In the election campaign, Scholz presented himself as the next climate chancellor, and the coalition agreement states that climate goals have top priority. But leading environmental groups are now warning the government against watering down the targets, blaming one governing party in particular.
A broad alliance of environmental organizations is warning the federal government against watering down the current climate protection law. In particular, it calls for sticking to the annual emission targets for the individual sectors such as energy, construction or transport. Chancellor Olaf Scholz must oppose the FDP here, it said in an open letter to the SPD politician.
"The climate protection law with its annual sector targets is the climate policy achievement of the SPD parliamentary group and its then environment minister Svenja Schulze" from the time of the grand coalition, the letter says. "It assigns clear responsibilities, forces transparency and, with its commitment to immediate programs when targets are missed, also requires consequences." The law thus makes "climate protection predictable, reliable and shows plannable transformation paths for all sectors".
The associations sharply criticize the FDP, which wants to move away from the sector goals. The background to this is that emissions targets are not being met, particularly in the transport sector. Even an immediate program presented by Transport Minister Volker Wissing is not sufficient to achieve the targets and thus violates the Climate Protection Act.
"Instead of adhering to the applicable laws, Minister Wissing and the FDP want to gut the climate protection law by abolishing the sector targets to such an extent that climate policy omissions in the transport sector are no longer regularly discussed," criticize the environmental associations. "We cannot tolerate changing the law in order to cover up a breach of the law." This means that "the ongoing breach of the law would be accepted with open eyes". In addition, the implementation of the packages of measures from the other sectors would also be prevented. This is "irresponsible in terms of climate policy".
Scholz must now show leadership in climate protection. "The consistent refusal of the FDP and its transport minister to effectively reduce emissions in this sector should have no place in a 'progressive coalition'," it said. The associations recall that the coalition agreement of the traffic light parties states that achieving the climate goals of the Paris Agreement is "top priority" for the government.
In addition, the urgently needed measures that can be implemented in the short term have all been known for a long time: "For a traffic turnaround in favor of climate-friendly, socially just and safe mobility for everyone, better bus and train services, safe cycle paths and footpaths and a real bonus-penalty system are needed for new registrations", demand the associations. "At the same time, climate-damaging subsidies in transport must come to an end."
The call is supported by the environmental umbrella organization Deutscher Naturschutzring (DNR) and by BUND, ClientEarth, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, Forum Ökologie-Social Marktwirtschaft (FÖS), Germanwatch, Greenpeace, Climate Alliance Germany, Nature Conservation Union (NABU), Transport
