NGOs present climate action package, call on German govt for more speed

German environmental organisations have called on the government to speed up the introduction of ambitious and concrete climate action policy, one month before the planned decisive meeting of the climate cabinet. In a joint press release, they write that the time for symbolic politics is over. "We are at the beginning of a dangerous climate crisis. Dry summers and heat waves, floods and storm damage will affect us regularly. We need effective measures and we need them now." The NGOs – among them WWF, Greenpeace, Germanwatch, and Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) – presented a climate action package, which includes the call for a coal exit by 2030, raising the renewables share in power consumption to 75 percent by 2030, expanding rail transport and phasing out the combustion engine.

The German government has promised key decisions on how the country can reach its 2030 climate targets in all sectors for a meeting on 20 September, including proposals for the electricity sector – namely on the coal exit. Environmental NGOs had supported the general agreement in the coal exit commission, which calls for the shutdown of the last coal plant by 2038 at the latest, but said the timetable violated the Paris climate targets.