and provides the right, climate-friendly offers. The city's own companies have actively contributed to the development of the scenarios and have once again shown that we in Bonn are pulling together to become climate-neutral by 2035," emphasizes Mayor Katja Dörner.
Olaf Hermes, Chairman of the SWB Management Board, adds: "We need to set the strategic course today in order to achieve our ambitious goals within the City of Bonn Group. Municipal heating planning will help not only us as a municipal company, but also the people of Bonn to reduce their carbon footprint. In addition to the massive expansion of district heating, the focus is on the electricity grid for heat pumps and e-cars."
As part of the "Climate-neutral City of Bonn Group" study, Trianel GmbH investigated how the subsidiaries of the City of Bonn Group can achieve the goal of greenhouse gas neutrality by 2035 while complying with the 1.5-degree residual budget.
The city's own companies now have a catalog of measures with so-called reduction paths and possible scenarios to gradually reduce CO2 emissions. The scenarios integrate the current and planned activities of the companies and businesses examined. The study contains specific recommendations on how to achieve the climate neutrality target by 2035. The city's Climate Neutral Bonn program office will incorporate the results into the monitoring and controlling of the climate plan.
Bonn-Netz, SWB Bus und Bahn, SWB Holding and BCP already on the 1.5-degree path
The study has shown that Bonn-Netz, SWB Bus und Bahn, Stadtwerke Bonn Holding and Bonner City Parkraum GmbH can achieve greenhouse gas neutrality by 2035 while adhering to the 1.5-degree residual budget with their current and planned measures. For example, the Stadtwerke's bus fleet will gradually be completely converted to emission-free electric buses. This will require extensive construction work at the bus depots, for instance.
The Vereinigte Bonner Wohnungsbau AG (VEBOWAG), Bonnorange AöR, the fleet management of the fire and rescue services, the senior citizens' centers and the theater of the City of Bonn can also become climate-neutral by 2035, but without additional measures, they can only meet the 1.75-degree residual budget.
Both the climate plan and the study on the climate-neutral City of Bonn Group have shown that the transformation of the heat supply is a key prerequisite for the City of Bonn Group's climate target. At almost 600,000 tons of CO2 equivalents, the largest share of emissions in the Group is attributable to SWB Energy and Water, and in particular the heat supply. This corresponds to around 70 percent of the Group's total emissions (as of 2019). Municipal heat planning, which is currently being prepared by Bonn-Netz GmbH on behalf of the City of Bonn, provides an important basis for the infrastructure development of a climate-neutral heat supply in Bonn.
VEBOWAG already has concrete plans for the serial refurbishment of its rental properties, including the conversion of the heat supply up to and including 2028. VEBOWAG board member Dr. Michael Kleine-Hartlage explains: "The municipal housing association VEBOWAG supports the climate-neutral efforts of the City of Bonn with determination. Since the end of 2019, the CO2 emissions of the housing stock have been reduced by around 30 percent."
Another decisive factor on the road to climate neutrality is the decarbonization of waste recycling. In 2019, waste recycling accounted for around 16% of the Group's greenhouse gas emissions. This corresponds to 135,000 tons of CO2 equivalents. According to the report, an important factor in waste recycling is the general reduction of waste volumes in the urban area. With its plans for the waste-to-energy plant at the current waste incineration plant site, SWB Verwertung wants to lay the foundation for the use of future technologies to efficiently use or store CO2 in the future. A potential new waste incineration plant with a reduced approved throughput volume is planned accordingly with two instead of three incineration lines for even more efficient utilization of the waste.
Bonn Climate Plan 2035
The climate-neutral City of Bonn Group is part of the Bonn Climate Plan 2035, which was adopted by the City of Bonn Council in March 2023 as a roadmap for a climate-neutral and liveable City of Bonn. As a climate neutrality strategy, the Climate Plan defines targets and development paths for the period up to 2035. Further information on the Bonn Climate Plan 2035 can be found at www.bonn.de/klimaplan (opens in a new tab).
Climate-neutral City of Bonn Group
The companies and organizations examined include all municipal enterprises and companies in which the City of Bonn holds a majority stake: Stadtwerke Bonn GmbH with its group subsidiaries (SWB Energie und Wasserversorgung, SWB Verwertung, SWB Bus und Bahn, Bonn-Netz, Stadtwerke Bonn GmbH-Holding, Bonner City Parkraum GmbH), Internationale Beethovenfeste Bonn gGmbH, Bonnorange AöR, World Conference Center Management GmbH, Vereinigte Wohnungsbau AG (VEBOWAG), the City of Bonn (Theater der City of Bonn, Bonn City senior citizen centers, Städtisches Gebäudemanagement (SGB)) as well as the fleet management of the fire and rescue services.