Environment: Traffic vs. climate protection: Government rejects allegations

The federal government has rejected the allegation of a breach of law in the Climate Protection Act. A government spokeswoman said in Berlin that she could not share this assessment. The government has already presented a climate protection program. A spokesman for Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) said: “We disagree with the claim that we have not presented any additional climate protection measures.” In June, the cabinet decided on a program with additional measures – also in the transport sector. The Ministry complies with the legal obligation.

In 2022, the legally prescribed amount of CO2 emissions was exceeded in the transport and building sectors. According to the applicable climate protection law, the responsible departments must submit immediate programs for improvements. The deadline for this is today.

Criticism: Government does not meet climate targets with new program

Stefanie Langkamp, ​​Head of Politics, said for the Climate Alliance Germany that the federal government should comply with the requirements of the Climate Protection Act from a purely formal and legal point of view. You have declared your latest climate protection program as an emergency program under the Climate Protection Act. “However, it does not meet the climate targets,” emphasized Langkamp. It is a renewed breach of law by the federal government in relation to the Climate Protection Act. “With every further violation of the law and every further failure to meet the binding climate targets, it becomes more expensive and difficult to counteract the climate crisis.”

Criticism of the FDP-led Ministry of Transport also came from the green coalition partner: climate politician Lisa Badum said that the Ministry of Transport had again not presented any measures to ensure compliance with the climate targets by 2030. This is not only a sign of failure for climate policy, but also for the rule of law. “Regardless of whether it is under the current climate protection law or the new draft law, the federal government must initiate all necessary measures to meet the climate targets by 2030.”

Langkamp also criticized that the planned reform would weaken the climate protection law. The reform initiated by the Federal Cabinet – which the FDP wanted above all – stipulates that compliance with climate targets should no longer be checked retrospectively according to various sectors such as transport, industry or agriculture – but should be forward-looking, multi-year and cross-sectoral. In the future, the federal government as a whole should decide in which sector and with which measures the permissible total amount of CO2 is to be achieved by 2030 – but only if the target is missed two years in a row. Environmental groups have already massively criticized the reform.

Fridays for Future presents its own immediate program

Meanwhile, the Fridays for Future organization wants to help the sector, which has been hitting the climate targets for years, with its own emergency program for traffic.

In it, the activists demand, among other things, a speed limit of 120 kilometers per hour on motorways or the expansion of local public transport (ÖPNV) and rail. In addition, their program provides for car-free inner cities and the expansion of cycling infrastructure. In addition, the organization reiterated its demands for the resignation of Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP).

The climate protection organization announced that the sectors had not submitted an immediate program to reduce the amount of emissions in the following years by the deadline on July 17th when the maximum annual emissions in the transport and building sectors laid down in the Climate Protection Act were torn down.

“Both sectors have broken the climate protection targets and now have to make adjustments, but at the same time both ministries are not doing that,” said Pit Terjung from Fridays for Future. Lawyer Caroline Douhaire spoke of a “breaking of the law”.

Traffic is the biggest construction site when it comes to climate protection, said Terjung. That’s where the least has happened in the last few decades. In 2022, the transport sector, with around 150 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, was 11 million tonnes above the 139 million tonnes permitted for the year.