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Environmental group ranks politicians' official cars, with Alabali-Radovan leading and FDP at the bottom
🇩🇪 Germany /Environment & Climate

Environmental group ranks politicians' official cars, with Alabali-Radovan leading and FDP at the bottom

From Der Spiegel · () German

Translated from German and summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

News Named sources Context piece
  • Deutsche Umwelthilfe found that 90 of 249 official cars used by German federal and state politicians are fully electric, slightly fewer proportionally than last year.
  • Plug-in hybrids made up 42% of the vehicles and averaged 179 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer, according to the group.
  • Development Minister Reem Alabali-Radovan had the lowest estimated emissions among federal ministers, while the Greens led the party comparison and the FDP ranked last.

Germany's environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe has described the official cars used by many politicians as a retreat from climate-friendly transport. Its annual review found that only 90 of 249 vehicles were fully electric, a slightly smaller share than last year.

A step backward in climate protection.

— Deutsche UmwelthilfeThe environmental group characterized the replacement of electric cars with plug-in hybrids.

Plug-in hybrids accounted for 42% of the fleet. They emitted an average of 179 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer in the group's assessment, only marginally below conventional combustion-engine cars. Environmentalists argue that plug-in hybrids are often driven using their combustion engines in everyday use.

The group singled out three CDU and CSU state ministers from the Foreign Office, Hamburg Environment Senator Katharina Fegebank, Hamburg Finance Senator Andreas Dressel and Saxony Environment Minister Georg-Ludwig von Breitenbuch. It said they had replaced efficient electric cars with more polluting plug-in hybrids. DUH called the trend a "step backward in climate protection."

A declaration of war on forward-looking transport policy.

— Barbara MetzThe DUH federal managing director criticized the findings of the vehicle review.

Within the federal government, Development Minister Reem Alabali-Radovan ranked first, with estimated emissions of 64 grams per kilometer. The Environment Ministry led the federal ministries' fleet ranking, followed by the Interior and Development ministries, then the Labor Ministry. The cars used by Chancellor Friedrich Merz and some other ministers were excluded because their heavy armor affected the comparison.

A disastrous signal for German climate policy.

— Barbara MetzShe described the political message sent by continued use of high-emission official cars.

Among state premiers, Baden-Württemberg's Cem Özdemir ranked best at 66 grams per kilometer. North Rhine-Westphalia's Hendrik Wüst ranked last at 262 grams. Berlin led the comparison of state governments after increasing its use of battery-electric vehicles, while Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania came last. The Greens led the party ranking, and the FDP ranked last. DUH called for federal and state governments to buy only electric vehicles for new official-car purchases.

They are massively failing in their role-model function.

— Barbara MetzMetz criticized federal and state politicians for not setting an example on vehicle emissions.
About this summary

Originally published by Der Spiegel in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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