The
German
Constitutional Court
has determined that the objectives set in the climate change law promoted by Chancellor
Angela Merkel
- and approved in December 2019 -
are "insufficient" to protect future generations.
The ruling comes two years after the Dutch Supreme Court also ordered its government to cut emissions more drastically to protect citizens.
The success of the legal actions in Germany, promoted among others by the activist
Luisa Neubauer
(a close ally of
Greta Thunberg in Fridays for Future),
opens the spigot to a possible chain of initiatives before the courts in other European countries to set more ambitious goals in the face of climate change.
"We are facing a huge step in the climate movement," said Neubauer, which was supported by
Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and other
environmental
NGOs
.
"Climate protection is our basic right, and that is something that has become official now."
The origin of the case that reached the German Constitutional Court was in fact that of
22-year-old
agricultural science student
Sophie Backsen, the
daughter of a farming family on the
island of Pellworm in the North Sea.
Backsen argued that rising sea levels with the expected level of emissions could end up engulfing much of the island, including his parents' organic farm.
In its landmark ruling, the high court recognizes "fundamental rights to a human future" for young people and urges the government to "take more urgent and short-term measures."
The
Climate Protection Act
sponsored by Merkel set an
emission reduction of 55% in 2030
compared to 1990 levels.
"Virtually all freedoms and all areas of human life can be affected by greenhouse gas emissions, for which
drastic reductions are necessary after 2030",
can be read in the ruling, which obliges the Government to review the Climate Protection Law before the end of the year.
The
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz
took note and promised to work immediately with the
Ministry of Environment
to introduce the necessary amendments.
Oliver Kirscher
of
the Green Party
told
Deutschlandfunk
broadcaster
that the ruling is "both a slap in the face and a wake-up call to finally launch an ambitious climate protection policy."
"This is only the beginning," warned Luisa Neubauer.
"We will continue to fight for a policy of
maximum temperature increase of 1.5 degrees
to protect our freedoms in the future. Gone are the days when young people called us 'ignorant' for demanding climate action."
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
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