Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND), a German environmental group is suing the government for failing to meet climate targets for reaching climate neutrality by 2045
At the COP27 summit, Germany had vowed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 65 per cent of 1990 levels by the year 2030 and completely exit coal by 2030.
But last year, it restarted a coal fired reserve power plant as a result of dwindling supplies of natural gas from Russia. Now, Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND), a German environmental group is suing the government for failing to meet climate targets for reaching climate neutrality by 2045.
The group claims that the government should have put forward an emergency programme for the transport and building sectors to reduce emissions. In 2021, there were protests across the country against the partly built A14 Autobahn, which is to link the Baltic Sea port city of Wismar with Dresden city in Saxony state by 2030.
Activists claimed the A100 extension would leave a “trail of destruction through Berlin’s middle.” Both transport and building sectors have fallen behind on their legally binding targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
Differences between two members of the coalition government — the environmentalist Greens and the libertarian Free Democratic Party (which controls the Transport ministry) — have stalled efforts to cut fossil fuel use in the transport sector.
For instance, introduction of mandatory speed limits on highways to 120 kilometers per hour (74.5 mph) would save 2.6 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. A limit of 100 kmh (62 mph) would more than double the savings, according to Germany’s Environment Agency.
A report published earlier this month by the think tank Agora Energiewende concluded that Germany’s emissions of planet-heating gas last year were likely higher than the target set for 2020.
BUND, which has more than 450,000 members, argues that time is running out for Germany to meet its national climate goals for 2030 and achieve ‘net zero’ emissions by 2045.
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