This climate protection law has to go

The Federal Environment Agency has presented figures on the CO2 emissions of the individual economic sectors. The Climate Protection Act requires this. As always, transport in 2022 exceeded its allocated carbon budget, including the buildings sector. That has consequences.

As a consequence, the law requires that the responsible ministers Wissing and Geywitz now have to present immediate measures within four months so that their economic sectors can get back on the desired path. A nonsensical determination. This climate protection law must go – or at least be reformed from the ground up.

Because the legally prescribed emergency programs, which have to take effect within a year, practically do not exist in reality. Ecological building, development of the railway and local public transport, construction of wind turbines - that takes time. "Immediately" in the sense of the law only apply prohibitions. The fact that climate protection is not possible on the basis of bans should have got around in federal politics by now: climate protection only works with people, not against them. The law does not correspond to this knowledge.

There is also another design flaw in the Climate Protection Act: it only triggers political action once the child has already fallen into the well. Adjusting emissions data from the past year, as required by law, is of little use.

It would be better to base politics on the CO2 projection report, which the federal government has to prepare for the European Union anyway. Government action should be based on projections, i.e. future expectations, not on the coincidences of a past year whose emissions can be influenced by one-off effects such as wars or extreme weather.

Politicians are aware of the shortcomings of the climate protection law: the traffic light parties had already announced a "further development" in the coalition agreement. However, that has not yet been tackled. The climate protection law is simply too well suited to regularly pillorying Union or FDP ministers, who are usually at the head of the Federal Ministry of Transport. But Germany needs a climate protection law that can do more than encourage this partisan tactic.