The traffic light sells the reform as an important step for more climate protection. But young people are extremely disappointed.
“Rest in peace,” writes Luisa Neubauer on Instagram on April 16th – she means the Climate Protection Act. After months of discussions, the traffic light has agreed on a reform of the law. Instead of checking binding sector targets retroactively and reacting with immediate programs if they are not met, the main focus in the future will be whether greenhouse gas savings targets are met across all sectors over several years. This now clears the way for the planned solar funding package, which is linked to the reform.
The cabinet had already passed the reform in the summer of 2023, but since then the traffic light coalition factions have not been able to agree on the details. The FDP in particular was bothered by binding requirements in individual economic sectors. Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) recently even threatened “weekend driving bans” if the reform was not implemented soon. With the publication of the test report for 2023, the Expert Council for Climate Issues showed that Germany clearly missed its climate targets in the transport sector.
“Absurd” – activist Luisa Neubauer sharply criticizes the climate law reform
On social media platforms, the FDP calls the agreement on the reform an “important success”, moving away from the previously “planned economy law”. The Greens also speak of a “strong update”. The activist Neubauer thinks this is all “absurd”.
In the past few days, Neubauer has warned of a “climate cheating law” if the traffic light actually implements the reform. The binding sector targets are the core of the Climate Protection Act and would ensure that missing the targets has real consequences.
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“Lazy compromises” when it comes to climate – that’s what the young parties from the SPD and the Greens say
Philipp Türmer, federal chairman of the Young Socialists of the SPD (Jusos), finds clear words for the reform: “This agreement is a hollowing out of the Climate Protection Act. This is particularly disappointing for young people and shows how much the traffic light coalition gets lost in current but lazy compromises instead of thinking about the bigger picture,” he tells
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. Instead of each making their contribution to climate protection, the ministries could now “point the finger at each other,” says Türmer. There is a “lack of clarity of responsibility”.
The young Greens see it similarly. “It is bitter that the reform of the Climate Protection Act relieves Volker Wissing of his duty to ensure a climate-friendly transport transition,” says Svenja Appuhn, federal spokeswoman for the Green Youth. This is “dramatic” because it “threatens to completely derail” the achievement of the overall goals in a few years. Appuhn criticizes the fact that the FDP made a “watering down of the climate law a condition for the solar package” was “ridiculous from the start”. The expansion of renewable solar energy is not an “exclusively green fun project”, but rather a fundamental prerequisite for the energy transition in Germany.
“Sector targets were enormously inefficient” - Young Liberals support the parent party
The Young Liberals of the FDP (JuLis) see it differently. “The previous sector goals were enormously inefficient and symbolized the failed attempt to implement climate protection through state control and bans,” explains Paavo Czwikla, federal chairman and press spokesman for JuLis. Instead, they want to rely on market economy mechanisms and private innovation.