Environmental NGOs file new climate lawsuit against German government
Clean Energy Wire / Handelsblatt
Greenpeace and Germanwatch filed a new constitutional complaint against the German government’s “inadequate” climate policy, especially when it comes to the transport sector, the NGOs said. The complaint, filed alongside over 54,000 co-plaintiffs, demands a climate action law that is compliant with the constitution, as well as steps to reduce transport emissions. The lawsuit is one of three which are filed against the government by NGOs on environmental grounds.
Earlier this year, the government amended the Climate Action Law, which previously required sectors like transport to come up with immediate action plans if they failed to meet yearly targets, reported Handelsblatt. With the reform, the sectoral emissions budgets are no longer binding. Instead, Germany focusses on reaching an overall target, so that shortfalls in one sector can be compensated by overachieving in another. That puts less pressure on specific sectors like transport to implement climate action, and it is on these grounds that the lawsuit was conceived. “In order to protect our fundamental rights, emission reductions must be introduced and implemented in good time – the amendment to the Climate Action Law does exactly the opposite,” the complainants' lawyer, Roda Verheyen, told Handeslblatt.
In a landmark ruling in 2021, the German constitutional court declared that the government’s climate legislation was insufficient. The court at the time said that if the government fails to implement policy to protect the climate, it could violate citizens’ fundamental rights.
