Germany advances its goal of climate neutrality by five years: zero emissions in 2045

Germany has taken seriously the warning made to it a few days ago by its Constitutional Court. The Climate Change Law, passed in 2019, is unambitious and shifts the burden of the pernicious effects of climate change to future generations, the judges concluded in a landmark ruling for environmental protection. Chancellor Angela Merkel reacted within hours by agreeing with the court and announcing a change in the law. The first step has been taken this Wednesday. Germany is going to advance five years one of the most ambitious objectives: climate neutrality, that is, to emit only the amount of greenhouse gases that nature is able to absorb, according to the draft approved by the Executive. Until now Germany, like the European Union, had set that goal for 2050. The new law, which will go ahead in a matter of weeks thanks to the majority of the government parties in the two legislative chambers, will set this to happen in 2045.

The intermediate objective of reducing polluting emissions by 2030 (taking as a reference the indices that existed in 1990) is also much more ambitious than the one recently agreed by the 27 to include in the future European climate law. Germany expects the cut to be 65% compared to the 55% agreed with European partners and thus will be included in German law. The announcement of the Merkel Executive comes after the reprimand of the Constitutional, but also in the middle of the electoral campaign, just over four months before an election to which for the first time in 16 years the chancellor does not present herself and in which the polls predict a very good result for the Greens. The fight against climate change is one of the central issues of the campaign of all the major German parties.

“With this law, we are creating more intergenerational equity, greater certainty in planning and determined climate action that does not stifle the industry, but restructures and modernizes it,” Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said at a press conference after the Executive meeting. Schulze explained that the reduction of emissions until 2030 will have to be assumed mainly by the energy and industrial sectors, the largest emitters of greenhouse gases. The promotion of renewable energy will have a central role in the new strategy, he said, because it is the technology that must replace fossil fuels as soon as possible.

Germany has managed to reduce its emissions by more than 40% compared to 1990. In absolute terms, Europe’s largest economy last year emitted 722 million tonnes of CO₂, 80 million less than the previous year, but at least two-thirds of that decline is attributed to the pandemic. For the first time in its history, the country produced more electricity from wind power than from coal last year, after several years in which this polluting energy source rebounded as a result of the progressive blackout of nuclear energy.

Germany has decided not to wait for the agreements decided in the Council of Europe to be implemented and to go ahead by passing its own law. Adjustments, if necessary, could be made later, a spokesman for Schulze’s ministry said. No time can be wasted in the fight against climate change, the minister stressed on several occasions during her appearance. The targets set by Germany are more ambitious than those of the 27, but the United Kingdom is still in the lead, which recently announced a 68% reduction by 2030 and 78% by 2035. Boris Johnson’s government plans to set those commitments by law this June.

The new German climate law aims to preserve and expand natural sinks of greenhouse gases, such as forests and peatlands, needed to offset emissions from livestock and certain industrial processes. The improvement has to be ready by 2050, so that these sinks help sequester more greenhouse gases than the country as a whole emits. The standard provides for the Council of Experts on Climate Change that advises the Government to submit a report every two years to assess progress in achieving the goals.

The legislation is accompanied by a budget of 8,000 million euros that among other things will serve to finance improvements in the energy efficiency of buildings. A novelty of the new rule will be that the owners of the properties must assume half of the costs generated by the energy consumption of the homes, because they are the ones who decide what reforms are made in the houses, for example, the type of heating that is installed. “The Climate Change Act sets the framework for the coming years and decades,” Schulze said. “It’s not about numerical goals, but about how we want to live our lives in the future, how we want to produce goods, generate heat and travel. This affects many policy areas. In the future, all ministries will have to be climate ministries,” he added.

Greenpeace believes the new law will also not be enough to balance the burden of reducing greenhouse gases between current and future generations. In a report made public on Wednesday, the environmental organization calculates that even with the new plans of the federal government Germany will have exhausted 91% of its carbon budget (the emissions that remain to avoid altering the climate) in 2030 and that by 2045 it will have been exceeded by 32%. If the executive wants to comply with the Ruling of the Constitutional Court, the goal of reducing polluting gases should be at least 70% by 2030 and achieve climate neutrality by 2040, said Lisa Göldner, the organization’s climate expert.

Source: The Country