DUH: Environmental impact of politicians • Table.Briefings

The official cars of German ministers are often oversized and cause a lot of CO2.

Many politicians continue to use highly climate-damaging official vehicles, as highlighted by an analysis conducted by the German Environmental Aid (DUH). Particularly, FDP ministers and the state leaders of North Rhine-Westphalia and Berlin perform poorly in this regard. However, there is an uptick in the use of electric vehicles.

According to DUH’s survey, 186 out of 252 surveyed politicians use official vehicles emitting „significantly above the European fleet average of 95 g CO2/km“. Justice Minister Marco Buschmann (FDP), Education Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger (FDP) and Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) top the list with the most climate-damaging official vehicles, emitting between 184 and 205 g CO2/km. NRW Minister President Hendrik Wüst (CDU) and Berlin’s Regierender Bürgermeister Kai Wegner (CDU) fare even worse, emitting between 375 and 380 g CO2/km, according to DUH.

DUH: Environmental impact of politicians’ company cars

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