The heads of eight large German environmental associations have made a joint appeal to the parties to stop the “dishonest election campaign at the expense of the climate” and instead to struggle for “the right instruments” with which the climate goals could be achieved.
In the text published on Thursday, signed by the Federal Managing Director of BUND, the President of the German Nature Conservation Ring, the Germanwatch Chairman of the Board and the NABU President, the reasons given: Germany is "miles away" from making its contribution to achieving it of the 1.5 degree goal.
Therefore, a “competition between the parties for the best measures for climate protection” is needed, in the course of which honesty with a view to the expected costs is necessary.
Any measure implemented too late will in the near future result in “high economic damage” that will burden the various social groups to different degrees.
"Opportunity to start the election campaign credibly"
The signatories refer to the debate about an increase in the price of gasoline by 16 cents demanded by, among others, the Chancellor candidate of the Greens, Annalena Baerbock, as well as the dispute between the Union and the SPD over the distribution of the additional costs due to the new CO2 tax between tenants and landlords.
Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Federal Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) are currently polemicized against the gradual increase in CO2 prices and the associated increase in petrol prices - although they had introduced this instrument themselves.
"While parts of the Union are again appealing to the hearts of motorists, they are blocking a fair distribution of the CO2 price for heating in the Bundestag at the expense of the tenants," it continues.
For their part, the associations propose a mix of “regulatory instruments and a step-by-step increase in CO2 pricing”. The coalition now still has the opportunity “to strengthen climate protection through concrete decisions and start the election campaign credibly”.