Today, a vote was held with the Giessen city council. The issue? Being carbon-neutral by 2035. The motion passed, and the pro-environmentalists were happy. It would be the first city in Hessen to be carbon-neutral (if this occurs).
Giessen? It's a significant town in Hessen and mostly known for being a university town (roughly 25,000 students). The population? It's between 85k and 90k.
So if you go and pull up this motion, and the initiative that was involved in the carbon-neutral business.....looking for a plan and cost estimate.....well, it's not really what you'd desire to build onto.
It's more of a goal, that is supposed to prod the city-government into certain policies (financial, planning and execution).
The effect of the student population on this vote? Because of the student population, you can probably say that they had enormous influence on the outcome.
So like in most cases like this.....my general question is cost and where any extra cost on projects will come from. Taxes? That's the curious thing.....because of regulations and laws, you can't really invent any additional VAT (sales taxes) or property taxes. You might be able to invent a few extra fees, and establish fines that might go up. You might even be able to require new apartment housing to be carbon-neutral, which might interest a few people, and scare the normal construction crowd away entirely from Giessen.
My general prediction is that construction in the city will decrease to some degree, and city construction projects will be continually lined up with funding requests to the EU or Berlin to craft a 'gift' of money to meet the carbon-neutral business. This might work for a year or two, until other cities realize there's a EU/Berlin path to more money and beg for funding as well.
The 2035 thing? It will be in the end....simply a goal. Even if they don't reach the status....they had the goal. There will be some sign in the city to note their status, and maybe even a carbon-neutral fest (to celebrate with carbon-neutral beer of course). Who knows....maybe some beer craftsman will invent a beer out of this.
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