KfW launches broad credit support programme for climate push in German transport sector

Businesses and municipalities in Germany will soon be able to access a wide array of support programmes for clean mobility investments. State-owned development bank KfW will provide credit funding at reduced rates to finance the expansion of cycling and pedestrian infrastructure, climate-friendly passenger and transport vehicles and investments in public transport, rail- and waterways, the bank has said. “We want to achieve climate neutrality and the transport sector has to make a major contribution to that,” new transport minister Volker Wissing said. KfW will also provide credits for investments in digitalisation measures that reduce emissions, such as traffic coordination. Funding will be made contingent on the criteria of the EU taxonomy for sustainable investments, meaning for example that only vehicles, trains and vessels will be supported that have zero direct CO2 emissions. Minister Wissing said the KfW credit programme would enable long-term investments in local companies and infrastructure by providing planning security and a financial foundation. The development bank will issue credits in the framework of its green bond pogramme and fund projects with up to 50 million euros over a period of 30 years. 

Minister Wissing has said that "enormous changes" are necessary to achieve positive change in the German transport sector’s emissions reduction balance. The sector’s CO2 output has barely changed since 1990 as efficiency gains in vehicles have largely been outweighed by more and heavier cars on the road.