• About
    • Which Energy Mix is this?
  • Climate News Network Archive
  • Contact
Celebrating our 1,000th edition. The climate news you need
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities
SUBSCRIBE
DONATE
No Result
View All Result
The Energy Mix
No Result
View All Result
  FEATURED
EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit August 15, 2022
Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature August 15, 2022
BREAKING: U.S. Senate Passes Historic $369B Climate Package August 7, 2022
Researchers Point To ‘Dangerously Unexplored’ Risk of Global Climate Catastrophe August 2, 2022
Koch Network Pressures Manchin, Sinema as Advocates Praise ‘Game Changing’ Climate Deal August 2, 2022
Next
Prev

‘Globally Remarkable’ German Court Decision Enshrines Climate Protection as Human Right

April 30, 2021
Reading time: 4 minutes
Primary Author: Compiled by The Energy Mix staff

Child cycling with a mask

Aulia Erlangga/CIFOR/Flickr

115
SHARES
 

In what Clean Energy Wire calls an “unexpected decision widely hailed as historic,” Germany’s Constitutional Court has declared the country’s 2030 emission reduction targets are insufficient, lacking in detail, and therefore violate the fundamental rights of citizens—including the nine youth climate campaigners who originally launched the case.

“The challenged provisions do violate the freedoms of the complainants, some of whom are still very young,” the court said in a statement. “The provisions irreversibly offload major emission reduction burdens onto periods after 2030.”

The decision is “unexpected and unprecedented” and “will have far-reaching effects,” Clean Energy Wire writes, citing legal experts. 

“The Federal Constitutional Court has set a globally remarkable new standard for climate protection as a human right,” said Hamburg lawyer Dr. Roda Verheyen, who represented the youth plaintiffs. “It has recognized the extreme climate crisis and interpreted fundamental rights in a way that is just for present and future generations.”

With national elections coming up later this year, Verheyen added, “legislators now have a mandate to define a coherent reduction path to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality. Waiting and delaying radical emission reductions until later is unconstitutional. Climate action today must ensure that there is still room for future generations.”

“Climate action has been significantly strengthened by the Federal Constitutional Court today,” said Thorsten Müller, head of Stiftung Umweltenergierecht, a German research foundation with a focus on energy and environment law. “So far, we have not had any successful lawsuits for more climate action in German jurisdiction.”

And “if you had asked me before, I would have said that this lawsuit has no chance of success.”

But in the end, “for the first time, a German court has accepted that we have a limited climate budget left and that the constitutional duty to protect future generations is engaged,” said Germanwatch lawyer Hermann Ott. If the effort to mitigate carbon pollution is unfairly distributed over the next three decades, “there may be disproportionate impacts on the fundamental rights of future generations,” he added, and “the court has now recognized this and made it clear to the government that climate debts cannot be postponed.”

“Climate protection is not nice-to-have,” said German #FridaysforFuture leader Luisa Neubauer. “Fair climate protection is a fundamental right, that is now official.”

“It has become clear that essential parts of the [German] Federal Climate Protection Act are not compatible with our fundamental rights,” added youth complainant Sophie Backsen, who Germanwatch says has already seen the consequences of climate change on the North Sea island of Pellworm, where she lives. “Effective climate protection must start and be implemented now—not in 10 years. This is the only way to secure my future on my home island,” and “the decision gives me a tailwind to keep fighting.”

The ruling “is a clear boost for climate protection” and “gives us tailwind for the difficult tasks that lie ahead,” agreed German Environment Minister Svenja Schulze. “The constitutional court gives the legislature a clear mandate to create clear legal requirements for the path to climate neutrality, even beyond 2030.

She pledged to “present the cornerstones for a climate protection law that is further developed along these lines and creates long-term planning security before the end of the summer.”

Clean Energy Wire says the immediate effect of the ruling is to require German regulators to set carbon reduction goals beyond 2031, no later than December 31, 2022. The court did not mandate annual sectoral targets, nor did it call for any changes in the country’s targets up to 2030.

But “there must be points of reference, that is the core message of this ruling, in order to be able to precisely assess how we get from today to the goal of climate neutrality,” Müller explained.

The decision also requires the government to meet its post-2030 targets “faster and more urgently,” the news article states. “These future obligations to reduce emissions have an impact on practically every type of freedom because virtually all aspects of human life still involve the emission of greenhouse gases, and are thus potentially threatened by drastic restrictions after 2030,” the court ruled.

Youth campaigners welcomed the timing of the court decision, Clean Energy Wire says, with the election now getting under way.

“German parties have swung into full campaign mode for the national election in September, after both the Conservatives and the Green Party presented their chancellor candidates last week,” the Berlin-based publication states. “This also means that a decision on the reform of the climate law will be up to the next government, in which the Greens could play an important role, maybe even providing the chancellor.”

Clean Energy Wire has more reaction to the ruling here.



in Carbon Levels & Measurement, Climate & Society, Climate Action / "Blockadia", Climate Impacts & Adaptation, Ending Emissions, Environmental Justice, Legal & Regulatory

The latest climate news and analysis, direct to your inbox

Subscribe

Related Posts

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons
Energy Politics

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
748
Steve Jurvetson/flickr
International Security & War

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

August 15, 2022
2
/Pikist
United States

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
221

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

I agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy.

Trending Stories

TGEGASENGINEERING/Wikimedia Commons

EXCLUSIVE: Hydrogen is Up, Pieridae is Out as German Chancellor Preps for Canada Visit

August 15, 2022
748
Brocken Inaglory/wikimedia commons

State-Wide Megastorm Driven by Global Heating Could Drench California for a Month

August 15, 2022
437
/Pikist

Historic Climate Bill Passes U.S. House, Goes to Biden for Signature

August 15, 2022
221
Vinaykumar8687/WikimediaCommons

Solar On Track for ‘Staggering’ 30% Growth This Year

August 15, 2022
157
UK Black Tech/wikimedia commons

U.S. Tech Workers Leaving High-Paying Jobs to Focus on Climate Crisis

August 15, 2022
122
United States Marine Core/Wikimedia Commons

Distributed Energy Gains Ground With Mobile Microgrids, Vehicle-to-Grid Technology

August 15, 2022
114

Recent Posts

Steve Jurvetson/flickr

The Other Kind of Climate Change: Even a ‘Limited’ Nuclear War Would Trigger Starvation, Kill Billions

August 15, 2022
2
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Arctic Warms 4 Times Faster than Global Average, Surpassing Estimates 

August 15, 2022
116
rawpixel

Common Medications Foil Body’s Ability to Cope with Hot Weather

August 15, 2022
92
Max Pixel

Slashing Nitrogen Dioxide Pollution Can Improve Crop Yields, Study Finds

August 15, 2022
50
David Hawgood/Geograph

E-Bikes a ‘Faster and Fairer’ Emissions Solution than Electric Cars

August 15, 2022
103
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Northeast Region/wikimedia commons

Researchers Study Carbon Loss, Forest Impacts of Northwest Territories ‘Zombie Fires’

August 15, 2022
23
Next Post
Ticks are heading up Norway’s mountains in an attempt to escape the rising heat. Image: By Ximonic (Simo Räsänen)

Now ticks flee the heat by taking to the mountains

The Energy Mix

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Navigate Site

  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy and Copyright
  • Cookie Policy

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • Canada
  • UK & Europe
  • Fossil Fuels
  • Ending Emissions
  • Community Climate Finance
  • Clean Electricity Grid
  • Cities & Communities

Copyright 2022 © Smarter Shift Inc. and Energy Mix Productions Inc. All rights reserved.

Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}