German climate laws don’t go far enough, rules court
GERMANY’S highest court ruled yesterday that the government’s climate protection plan was “insufficient”, a major setback for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition in an election year when environmental issues are expected to take centre stage.
In a decision hailed by activists as “historic” and “sensational”, Germany’s constitutional court ruled that Berlin’s emissions reduction plan was “incompatible with fundamental rights” because it failed to cover the years beyond this decade.
The current measures “violate the freedoms of the complainants, some of whom are still very young” because they “irreversibly offload major emission reduction burdens on to periods after 2030”, the court ruled, partially upholding a series of claims by environmentalists and young people.
Under the plan agreed by Ms Merkel’s government, Germany will reduce CO2 emissions to 55 per cent of 1990 levels by 2030. The court argued that while the state had not violated its duty to protect citizens against climate change, the government had nonetheless not set out the timeline for further emissions reductions in enough detail.
Berlin must “at the very least determine the size of the annual emission amounts to be set for periods after 2030,” the court ruled, saying an improved plan must be put forward by the end of next year.
The verdict came as a debate over environmental policies was heating up, with the Green party enjoying a surge in popularity and overtaking Ms Merkel’s conservatives in several polls.
Annalena Baerbock, the Green party leader, said the court’s decision was historic, tweeting: “The coming years will be decisive for meaningful action.”
Besides an emissions target for 2030, Germany’s climate change law introduced in 2019 includes a range of policies, including incentivising renewable energies, expanding electric car infrastructure and carbon trading. The law was passed to comply with the Paris Agreement, under which countries aim to keep the global temperature increase to under 2C by 2050.
But activists have long argued that the law does not go far enough, prompting a series of legal claims against the government.