German environmental organizations announced three new constitutional objections in Berlin on Wednesday aimed at forcing the federal government to do more to counter global warming.
The objections would be lodged if President Frank-Walter Steinmeier signs an amendment seen as weakening the Climate Protection Act, Greenpeace, Germanwatch and Environmental Action Germany (DUH), said in Berlin, where they presented the new objections along with Fridays for Future and other organizations.
The amendment was passed by the lower house of parliament in April and by the upper house in May and is awaiting Steinmeier's signature before going into force.
"We are meeting here for constitutional objection 2.0," Roda Verheyen, a lawyer acting for one of the objections, said.
In 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled in a historic decision that the government had to improve its climate measures to protect the rights of future generations.
That ruling acceded to the objections of several environmental organizations, including some present at Wednesday's Berlin meeting.
Verheyen said the core problem and reason for the new objections were inadequate policy on climate and the amendment to the Climate Protection Act. "It is unconstitutional," the lawyer said. "The sector targets have been abolished as sector targets. That means that the entire path to reduction is in jeopardy," she added.
Luisa Neubauer of Fridays for Future described the government's climate policy as self-righteous and short-sighted. "The coalition apparently believes it only has to protect the people from the climate catastrophe if it happens at the time to suit them," she said.
Protecting the climate was a human right, Neubauer said. "For as long as the government disregards that, we will go to court," she added.
Changes in the amendment pushed for by the liberal and pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), a junior partner in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government, include that greenhouse gas emission targets will no longer apply sector by sector but will be considered overall.
The overall target for Germany to achieve zero net emissions by 2045 remains unchanged.
DUH head Jürgen Resch said his organization had urged Steinmeier in a legal letter not to sign the amendment. In response to a dpa question, Steinmeier's office said the amendment was still being checked without providing details.
Representatives of some of the groups present on Wednesday, including Germanwatch and Greenpeace indicated that they intended to lodge their objections, even if the amendment was not signed into law.
