Germany's Social Democratic Party has new climate movement - report

A new climate movement has formed within Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD), which is set to lead the country's new coalition government currently in the making, reports Florence Schulz in newsletter Tagesspiegel Background. The initiative has emerged from the student protest movement Fridays for Future and the party's youth movement (Jusos), and six of its supporters have become members of parliament. "We have formed out of a great deal of dissatisfaction, because the SPD has so far not understood that Paris-compliant climate protection is a priority," 24-year-old Maximilian Herzog, one of the group's founders, told the newsletter.

The group called "SPD.Klima.Gerecht" (SPD.Climate.Just) has compiled a "climate road map" that in certain areas goes far beyond the SPD's election programme. It calls for 100 percent renewable electricity by 2030 – five years earlier than the party's target - and a coal exit by 2030 at the latest, among other demands. In an open letter sent this week, the group called on the party's coalition negotiators to stand firm in climate questions. It must be avoided at any cost that "we look back on these negotiations in a few years and realise that we were not courageous enough," the letter said, according to the article.

Earlier this year, a similar group formed within the conservative CDU/CSU bloc with the aim of pushing for climate policy in line with the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C target. It also called for a 100 percent renewable power supply by 2030. Climate has been a key issue for many voters in September's elections and the SPD's secretary general, Lars Klingbeil, recently said that emissions reduction would be "perhaps the most important point" in the planned coalition treaty of the SPD, the Green Party and the Free Democrats (FDP).