GERMANY Law and Practice Contributed by: Friedrich Gebert, Hannah Düwel, Bernhard Gröhe and Clara Schmidt, ARQIS Partnerschaftsgesellschaft mbB
des - Klimaschutzgesetz – KSG) was unconstitutional in parts as it did not contain sufficient regulations for reducing emissions after 2030. The court concluded that with this omission the legislator had violated the complainants’ fundamental constitutional rights. The central argument in this decision is the so-called intertemporal safeguarding of freedom. The court made it clear that today’s political decisions on cli - mate protection may not lead to future generations being unreasonably restricted in their freedom. The inadequate specification of the reduction pathways beyond 2030 structurally jeopardised the freedom of future generations since this irreversibly shifted high emission reduction burdens to periods after 2030, to the detriment of future generations. More drastic measures would be necessary to reach the goals after 2030, thereby potentially affecting practically all con - stitutional freedoms. The relative weight of the climate protection requirement in the balancing of interests will continue to increase as climate change progresses. The Federal Constitutional Court thus explicitly rec - ognised for the first time that climate protection is not just a simple legal or political objective but is also secured under constitutional law and is closely linked to the protection of individual liberties. The legisla - tor was obliged to adopt regulations beyond the year 2030 by the end of 2022 at the latest. The KSG was already amended in Summer 2021 and the emissions targets for the years 2030 to 2045 were significantly tightened. The climate decision therefore marks a sig - nificant milestone in the constitutional development of environmental and climate change law in Germany. The Federal Climate Action Act is the central Ger - man federal law in climate mitigation. It is designed to ensure the fulfilment of national climate protection targets as well as compliance with European targets. The Climate Action Act entered into force in December 2019 and enshrines the climate protection and sector targets set out in the Climate Action Plan 2050 in law for the first time: greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by at least 65% below the comparable figure for 1990 by 2030 and by at least 88% by 2040. Net greenhouse gas neutrality is to be achieved by 2045. 2.3 National Legal Regime Federal Climate Action Act
The law also sets annual reduction targets for the period up to 2040. Maximum annual emission levels have been set for various sectors of the economy until 2030. The sectors are, inter alia, energy, industry, transport, buildings, agriculture and waste manage - ment. The law also includes a duty of accountability for the ministries, and an independent scientific moni - toring body (expert council). After a further amendment to the KSG in 2024, com - pliance with climate targets will no longer be moni - tored retrospectively and separately by sector. Rather, this will be addressed looking forward, regarding mul - tiple years in advance and adopting a cross-sectoral approach. If it becomes apparent within two consecu - tive years that the climate target set for 2030 will not be achieved, the members of the federal government will jointly decide in which sector and through which countermeasures remedial action will be taken. Future federal governments must present a programme of measures to achieve the climate target for 2040 at the A major milestone in the context of adaption is the Federal Climate Adaptation Act ( Bundes - Klimaan- passungsgesetz – KAnG), which entered into force in July 2024. The law obliges the federal government to develop a national adaptation strategy including risk analyses, measurable goals and concrete meas - ures. The strategy needs to be updated every four years. Also, the federal states ( Länder ) are required to develop their own strategies and report to the Federal Ministry of the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety ( Bundesministerium für Umwelt , Klimaschutz , Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit – BMUKN) every two years (Sections 10 and 11, KAnG). Since 2008, the federal government has been develop - ing a German Climate Adaptation Strategy ( Deutsche Anpassungsstrategie an den Klimawandel – DAS). The newest update is from 11 December 2024 and due to the new KAnG, the newest updated version of the DAS contains, for the first time, measurable goals for climate adaptation until 2030 and/or 2050. It aims to protect German citizens from the impacts of climate change, eg, extreme weather events such as floods or beginning of their term of office. Federal Climate Adaptation Act
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