After the resounding censorship of part of the "climate law" in Germany, deemed too unambitious by the Constitutional Court, the government announced on Wednesday its intention to raise its targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions .
Berlin now intends to reduce its emissions by 65% by 2030 compared to 1990, against 55% previously, then 88% by 2040, with the desire to achieve carbon neutrality "in 2045", five years earlier than planned, announced the Minister of Finance and Vice-Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
“Ambitious” but “achievable” objectives
These objectives are "really ambitious" and "achievable", assured his counterpart of the Environment, Svenja Schulze, during a press conference. A bill will be tabled "next week" in the Council of Ministers, indicated these two officials of the SPD (social democrats) who govern with the conservatives of Angela Merkel.
The German government had indicated that it wanted to react quickly after the landmark judgment of the Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe, which partially rejected, at the end of April, the government's previous climate objectives, adopted in December 2019. “This is a new perspective. legal which could have many consequences ”and which stipulates“ that we must do even more ”for the younger generations, underlined the Chancellor Angela Merkel, Wednesday, during an exchange with Dutch students by video.
"Young people remind us that we are too slow"
The judges, seized by four environmental associations, had estimated that the legislation was "not in conformity with the fundamental rights" of the younger generations. According to them, Berlin had not foreseen "sufficient requirements for the subsequent reduction of emissions from the year 2031". “Young people remind us that we are too slow,” Angela Merkel conceded. The environmental question has become central in the German public debate in recent years, following the numerous demonstrations of young people carried by the “Fridays for future” movement.
Environmentalists are also on the rise in the polls for the legislative elections of September 26, several recent surveys giving them the lead in this election which must designate a successor to Angela Merkel.
Environmentalists are boosted by the recent appointment of their candidate, Annalena Baerbock, a 40-year-old ex-lawyer, more popular than the Conservatives' candidate for chancellery, Armin Laschet.
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