Federal government: Habeck’s ministry wants to examine the climate protection ruling

According to its own statements, the Federal Climate Ministry first wants to examine the latest ruling by the Berlin/Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court on the federal government’s climate protection program. This also applies to the decision as to whether the federal government will appeal or not, explained a spokeswoman for the Climate Protection Ministry.

On Thursday evening, the Berlin/Brandenburg Higher Administrative Court upheld two lawsuits filed by Deutsche Umwelthilfe and condemned the federal government to tighten its climate protection measures. In the court’s opinion, the measures planned by the traffic light coalition so far are inadequate to achieve Germany’s climate goals by 2030.

The federal government must “take a close look at this judgment and its justifications,” and the further course of action will then be discussed, the spokeswoman said. According to the Higher Administrative Court, the federal government has one month after delivery of the full judgment to appeal. Then it would be the Federal Administrative Court’s turn. According to the information, it may take some time until the entire judgment, including written reasons, is available.

Resch: “Today is a good day for climate protection”

The spokeswoman for the Climate Ministry made it clear that Germany wanted to “emit significantly fewer greenhouse gases” by 2030 compared to 1990. The specific goal is a reduction of 65 percent. To this end, the federal government “presented a comprehensive climate program” in October 2023 that could reduce the existing climate protection gap by up to 80 percent.

During the oral justification of the judgment, the presiding judge Ariane Holle criticized, among other things, that despite the measures that the federal government had presented so far, there would be a total gap of around 200 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents by 2030. That is the amount of greenhouse gases that Germany would have to save by then in order to achieve its climate goals. According to the judgment that has now been handed down, the federal government has not presented a sufficiently concrete and realistic plan as to how this can be achieved.

DUH Federal Managing Director Jürgen Resch told the German Press Agency about the verdict: “Today is a good day for climate protection.” The federal government must now act quickly and improve the climate protection program in the short term. A key demand of his association is a speed limit of 100 kilometers per hour on motorways, 80 km/h on other roads outside towns and 30 km/h in urban areas.

Far-reaching consequences for the traffic light government’s policy?

The spokeswoman for the Climate Ministry explained that the federal government is aware of this difficult task. “We have always made it clear that the package of measures in the climate protection program alone cannot suffice,” she said. The current court ruling confirms this need for adjustment. It is also entirely possible to close the gaping hole, she continued. To do this, the federal government just needs to stay the course and implement its programs resolutely.

The court very explicitly does not come to this conclusion in its judgment, but emphasizes that “the 2023 climate protection program suffers from methodological deficiencies and is partly based on unrealistic assumptions,” as it says in the corresponding communication on the judgment.

Environmental Aid recently took legal action against the federal government’s climate policy and won a victory in November 2023. At that time, the OVG Berlin-Brandenburg ruled that the government must launch an immediate climate program in the transport and building sectors. The appeal against this is ongoing at the Federal Administrative Court.