It can be the meeting of the presidents of the German state parliaments. It can be a visit to the Brandenburg State Representation in Brussels by the European Committee. It can be an appointment of the local petitions committee in a district. Or the participation of the Vice-President in a wreath-laying ceremony in a concentration camp memorial.
There are always business trips in the Brandenburg state parliament. In order to compensate for the carbon dioxide emitted, the state parliament relies on the so-called “MoorFutures”. These are certificates, the sale of which finances the rewetting of moors as CO2 storage. They were once developed jointly by Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and are sold by the Brandenburg Area Agency, which also markets compensatory areas under nature conservation law, for example for new buildings.
As the state parliament announced on request, emissions totaling 37.78 tons of carbon dioxide were determined for the period from December 1, 2019 to December 31, 2021. Air travel, for example by specialist committees or the Presidium, and the fuel consumption of the three official vehicles of the state parliament were included in the calculation. The state parliament will therefore acquire at least 38 “MoorFutures” certificates. [If you want to have all the latest news live on your mobile phone, we recommend our app, which you can download here for Apple and Android devices.]
In December 2019, the Brandenburg state parliament bought 68 “MoorFutures” certificates worth 5,440 euros for the first time as compensation for business trips and trips. This supported the rewetting of the Rehwiese moor (Oberhavel district) as a regional climate protection project – and the Potsdam state parliament was then as now a pioneer among the German state parliaments: To this day, not all state parliament administrations compensate for the CO2 quantities generated by members of parliament and employees on business trips through appropriate climate protection measures.