German parties must come together to find “climate consensus” – CDU party leader

To decide a climate action approach that is widely supported by German citizens, parties from government and opposition must come together and find “joint solutions,” said Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, head of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU). “When you look at how pervasive this topic is, how important it is to win the people over, then I think it will not be enough to just have agreements within the government,” she told the public broadcaster ZDF. “I am convinced that we need a national climate consensus,” said Kramp-Karrenbauer. She plans to approach the other parties after parliament’s summer break.
Christian Lindner, head of the business-friendly opposition Free Democrats (FDP), said his party stands ready to cooperate on joint solutions. “Only [with such a consensus] can we ensure effective climate action and prevent a division in society, such as in France,” Lindner said in a statement.
The Greens’ climate policy spokesperson, Lisa Badum, said her party had “waited for months for the overdue Climate Action Law and the coal exit” decisions by the government. A climate consensus within the grand coalition would be a good start, she wrote in a message on Twitter.

So far, even the governing parties CDU/CSU and SPD have failed to agree on the measures such as a CO₂ price to reach the country's 2030 climate goals. Because of the dispute, some members of the government have even called into question the continuation of the grand coalition. In the past weeks, German parties have hurried to put together proposals on how the country could reach its national and international climate targets as pressure from recent election results, ongoing climate protests and an early heatwave continues to mount.