The organizers wanted to represent a mini Germany in the Citizens’ Council for Climate Protection. 160 women and men came together, young and old, town and country, with and without a migration background, with high school diplomas or secondary school diplomas, from different social backgrounds. And the majority of this mini-Germany has decided to say goodbye to sausages. 76 percent were in favor of largely doing without milk and meat products in the interests of climate protection.
Citizens’ councils are an increasingly popular means of involving the population in political processes. They are supposed to counteract the impression that in a democracy it is officials at the top who have no idea about the problems of ordinary people. From randomly selected citizens, a group is put together that is roughly the same as the population as a whole. The Citizens’ Council on Climate Protection should clarify the question of how the national goals of the Paris Agreement, according to which global warming should be limited to well below two degrees Celsius, are to be achieved. There were models for this in France and Great Britain.
After twelve meetings and more than 50 hours of work, the 160 councils agreed on ten guiding principles. The most important is: “The 1.5-degree target has top priority.” Everything is subordinate to this. It should be fair, both socially and for future generations. In addition, the citizens’ councils made 76 specific recommendations to politicians – and dispelled one or the other German myth.
Cheap meat is therefore more likely to be dispensed with. Instead, agriculture should change, away from factory farming, towards a nature- and climate-friendly food production. In the area of mobility, 79 percent voted in favor of banning new registrations of burn-out engines by 2030 at the latest. More people were in favor of more expensive flight tickets. Even the speed limit received a majority, albeit a thin one. 58 percent advocated 120 kilometers per hour on motorways, 80 km / h on country roads and 30 km / h in urban areas. Only the introduction of a city toll was narrowly rejected.
“Now my point of view has changed.”
Adnan Arslan, 32-year-old production supervisor from Velbert in North Rhine-Westphalia, admitted that he had hardly thought about climate protection before. He doubted that he could do anything himself. When the citizens’ council contacted him, he lacked basic knowledge. “Now my point of view has changed,” he said in a press conference on Thursday. He advised society to get enlightened.
The debates in the meetings were controversial, there were different points of view, and some people stuck to their opinion. “But in the end we worked out these recommendations together.” He himself promised to buy a bike and not drive the 3.5 kilometers to work.
During a break in the last meeting on Wednesday evening, it became clear that there was certainly controversy. In the online meeting, one participant interjected that the recommendations were “wishy-washy” and that he could not support that. One participant complained that the CO₂ price was “clearly about my wallet. That annoys me”. In the end, however, almost all resolutions were passed with 80 percent or more yes votes. For example, the coal phase-out by 2030. Photovoltaic systems on roofs should gradually become mandatory. All public buildings should be energetically refurbished by 2036, and politicians must counteract the shortage of skilled workers here.
“The results are astonishingly clear,” said Horst Koehler, former Federal President and patron of the project. He sees this as a sign that the citizens will not be fobbed off in the long run with compromises that do not solve the problem. “Maybe you are further than the politicians suspect.”
The results should be taken into account in the federal election campaign
Köhler contributed his political weight. Because the Citizens’ Council on Climate Protection has the flaw that it was not appointed by the Bundestag, like its predecessor with the topic of “Germany’s role in the world”. Instead, it was initiated by the Citizens’ Initiative for Climate Protection and the Scientists for Future group, and it was implemented by three institutes with experience in the field of citizen participation. Climate and nature conservation associations supported the council, but also the German Farmers’ Union, the Association of Catholic Entrepreneurs and the consumer centers. Representatives of the automotive industry, the tenants’ association and the social association VdK were on an accompanying advisory board. To this end, two dozen scientists provided the citizens’ council with information.
The reason for the appointment is the upcoming federal election. The results should play a role in the election campaign. Mareike Menneckemeyer, a participant from a suburb of Nuremberg and a mother of two, expressed her fear that politicians would look at the paper like a picture that the children bring with them from kindergarten and say: “You made it beautiful.” To then put it away and forget it.
Wolfgang Lucht, scientist at the Institute for Climate Impact Research in Potsdam, appealed, however, that all parties should examine how they could increase their ambitions in terms of climate protection. He said, “If you incorporate these recommendations, don’t give in to any stakeholder group.”