It is the victory of the guys from Fridays for Future and the Greta generation, worried about the future that awaits them and the polluted world that the “grown-ups” of today will leave them. in Germany someone listened to them, even more. The environmentalists’ complaints were collected by the Constitutional Court of Karlsruhe, which in a historic ruling today asked the parliament and the government to do more on climate protection. The law in force is not enough. Parliament will have to re-regulate the targets on reducing gas emissions after 2030 by the end of the year.
«Historic decision», is the comment on Twitter of the candidate green chancellor, Annalena Baerbock. “Climate protection protects our freedom and the freedom of our children and grandchildren.” In short, the legislator will have to take timely precautions also for the period following the next nine years, which already has a plan to reduce fossil energy. In order to create the transition to climate neutrality in 2050, the measures planned from 2031 onwards were sufficient so far. The Karlsruhe judges consider them insufficient, they should be better specified for a more stringent climate policy, and in particular they consider them “incompatible with fundamental rights”, lacking sufficiently clear indications on the reduction of emissions.
THE CAUSES OF ENVIRONMENTALISTS
The future is not too distant, says the High Court. The constitutional appeal of various activists, some of them very young, led to this outcome. Luisa Neubauer speaks for them, defined as the German Greta Thunberg, interlocutor of the Fridays for future in Germany with the government of Angela Merkel. “We won, and it’s a huge thing. It’s not nice that we got it, this is our fundamental right, ”the activist underlines on Twitter. “The Constitutional Court shows that the state is obliged to protect people through adequate climate protection.” The point of law is that, according to the High Court, “practically freedom as a whole is potentially affected by these future emission reduction obligations, because almost all areas of human life are still linked to greenhouse gas emissions and are therefore threatened by drastic restrictions after 2030 ”, the judges write. That is to say that, in order to protect freedom and fundamental rights, the legislator has the duty to implement provisions that are able to “mitigate these heavy burdens” which will continue in the future. The court complains that ecological plans are fine, for example to reduce coal plants in Germany to zero by 2038, but the pollution problem has only been postponed. The greenhouse gas reduction, which will continue after 2030, should be regulated in an ordinance in 2025. Not enough, Karlsruhe thinks.
In terms of constitutional law, the question was not so simple because it is a question of threats to fundamental rights, but still future ones. In short, the Court did not rule on ongoing violations. This always means the same thing: if we want to protect constitutional freedoms from the effects of climate change in the future, then we must start with the present. “Lifestyle is still largely associated with carbon dioxide emissions,” environmentalists denounce. What will follow after this sentence by Karlruhe is not clear. Formally, the Climate Protection Act, which aims to reduce gas emissions by 55% by 2030, will remain in force. But the legislator will have to write a timetable for the next period. «There are 22 weeks to go until the federal elections and climate protection is a fundamental right – writes Neubauer – Excellent. Anyone who wants to do politics today must protect the future freedoms and rights of the people. We are more than ready to fight for a coalition that cuts the global average temperature rise by 1.5 degrees. #Klimaklage ». And from September, if the Greens are in government, these instances will also become those of the new German chancellor post Merkel.