Is Germany too lax in the fight against climate change?
The Federal Constitutional Court dealt with four constitutional complaints - and called for improvements.
Update from April 29, 9.35 a.m.:
The Federal Climate Protection Act falls short of the point of view of the Federal Constitutional Court.
The Karlsruhe judges obliged the legislature on Thursday to regulate the reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the period after 2030 in more detail by the end of next year.
Constitutional complaints from several climate protection activists were partially successful (Ref .: 1 BvR 2656/18 et al.).
The sometimes very young complainants - among them were representatives of Fridays For Future - were violated by the regulations in the law in their freedom, the judges said.
"The regulations irreversibly postpone high emission reduction burdens to periods after 2030."
Limiting an increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 degrees and, if possible, to 1.5 degrees, as planned, would then only be feasible with increasingly urgent and short-term measures. "Practically any freedom is potentially affected by these future emission reduction obligations, because almost all areas of human life are still linked to the emission of greenhouse gases and are therefore threatened by drastic restrictions after 2030," the statement said. In order to safeguard freedom that is fundamentally secured, the legislature should have taken precautions “to alleviate these high burdens”.
The Bundestag and Bundesrat approved the federal government's climate package at the end of 2019 after the federal and state governments had negotiated compromises.
The key point is the Climate Protection Act.
For individual areas such as traffic, agriculture or buildings, it specifies how many greenhouse gases they are allowed to emit in which year.
"The purpose of this law is to ensure that national climate protection targets are met and that European targets are met," says the Federal Environment Ministry.
According to the Paris Climate Agreement - which forms the basis of German law - the increase in the global average temperature is to be limited to well below 2 degrees and, if possible, to 1.5 degrees Celsius, in order to keep the effects of climate change as low as possible.
The Federal Constitutional Court decides on the Climate Protection Act
Preliminary report
: Karlsruhe - The Federal Constitutional Court announced its decision on constitutional complaints against various provisions of the Federal Climate Protection Act on Thursday (9.30 a.m.).
The environmental organization BUND and, among others, representatives of Fridays for Future had submitted constitutional complaints because they considered the measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to limit global warming to be inadequate (Ref .: inter alia 1 BvR 2656/18).
Climate protection goals in Germany put to the test
There are a total of four constitutional complaints against German climate policy - which the plaintiffs are not enough.
They see their fundamental rights violated when politics does not sufficiently contain global warming.
The first lawsuit was filed in 2018 by the Federation for the Environment and Nature Conservation Germany, the Solar Energy Funding Association Germany and several individual plaintiffs.
The other two lawsuits followed in early 2020 after the new climate protection law came into force.
It stipulates how much carbon dioxide individual sectors such as the energy industry or transport may still emit in the coming years.
The emission of climate-damaging greenhouse gases is expected to decrease by 55 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
"It's about a humane future for today's young and future generations"
Numerous young people are suing the law, supported by various environmental protection organizations.
Two of the constitutional complaints, one in ten Germans and one in 15 people from Bangladesh and Nepal, are supported by Deutsche Umwelthilfe.
Another lawsuit brought by nine young adults from Germany is supported by Germanwatch, Greenpeace and Protect the Planet.
“It's about a humane future for today's young people and the next generation,” said Caroline Schroeder, advisor for climate action communication at Germanwatch, the AFP news agency.
"Your fundamental and freedom rights to life and physical integrity, but also to property and freedom of occupation, will be violated if the climate crisis is not better contained."
Among the nine plaintiffs supported by the three environmental associations are Luisa Neubauer from Fridays for Future * and young people whose families make a living from tourism or agriculture and fear the effects of the increasing frequency of extreme weather events and rising sea levels.
"You want to take over the business and don't know whether that will still be possible," said Schroeder.
The generation is deprived of the ability to make decisions about their future as a result of the climate crisis.
Missing climate protection in Germany?
The aim of the constitutional complaint is for the court to declare the Climate Protection Act unconstitutional and oblige the legislature to make improvements.
But even a non-acceptance decision would be a win if it were well founded, said Schroeder.
"If Karlsruhe recognizes that the federal government has certain protective obligations, then we could build on it."
It is not the first time that a court has had to deal with climate policy.
In 2019, the Berlin Administrative Court dismissed a lawsuit by three families of organic farmers aimed at meeting the 2020 climate target as inadmissible.
The Berlin judges declared, among other things, that the climate targets are a political declaration of intent, not a legally binding regulation.
Last month, the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg dismissed a complaint by citizens from EU countries as well as from Kenya and Fiji against the EU's 2018 climate package.
The plaintiffs are not directly concerned individually, which is why their action is inadmissible, it was said by the European judges.
Climate lawsuits have been successful in the Netherlands and France
In other countries, on the other hand, climate actions have been successful: For example, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands decided at the end of 2019 that the state must limit greenhouse gas emissions more than before.
The administrative court in Paris upheld a similar lawsuit by environmental organizations against the French state in February, ruling that France was doing too little to protect the climate.
There is also an action brought by eight children and young people from Portugal against 33 countries, including Germany, at the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. They argue that the governments in question have failed to contain global warming enough, making forest fires and droughts more likely in Portugal.
(afp / dpa)
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