Environment Minister Schulze promises quick improvements to the Climate Protection Act

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Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD)

Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa

The Federal Constitutional Court gave the federal government a bad report for the Climate Protection Act.

The law passed at the end of 2019 would not be enough to adequately protect the freedom of future generations, according to the judgment of the judges from Karlsruhe.

You are right in parts of a constitutional lawsuit by climate activists related to "Fridays for Future".

Now Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) wants to quickly step up.

New cornerstones for a further developed climate protection law are to be presented as early as the summer, "so that we do not lose any time," said Schulze, according to a statement from the Federal Environment Ministry.

The SPD politician emphasized that the judges' decision was a “significant strengthening” for climate protection.

"The Federal Constitutional Court is thus also confirming the mechanism that we introduced with the Climate Protection Act, which provides for annual declining climate targets for all sectors," wrote the minister.

Shortly after it became known, the SPD politician described the decision from Karlsruhe at a press conference as an "exclamation mark" for climate protection.

"Not feasible" with the CDU and CSU

She pushes the deficiencies in the previous climate protection law on to the coalition partner. Decisions have to be planned in the long term, emphasized Schulze. "That is why, in the context of the discussion about the German Climate Protection Act, I was very committed to ensuring that we also set an interim target for 2040 on the way to greenhouse gas neutrality in 2050." But that was "not feasible" with the CDU and CSU. "In this respect, it's good that the Federal Constitutional Court says you can't duck back, you have to be clearer about it," said Schulze.

Previously, the SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz and Minister of Economic Affairs Peter Altmaier (CDU) had argued on Twitter about how to deal with the law. Altmaier had praised the Karlsruhe judgment and now promised more speed. Scholz replied to the short message service that the SPD had a stricter climate protection law in mind as early as 2019 - and that the CDU / CSU had slowed down. "But we can correct that quickly," said Scholz to Altmaier. "Are you with us?"

The Climate Protection Act was passed by the Bundestag and Bundesrat at the end of 2019 as part of the climate package.

For individual areas such as traffic, agriculture or buildings, it specifies how many greenhouse gases they are allowed to emit in which year.

The Karlsruhe judges obliged the legislature to regulate the reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions for the period after 2030 in more detail by the end of next year.

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