BUND sues government for failing to meet climate targets in transportation

The Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND) has sued the German federal government before the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg because the greenhouse gas sector targets for transportation and buildings enshrined in the Federal Climate Protection Act (KSG) are not being met. For example, in the transportation sector, the allowed emission amounts for 2021 were exceeded by 3.1 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions. A renewed exceedance is expected for 2022, according to the reasoning.

In its lawsuit, the environmental organization is therefore demanding the enactment of immediate programs as provided for in the KSG. These immediate programs must include measures to meet the annual sector targets. A prior request from the organization to present an effective immediate program had been left unanswered by the federal government, according to BUND's statement. The association's chairman, Olaf Bandt, specifies:

"We cannot continue to watch parts of the federal government ignore their own climate protection goals and refuse effective measures in transportation and buildings. Time is running out for us. Scholz, Wissing, Geywitz, and Habeck are failing to put the country on a climate course and are thus violating the German Climate Protection Act."

It now requires a political decision to create effective climate protection measures, Bandt continues. If the government of Olaf Scholz is politically unable or unwilling to do so, it must be judicially compelled. With a view to current debates on accelerating infrastructure projects, Bandt adds:

"It would be a scandal if the federal government continues to fuel the fire with the accelerated construction of climate-damaging highways. Emissions must go down, not up."

According to the Climate Protection Act, the federal government must reduce its emissions by 65 percent by 2030. If sectors exceed the specified annual emission amounts, the government must promptly decide on immediate programs according to its own Federal Climate Protection Act. So far, the traffic light coalition has not made any such decisions, despite the fact that it should have done so due to high emissions in the transportation and building sectors in 2021. It has not even presented effective immediate program drafts with sufficient measures to achieve the goals. This was confirmed by the Expert Council on Climate Issues of the federal government in 2022.

BUND considers this all the more dramatic because the targets of the Climate Protection Act themselves are not sufficient to comply with the legally binding 1.5-degree limit of the Paris Climate Agreement. The current course of the federal government also runs counter to the constitutional climate requirements that the Federal Constitutional Court stated in 2021 following a constitutional complaint initiated in part by BUND, the nature conservation organization adds.

"The Chancellor is now required to speak out to live up to his self-proclaimed title of 'Climate Chancellor' during the election campaign," says Bandt.