Environment: Judgment after climate lawsuits against the federal government today

The Berlin-Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court (OVG) announced a ruling on the federal climate protection regulations this evening. The presiding judge Ariane Holle announced this after a five-hour oral hearing in Berlin, without giving a specific time. She simply said that the verdict would come “not before 6:30 p.m.”

The process concerns the question of whether the measures anchored in the federal government’s climate protection program really ensure compliance with the legally defined climate protection goals. The German Environmental Aid (DUH) does not believe this to be the case and is calling on the federal government to revise the program.

Many measures were formulated too vaguely, too vaguely and too vaguely, said a DUH lawyer at the hearing. He cited strengthening local public transport (ÖPNV) as an example. It is not clear what specific impact this will have on the reduction of climate-damaging greenhouse gases.

More of a political program than a concrete plan?

A representative of the federal government explained that the climate protection program was more of a political program than a concrete plan; he spoke of a “higher level of abstraction”. However, legislators and administration supported the program with concrete measures in many places.

The basis for the lawsuits are the requirements of the Climate Protection Act for various sectors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions for the years 2024 to 2030. The law also sets the goal of increasing these emissions in their entirety by at least 65 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 reduce. For comparison: around 46 percent reduction was achieved in the previous year.