Lack of climate protection

Now there is a mass lawsuit against the German government

Water levels also continue to rise in Saxony.

(Bild: APA/dpa/Jan Woitas)

The environmental organizations Greenpeace and Germanwatch, together with more than 54,000 co-plaintiffs, filed a constitutional complaint on Monday due to the German government's inadequate climate protection policy.

"The German government is delaying effective and socially just climate protection measures and is thus violating civil liberties and equality rights," explained the complainants' lawyer, Roda Verheyen. "In order to protect our fundamental rights, emission reductions must be introduced and implemented in good time - the amendment to the Climate Protection Act does exactly the opposite."

Around 20 of the plaintiffs displayed climate protection banners in front of the Federal Constitutional Court on Monday morning and presented the total number of plaintiffs on one-meter-high wooden numbers. Some of the complainants had already successfully argued in Karlsruhe in 2021 that climate protection is constitutionally required and must not be postponed at the expense of young people.

Measures are being neglected, especially in the transport sector
The new constitutional complaint could be submitted in around ten weeks by anyone aged 14 or over living in Germany. The complaint complains that, despite the Constitutional Court's ruling in 2021, the German government is not on track to achieve Germany's climate targets. These are being missed by a wide margin, particularly in the transport sector, and Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) is refusing to implement effective measures such as a speed limit quickly.

The current constitutional complaint is just one of three complaints filed by five German environmental associations together with other complainants against the Federal Government's inadequate climate policy and, in particular, the weakening of the Climate Protection Act (KSG). In addition to Greenpeace and Germanwatch, Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) and the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland (BUND), together with the Solarenergie-Förderverein Deutschland (SFV), are each lodging a complaint.