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Greenpeace protest against the IAA auto show: will climate protection gain the upper hand in Germany after the Shell decision in the Netherlands?
Photo: WOLFGANG RATTAY / REUTERS
Deutsche Umwelthilfe and Greenpeace announced just a few days ago that they would sue industrial groups for more climate protection.
After Mercedes-Benz had already rejected the associated demand for a sales stop, political resistance is now also forming against such actions: the CDU Economic Council demands that appropriate climate protection lawsuits against large corporations be banned by law.
"If activists publicly cover companies with legally questionable lawsuits in order to raise their profile, that borders on character assassination," said Economic Council Secretary General Wolfgang Steiger of the "Augsburger Allgemeine".
The legislature is asked to put a stop to such "show numbers" by adapting the legal situation.
Environmental organizations refer to Karlsruhe
As an example, Steiger cited the lawsuits announced by the environmental organizations, which are directed not only against Mercedes-Benz but also against the car groups BMW and Volkswagen and the energy group Wintershall Dea.
Steiger called this “ideologically motivated”.
With the lawsuits, Deutsche Umwelthilfe and Greenpeace want to ensure that the corporations change their business model in such a way that they meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement.
The organizations also refer to the ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court of March 2021, with which the Karlsruhe judges called for more ambitious climate protection from the legislature.
The associations are striving, among other things, that the car companies are no longer allowed to sell cars with internal combustion engines by 2030.
In the Netherlands, just a few weeks ago, a court in the oil company obliged the oil company to reduce its carbon dioxide emissions by 45 percent by 2030, based on the status of 2019. Experts speak of a historic decision.
CDU Economic Council Secretary General Steiger does not consider a transfer to Germany to be possible.
"The Shell judgment from The Hague is not final," he told the Augsburger Allgemeine.
And: "Even if the appellate authority would confirm the judgment, its transfer to German jurisprudence would be excluded." The civil law in the Netherlands is not comparable with that in Germany.
apr / Reuters
