Climate Action Plan - “danger to the economy and prosperity”

Members of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) group in the Bundestag have strongly criticised the current draft of federal environment minister Barbara Hendricks’ Climate Action Plan 2050, Silke Kersting and Klaus Stratmann write in Handelsblatt. The draft was “a danger to the economy, prosperity and the social cohesion in our country,” the group wrote in a seven-page paper sent to Peter Altmaier, Chief of the German Chancellery, in early October. Among other things, the politicians demand that every climate policy measure was checked for its effects on cost of living for citizens. The Climate Action Plan 2050 is currently being coordinated with other relevant ministries, and Hendricks plans to have it approved by the cabinet before the COP22 in Marrakech in mid-November.

Read the article in German here.

For background read the CLEW factsheet Germany’s trimmed-down Climate Action Plan and the CLEW article Ministry avoids concrete targets in weakened Climate Action Plan.