Climate policy: Suddenly something stimulates about the CDU and SPD

There are many terms to describe the CDU chairman Friedrich Merz. He is a grandfather of seven grandchildren. He is impulsive and does not think from the end, some said after coordination with the AfD in the Bundestag. Others describe it as competent and assertive. So far, however, it has not been attributed to him: to be particularly interested in climate protection.

That could change soon. Because not only the green areas for their consent to the financing package. Without targeted climate investments, there should be no special fund-that is the motto. Even within the Union, demands for a more ambitious climate policy suddenly become louder. Will Friedrich Merz still become a climate chancellor – albeit reluctantly?

In any case, a group of CDU MPs and party members would not mind. With clear demands to your own party and the future black-red coalition. “We do not want to express a fundamental criticism of the previous climate policy, not even in our own party,” says Berthold Schilling, Managing Director of the Climate Launion, the star. “It is an appeal to the new federal government to actively work for an effective climate policy that relies more on the market economy and cost efficiency.”

The 46-page paper urges an ambitious climate policy-but not to a radical change of course. “We cannot afford a ‘flip-flopping’ every four years,” it says. Some positions from the election campaign of their own party are critically questioned.

In the election program, the CDU and CSU had clarified: “We cancel the heating law of the traffic lights.” The climate launch is now urging the “basic idea” of the building energy law (opposite). Although the law should be designed “unbureaucratic and more practical” – however, investment security for companies is more important.

Other projects of the traffic lights are also to be continued, including the climate field, the Greens, SPD and FDP as an election promise but never implemented. In some cases, the climate launch even demands stricter measures. For example, the sector goals are to be re -introduced, which have been abolished by the traffic light coalition.

The climate policy believed to be forgotten seems to be in focus again. In the coalition negotiations there will also be an energy and environment working group. Merz will not be able to avoid the topic of climate in his financing plan either. The Greens whose votes Union and SPD are dependent on a two -thirds majority have expressed concerns about the investment package. Some CDU politicians could also vote against it without a climate clause.

The CDU MP and chairman of the climate saunion, Thomas Heilmann, makes his consent dependent: “If this special fund is actually used for additional investments-for example in climate protection-and does not simply serve as outsourcing the federal budget, then I would agree with it,” he says star.

Heilmann expects climate policy to become less important in the next few days in the financing package. In the coalition negotiations, too, he sees further opportunities to represent climate policy more – even if there are still hurdles. “A more ambitious climate policy in our sense could fail because of the Social Democrats,” he says. “We want to achieve climate protection with the market economy, the SPD less.”

A common black-red climate plan could also fail because there are currently hardly any prominent climate politicians in the SPD. While CDU MP sector goals and Klimageld are calling for, the Social Democrats largely have radio silence on these topics.

When asked what role climate policy should play in a black and red coalition, the SPD member of the Bundestag Nina Scheer answers star-If demand: “The climate at many areas of life is very important without it being named directly by name.” The network expansion is already included in the exploratory paper, according to Scheer.

It sounds different on the party base. The organization SPD.KLIMA. Correspondingly, a group of SPD members and climate activists, wants to anchor climate policy more in the party. “Social climate policy in particular should actually be a core task of the SPD,” says Leon Schmid from SPD.Klima. “When I look into the exploratory paper, I lack the basic future orientation of Germany in terms of climate protection.” In addition, he sees some problematic points. One example is the planned expansion of gas power plants.

Last year, the members of the organization organized a climate dialogue with the SPD party leadership in the Willy-Brandt-Haus. Now they are increasingly looking for contact with MPs to lobby for climate. Your goal: to put the topic on the agenda during the coalition negotiations.

However, the organization is not officially anchored in the SPD, which limits its influence. But that could change soon. Because the approximately 30 active members report growing interest. If this trend continues, the SPD could actually encounter resistance in the event of a member vote on the coalition agreement.

According to the CDU MP Heilmann, the falling interest of the parties reflects the current social situation. “It is crucial that the topic of climate protection has lost attention among the population,” he says. And that is a massive problem in view of the objectively growing problems. Because: “If climate protection is only one topic for the Greens, then it will be very difficult for climate protection.”