Industry warns of challenges tied to Hamburg's 2040 climate neutrality vote

A referendum in Hamburg calling for climate neutrality by 2040 — five years earlier than Germany’s national target — has sparked concerns among business representatives about the plan’s feasibility, Handelsblatt reported. The vote commits Germany's second largest city to achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions within 15 years, a goal that industry leaders warn could overburden local companies.

Norbert Aust, head of Hamburg’s Chamber of Commerce, said the earlier target could result in “a corset of more bureaucracy and strict regulation,” potentially hindering effective climate policy. Copper producer Aurubis — one of Hamburg’s largest energy consumers — said it was “highly unlikely” that all technical challenges related to decarbonisation could be resolved by 2040.

The company told Handelsblatt it had already cut its CO₂ emissions to 60 percent below the global average for copper smelters but questioned whether sufficient renewable energy would be available “at globally competitive prices” by the end of the next decade. Since international competitors do not face similar restrictions, the company warned that Hamburg’s accelerated target “ultimately will lead to job losses.”

Hamburg is not alone in pursuing an earlier goal: the states of Baden-Wurttemberg, Lower Saxony, and Schleswig-Holstein have also set 2040 as their deadline for climate neutrality. The European Union aims for net zero by 2050. 

In a commentary for Tagesspiegel, author Stephan-Andreas Casdorff argued that the referendum sent “a strong signal” at a time when senior members of chancellor Friedrich Merz’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) have questioned Germany’s 2045 climate neutrality target. “The referendum points way beyond Hamburg,” Casdorff wrote. “Citizens who are informed about the targets and consequences want climate action — and they want more speed than [the government in] Berlin believes.”

The referendum, launched by climate activist group Fridays for Future, narrowly passed over the weekend. The initiative also included provisions to ensure that decarbonisation measures are implemented in a socially fair manner to prevent hardships for low-income households. Almost all parties in Hamburg’s state parliament, including the governing coalition of mayor Peter Tschentscher’s Social Democrats (SPD) and the Green Party, had spoken out against tightening the targets. After the vote, Tschentscher said his government would respect the result, though it would not immediately alter the city’s 2030 climate policy.

An analysis commissioned before the referendum found that meeting the 2040 goal would require far-reaching measures, including a change of all heating systems to run on climate friendly fuels by the deadline.