Until recently, there was great excitement about the climate policy of the Grand Coalition. Now the federal cabinet has passed the controversial climate package.
On the one hand, these are concrete projects with which Germany intends to reach its climate targets for the year 2030 - the so-called climate protection program. On the other hand, the government, with its federal climate protection law also passed on Wednesday, determines how measures to combat global warming are to be implemented and monitored.
The law regulates, for example, that individual ministers are responsible for achieving annual climate protection goals in their area. In particular, the law was fought to the last. The Bundestag must still agree with him.
Germany wants to reduce its emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases by 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. By the middle of the century, the Federal Republic of Germany should become largely climate-neutral, meaning that it would no longer emit greenhouse gases that would harm the climate.
Criticism of the Climate Protection Act
The Climate Change Act was recently criticized because it was weakened compared to a February draft.
On the one hand, it is about the climate goals. Unlike the February draft, the interim target for the year 2040 is no longer mentioned. The formulation of the goal by 2050 now also sounds more binding than before: Greenhouse neutrality is to be pursued until this year now only ".
The control mechanisms were also criticized. According to the February draft, Parliament should have blamed shifts in CO2 savings between sectors. Now this control mechanism is no longer found in the Climate Protection Act. In addition, powers for the so-called Climate Council - a government-appointed controlling body - were removed as a further control loop.
But not all conflicts are resolved in the climate package. The final design is available to SPIEGEL. Band and the german federal legislation will be added soon.