The opposition SPD parliamentary group in the Hessian state parliament has failed with its draft law to protect people from the consequences of climate change.

The parliamentary groups of the CDU, Greens, FDP and AfD voted against the proposal in Wiesbaden on Tuesday, while the left abstained.

The Social Democrats wanted the law to regulate how Hesse tightens its climate protection goals and adapts them to nationwide goals.

The background to this is a judgment by the Federal Constitutional Court in April 2021, according to which politicians must improve climate protection in order to protect the freedoms of future generations.

The judges ruled that the Federal Climate Protection Act falls short.

Hesse's Environment Minister Priska Hinz (Greens) referred to a planned draft law by the state government on climate protection.

She reaffirmed the country's goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2045 at the latest.

The environmental policy spokeswoman for the CDU parliamentary group, Lena Arnoldt, said that the SPD's draft law threatened to become a "bureaucratic monster full of meaningless phrases and symbolic politics".


"With this draft law, the SPD is trying to overtake the Greens on the left," said environmental policy spokesman for the AfD parliamentary group, Klaus Gagel.

However, it is not necessary to tighten the climate protection goals.

Because climate protection is “not about achieving climate goals at all, but about social restructuring and the redistribution of a lot of money”.

The Green environmental expert Martina Feldmayer replied that Gagel was spreading "conspiracy myths".

Feldmayer emphasized that there was agreement among the democratic parties that more had to be done to protect the climate.