“Agreement on climate protection – cabinet to approve plan”

The German federal ministries, together with the Chancellery, have agreed on a national Climate Action Plan 2050 in time for COP22 in Marrakesh after months of dispute, reports Markus Wacket for Reuters. The federal cabinet is to approve the plan on Wednesday and a veto by ministers is unlikely, government representatives told Reuters. A late draft seen by the news agency includes sectoral emissions targets for 2030. The energy sector is to reduce its emissions by about half (compared to 2014), the building sector by a third, transport by 45 percent, industry by about a third and agriculture by “only 15 percent”, writes Wacket. The draft says there will be no new coal-fired power plants or expansions of existing open pit mines. It also calls on the federal government to lobby for a floor price for auctioned EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) carbon certificates on the European level. Regarding the passenger car sector in 2030, the climate plan states: “New cars should then be equipped with technologies that can in principle run independently from fossil fuels.” The Green Party criticises the plan as not ambitious enough.

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.