Court obliges federal government to submit immediate climate protection program
In both the transport and buildings sectors, greenhouse gas emissions in 2021 and 2022 exceeded the values permitted under the Federal Climate Protection Act. According to the same law, the federal government was therefore actually obliged to submit an emergency climate program. This was to contain measures to ensure compliance with the sector targets for the following years.
The traffic light coalition did not adopt such an immediate action program, but instead adopted the Climate Protection Program 2023 in October. One of the key points of this program is that compliance with the climate targets is to be reviewed across all sectors in future instead of individually for each sector. To this end, the traffic light coalition wants to reform the Federal Climate Protection Act - a first reading took place in the Bundestag at the end of September. The bill has not yet been passed.
Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) and BUND had filed a lawsuit against this. They accused the German government of failing to meet the sector targets for transport and buildings and demanded the adoption of immediate programs.
The court upheld the claims: The government was obliged to adopt an immediate program "as soon as possible" due to the exceedances in the two areas. This program must ensure compliance with the annual emission levels specified in the Climate Protection Act for the two sectors for the years 2024 to 2030, the Senate explained.
According to the judges, the 2023 climate protection program does not meet the legal requirements for the immediate action program, as it only checks the achievement of the climate targets "on the basis of a cross-sectoral and multi-year overall calculation". However, the ruling is not yet legally binding and an appeal has been permitted.
The Federal Government will "evaluate the rulings and their justifications in detail as soon as they are available in writing and examine the next steps", explained the Federal Ministry of Economics in response to an inquiry. In principle, the following applies: "The Federal Government is pursuing an ambitious climate protection policy in order to achieve the targets set out in the Climate Protection Act and close the remaining climate protection gap."
The Ministry of Construction also intends to evaluate the rulings as soon as they are available. "We will examine how we will proceed once we have the reasons," said a spokesperson for the ministry when asked. This "naturally also includes examining measures that do justice to the court's rulings".
The plaintiff environmental associations rated the court decision as a great success. The DUH spoke of a "ground-breaking judgment", its Managing Director Jürgen Resch of "a resounding slap in the face for the Federal Government because of its disastrous climate policy". Among other things, he called for a speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour on freeways, 80 kilometers per hour out of town and 30 kilometers per hour in cities.
BUND Managing Director Antje von Broock explained: "With today's ruling, the Federal Government has been obliged to step up its climate protection efforts." She called on the ministries of transport, construction and economics to quickly present "ambitious measures". She cited a speed limit and the abolition of tax breaks for diesel and kerosene as examples.
Andreas Jung (CDU), spokesperson for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group on climate protection, told the AFP news agency: "The German government is not adhering to the requirements of the Climate Protection Act and instead wants to weaken the regulations it contains." The "self-proclaimed climate chancellor" Olaf Scholz (SPD) must finally live up to this claim.
The ruling "strengthens the aspect of binding force, even though the appeal has been expressly permitted", SPD parliamentary group deputy leader Matthias Miersch told the "Rheinische Post" newspaper. He announced a detailed analysis of the reasons for the ruling in order to examine the next steps.
For Green parliamentary group leader Katharina Dröge, the court has made it clear: "More effort is needed." She emphasized the need for speed in climate protection, especially in the transport and building sectors.
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- The Federal Government, due to the exceedances in greenhouse gas emissions in the transport and buildings sectors in 2021 and 2022, was legally obligated by the court to submit an immediate climate protection program under the Federal Climate Protection Act.
- The Traffic light coalition, in response to the exceedances, adopted the Climate Protection Program 2023 in October, but the court found it did not meet the legal requirements for an immediate action program.
- Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) and BUND, environmental associations, filed a lawsuit against the federal government for failing to meet the sector targets for transport and buildings and demanded the adoption of immediate programs.
- The court in its ruling obliged the federal government to adopt an immediate program "as soon as possible" due to the exceedances in the two areas, ensuring compliance with the annual emission levels specified in the Climate Protection Act.
- According to the ruling, the template for the immediate action program should be a bundle of measures that directly addresses the climatic imbalance in the transport and buildings sectors from 2024 to 2030.
- In response to the court's ruling, the Federal Ministry of Economics stated that it would evaluate the rulings and next steps as soon as they are available.
- The Berlin Court's ruling against the Federal Government has been seen as a significant victory by DUH and BUND, with DUH's Managing Director Jürgen Resch calling for stricter speed limits and BUND's Managing Director Antje von Broock demanding swift presentation of ambitious climate measures.
Source: www.stern.de
