uEnvironmentalists have sharply criticized the results of the multi-day coalition committee. In particular, the planned softening of the Federal Climate Protection Act is a disaster, criticized the German Environmental Aid (DUH) on Tuesday. “This anti-climate protection coalition is seriously laying hands on the Federal Climate Protection Act. In doing so, she sins against all future generations,” explained DUH Federal Managing Director Jürgen Resch. “In the transport sector, the horror news is almost uncountable, including a whopping 144 accelerated motorway construction projects and the planned de facto equal treatment of combustion engine cars with electric vehicles,” criticized Resch.
He called on the members of the Bundestag to “roundly reject the planned deterioration of the already unambitious law from the Merkel era”.
Greenpeace criticized similar points: “By giving up the obligation to implement each individual sector goal, Chancellor Scholz (…) is acknowledging that his party’s greatest climate policy success, the Climate Protection Act, will be gutted,” explained Martin Kaiser, CEO of Greenpeace Germany. “This relieves Transport Minister Wissing, of all people, of responsibility when it comes to climate protection. If 144 additional climate-damaging motorway projects are to be paved through the country at an accelerated rate, the climate will be driven further against the wall.” The “traffic light marathon” did “far too little” to climate protection, even throwing it back “in important places”.
Economy: “The results are encouraging”
The economist Veronika Grimm, on the other hand, praises the results of the coalition committee. “It turns out to be positive that the coalition committee took its time,” Grimm told the Düsseldorf Rheinische Post. “Financing the expansion of the railways through a truck toll is a good idea,” emphasized the member of the Advisory Council for the Assessment of Overall Economic Development.
“The reform of the Climate Protection Act with a view to temporal and intersectoral flexibility is also a good thing – as long as the emission reduction targets are met,” she added. “In the building sector, it has apparently also been possible to clear up the negative aspects. None of this should lead to the mood turning against climate protection,” stressed Grimm. “The results encourage that the coalition is capable of action. An important signal,” she said.
After almost 30 hours of marathon deliberations, the traffic light parties agreed on a common course in climate and infrastructure policy on Tuesday evening. The resolutions provide for faster planning processes for major infrastructure projects, including 144 highway projects, as well as for rail, power grids and renewable energy. In addition, the Climate Protection Act is to be changed in key points. The strict annual sector targets for greenhouse gas emissions, for example for transport or the building sector, are to be relaxed. In the future, it should be possible to compensate for missed targets in one sector in another.
