Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Environment Minister Svenja Schulze laid out a new legislative proposal to make Germany climate neutral by 2045. It is to be approved by the cabinet and then passed in parliament.
The two ministers announced their plan at a last-minute press conference, a week after Germany’s Constitutional Court declared the targets set in the 2019 climate protection law were unconstitutional.
The lawmakers, both with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), are hoping for the proposal to be ratified by the German Cabinet next week after getting approval from their coalition partners, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives.
What does the new climate law proposal include?
- Slash emissions by 65% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels
- Reach 88% reduction in emissions by 2040
- Achieve climate neutrality by 2045, five years earlier than the previous target
