German coalition agrees more flexible climate protection law

Environmental groups said the changes were a setback, and called on the transport minister to immediately introduce measures to cut emissions in the sector to avoid paying billions of euros in EU fines for missing the bloc's targets from 2027. "This gutted climate protection law ...

The parliamentary groups of Germany's ruling coalition on Monday agreed on a more flexible climate protection law that would give leeway to underperforming sectors while also binding the government to detail climate protection measures from 2030. After a top court ruled in 2021 that Germany must tighten its climate protection law, the then-government set more ambitious CO2 emissions reduction targets, including reaching carbon neutrality by 2045.

Until now, various sectors, such as energy, transport, industry and agriculture had to meet their own annual greenhouse emissions targets. Ministers responsible for those that missed them, had to launch an immediate programme to put them back on track. With Germany's transport sector consistently falling behind, the pro-business FDP party, which leads the transport ministry, has campaigned for changes in the law so sectors that could not meet their goals would get some leeway as long as the national CO2 limits were not exceeded.

In an attempt to speed up the approval of the proposed changes, Transport Minister Volker Wissing warned last week that without them his ministry would have to impose a ban on driving on weekends to abide by the current rules. "With the agreement, driving bans are finally off the table," Wissing said in a statement on Monday.

Economy Minister Robert Habeck said sectors' annual emission quantities would remain the same for monitoring and evaluation, ensuring transparency. While creating more flexibility on annual targets, the new law also obliges the government for the first time to introduce concrete climate protection measures for the 2030-2040 period.

"Climate protection policy will become more forward-looking, more flexible and therefore more efficient," Habeck said in a statement. Environmental groups said the changes were a setback, and called on the transport minister to immediately introduce measures to cut emissions in the sector to avoid paying billions of euros in EU fines for missing the bloc's targets from 2027.

"This gutted climate protection law ... does not solve a single problem that the federal government was previously faced with," Martin Kaiser, Managing Director of Greenpeace Germany, said in a statement.

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