“Agriculture ministry resists climate protection plan”

The federal agriculture ministry wants to make further changes to the already watered down Climate Action Plan 2050 by Social Democrat environment minister Barbara Hendricks, writes Jan Grossarth in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). An internal document, seen by FAZ and yet to be agreed to by Christian Social agriculture minister Christian Schmidt, would significantly alter the draft that Hendricks published for coordination with other ministries last week. Changes include the removal of the provision that the sector would have to cut half of its greenhouse gas emissions until 2050, as well as the concrete target that 20 percent of all agricultural land should be used for organic farming by 2030.

Read the CLEW factsheet Germany's trimmed-down Climate Action Plan and the CLEW article Ministry avoids concrete targets in weakened Climate Action Plan for background.