Germany has missed its climate targets – what now? Luisa Neubauer wants to put pressure on politicians. But young people hope for more.
Germany has clearly missed its targets for the climate in 2023, especially in the transport sector - this was determined by the independent expert council for climate issues in its audit report. Instead of the permitted 133 million tons of CO₂, this sector emitted 146 million tons of greenhouse gases last year. This means that the transport sector has missed its climate target for the third year in a row.
The annual permissible emission levels for individual sectors such as industry, energy, transport and buildings are set out in the Climate Protection Act. If areas do not comply with the requirements, the responsible federal government ministries must follow up with emergency programs. The measures decided so far are not sufficient, emphasized the expert council.
Luisa Neubauer warns of “climate cheating law”
The climate protection law could soon look different. The requirements in individual economic sectors are particularly a thorn in the side of the FDP and the traffic light coalition has already agreed on a reform of the Climate Protection Act: Accordingly, in the future the main focus will be on whether greenhouse gas savings targets are met across all areas. However, the traffic light factions in the Bundestag have not yet been able to agree on the details.
Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) recently discussed weekend driving bans if the current regulation is not soon replaced by the reform. The German climate activist Luisa Neubauer criticized this sharply on her Instagram channel. “Volker Wissing has been boycotting the Climate Protection Act for three years because it doesn’t suit him. He can’t get away with this.” Neubauer describes the weekend driving bans as an “absurd anti-climate populism campaign”.
The activist explains that binding sector targets are “sanctuaries” of the climate protection law and the reason why governments can no longer resort to excuses. “It ensures that missing targets has real consequences. The costs of doing nothing are becoming radically higher.” The activist calls on her followers to be loud so that the climate protection law does not turn into a “climate cheating law”.
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Can new technologies stop climate change?
Neubauer belongs to the young generation in Germany who regularly take to the streets to demand more climate protection. However, young people do not seem to be relying on politics to slow down or stop climate change, but are instead hoping for new technologies. This was the result of a representative survey by the digital association Bitkom.
Accordingly, 57 percent of 16 to 29 year olds hope that digital technologies that will solve climate problems will be available in the near future. Niklas Meyer-Breitkreutz, sustainability expert at Bitkom, thinks this is realistic. “If you look at the Climate Protection Act, with the goals formulated therein of emitting 65 percent less CO₂ by 2030 than in 1990, it becomes clear: we still have a very long way to go.” You therefore have to exploit all digital possibilities. “Energy efficiency, climate protection and decarbonization are inextricably linked to digitalization,” emphasizes Meyer-Breitkreutz.
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Expert sees a lot of potential in agriculture
We have already implemented the “simple” steps to reduce emissions in the past, says Meyer-Breitkreutz, such as dismantling heavy industry in the former GDR. The gap that currently remains corresponds to 300 million tons of CO₂ emissions. “We have to increase our reduction rate by a factor of 2.5 – and that won’t be possible without digital technologies. We have to pull out all the stops to achieve the goal.”
According to the expert, digital technologies have a lot of potential, especially in the areas of energy, buildings and industry, for example in agriculture. “Technologies can help to precisely apply fertilizers to the field that have high CO₂ emissions. If I produce and use less of it, I save a lot of CO₂.”
(With material from dpa)