German environmentalists threaten legal action over climate law change June 27, 2024

(L-R) Baro Gabbert, climate protection activist, Luisa Neubauer, climate protection activist, Roda Verheyen, lawyer and judge, Juergen Resch, Federal Managing Director of Deutsche Umwelthilfe, and other lawyers take part in the Federal Press Conference on the new constitutional complaints against the Federal Climate Protection Act. Annette Riedl/dpa

By AFP - Agence France Presse

German environmentalists threaten legal action over climate law change

German environmental organizations announced three new constitutional objections in Berlin on Wednesday, aiming to force the federal government to do more to combat global warming.

The objections will be filed if President Frank-Walter Steinmeier signs an amendment that weakens the Climate Protection Act, Greenpeace, Germanwatch and Environmental Action Germany (DUH) said in Berlin, where they presented the new objections together with Fridays for Future and other organizations.

The amendment was approved by the lower house of parliament in April and by the upper house in May and is awaiting Steinmeier's signature to enter into force.

"We are gathering here for constitutional objection 2.0," said Roda Verheyen, a lawyer for one of the objections.

In 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled in a landmark decision that the government had to improve its climate measures to protect the rights of future generations.

This decision met the objections of several environmental organizations, including some present at Wednesday's meeting in Berlin.

Verheyen said that the central problem and the reason for the new objections were the inadequate climate policy and the amendment to the Climate Protection Act. "It is unconstitutional," said the lawyer. "The sectoral targets have been abolished as sectoral targets. This means that the entire path to reduction is at risk," he added.

Luisa Neubauer, from Fridays for Future, described the government's climate policy as hypocritical and short-sighted. "The coalition believes that it only needs to protect people from climate catastrophe if it happens at a time that suits them," she said.

Protecting the climate is a human right, Neubauer said. "As long as the government disregards that, we will go to court," she added.

The changes to the amendment promoted by the liberal and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), a junior partner in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government, include that greenhouse gas emission targets will no longer be applied sector by sector, but will be considered across the board.

Germany's overall goal of achieving zero net emissions by 2045 remains unchanged.

DUH director Jürgen Resch said that his organization had asked Steinmeier in a legal letter not to sign the amendment. In response to a question from dpa, Steinmeier's office said that the amendment was still being checked, without giving details.

Representatives of some of the groups present on Wednesday, including Germanwatch and Greenpeace, indicated that they intended to present their objections even if the amendment was not signed into law.