OVG Berlin-Brandenburg: Federal government must improve air quality program
With the Air Quality Program, the obligations to reduce certain pollutants - including Ammonia, Particulate Matter, Sulfur Dioxide, and Nitrogen Oxides - are to be implemented. It was decided upon in 2019 and updated in May 2024. From the plaintiff's perspective, the German Environmental Aid (DUH), this was not sufficient. The court agreed in part.
The underlying projection was declared erroneous. Not the latest data were set, and changes in planning were not taken into account, such as the Novelty of the Building Energy Act. In it, wood pellet heating systems were allowed - these emit more fine dust into the air. Additionally, changes in federal funding for energy-efficient buildings were not considered.
In the calculation of the consequences of the coal phase-out, it was still assumed that all coal-fired power plants would have left the grid by the end of 2029. In traffic, the effects of the Euro-7 exhaust gas norm were overestimated, as it sets less stringent limits than the one considered in the program. Furthermore, state funding for electric cars was included, which had meanwhile been stopped.
The court criticized that the projection report on the forecasted development of greenhouse gas emissions from 2021 was taken into account, but not from 2023. The Federal Government is obligated to amend the Air Quality Program. With the measures, the targets to which Germany has committed must be met.
The Environmental Aid was pleased with the judgment. It will now "force the retrofitting of eight million Diesel vehicles with up to 40 times higher exhaust gas values, alternatively their decommissioning – at the expense of the fraudulent Diesel companies", announced its managing director Jürgen Resch. The DUH also demanded a filter requirement for wood heating systems and construction machinery, a speed limit, and lower numbers in livestock farming.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Ministry for the Environment stated that the court had recognized the complexity of the projections and the associated effort for their creation and updating, and that an update is not always necessary but depends on the specific circumstances. The Federal Government will thoroughly examine the judgment. According to EU Commission statements, 300,000 people in Europe die prematurely each year due to air pollution.
The German Environmental Aid e.V., dissatisfied with the Air Quality Program, brought the case to the Federal Administrative Court (OVG) in Leipzig. The court found some errors in the program's underlying projection, such as outdated data and failure to consider changes in federal funding. Consequently, the Federal Government is mandated by the court to revise the Air Quality Program, affecting regions like Berlin-Brandenburg and Berlin.
