The chainsaws have already done a great job in the Fechenheim forest. The route has been cleared, the tree houses are gone. For more than a year, opponents of the Autobahn had prevented clearing here, and with it the expansion of the A 66 near Frankfurt. In the middle of the month, the police cleared the forest. “A bitter defeat,” says Alexis Passadakis, one of the organizers of the resistance alliance against the further construction of the Autobahn. “But the political opponent was overwhelming.” All the more devastating is what is currently unfolding in Berlin. “Actually, not a single meter of new highway should be built,” says Passadakis.
Volker Wissing sees things differently. The Federal Transport Minister from the FDP would even like to enshrine an “overriding public interest” in new motorways by law. It is intended to speed up the planning and approval of highways. However, the Greens and their Environment Minister Steffi Lemke are up in arms. And, to put it mildly, it is not the only construction site of this coalition in climate and transport policy – especially since the environmental organization BUND sued the federal government at the beginning of the week for violations of climate laws.
The resolution for 2023 was actually: fight less
Anger is growing among the Greens because Wissing does not show any great interest in the subject of climate protection. “The immediate climate protection program is available and contains measures for all departments, because everyone has to make their contribution,” says Green Party leader Ricarda Lang Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Only in the transport sector is there a huge gap.” Now the federal government is being sued for the breach. “Instead of speculating about further climate-damaging measures, such as accelerating the construction of new motorways, there is now an urgent need for a plan for how traffic can achieve its climate goals,” demands Lang.
The SPD, Greens and FDP had actually planned to argue less for 2023. But just three weeks after the turn of the year, the usual working mode is back. And as always, when nothing moves forward and nothing backwards in the three-way alliance, a coalition committee should cut the knot this time too. This Thursday he will meet in the Chancellery in the early evening. But it’s no longer just a knot, it’s a whole ball of knots that got knotted together. How that can be solved, how all sides want to come out halfway face-saving this time, is completely open.
That starts with Wissing’s speed plans for the German infrastructure. In the fall, he had already sent out a draft law that was supposed to boost the federal highway projects. Like wind turbines and terminals for liquefied natural gas, they too should be built faster in the future. Whether, for example, rare beetles, such as in the Fechenheim forest, are run over by a motorway is to be checked further, but rather on the small official route. For Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, who has dedicated herself to nature conservation, this is intolerable. The two have now sat down with Chancellor Olaf Scholz three times to settle the dispute in private, without approach. It is unclear where Scholz is. It is not known, however, that he opposed new motorways.
And so the Green Environment Minister opened another front last week: Together with Agriculture Minister Cem Özdemir, who is also a Green, she wants to put an end to biofuels – also through a draft law. By 2030, German fuel should no longer be mixed with fuel that has grown on fields. The goal: clearing fields for the cultivation of fodder and food. The previous quota for the admixture is to drop from 4.4 percent today to zero by 2030. Bad news for Wissing: On paper, the fuels help him to meet the climate targets in traffic. There is a risk of a “significant increase in CO2 emissions in the transport sector,” Wissing’s ministry warns. This is “contradictory to the declared joint intention of the federal government to want to comply with the climate protection goals”.
More and more cars, bigger and bigger engines
The dispute leads straight to the largest coalition construction site. For years, cars and trucks have become more and more efficient, but there are more and more of them on the road. With ever larger engines. Climate-friendly electric cars did not catch on as quickly as politicians wanted and industry promised. Emissions in the transport sector are now falling slightly – but by no means as much as the German climate protection law requires.
Only on Monday did it become known that the environmental organization BUND is now even demanding an emergency program in court that will finally compensate for missing the targets in 2021. The government has so far failed to implement such a program, although the Climate Protection Act requires it. The ministries should quickly tighten climate requirements. In the transport sector that would be Wissing’s job.
How much delay can the coalition afford when it comes to climate protection? A solar roof in winter.
(Photo: Arnulf Hettrich/Imago)
The coalition actually wanted to fill the gaps with a large, all-area climate plan, which, confusingly, also bears the name “immediate program”. At the end of October last year, Habeck’s climate protection ministry presented key points for this. But nothing remained of the “immediate”, the FDP stopped the referral. The program, says Habeck, is “complete except for the traffic area.” And adds: “That’s annoying.”
Everything should be on the table on Thursday
At the coalition committee this Thursday, all of this should now be on the table. And even more. Because the FDP links more climate protection to a relaxation of the existing climate laws. If the liberals have their way, the individual sectors – such as transport, buildings or industry – should in future be able to reach their goals with a delay or with the help of other sectors. Only after a few years will it be settled whether the government has done enough to protect the climate.
The Greens, who, not just since Lützerath, have been accused of not taking climate protection half as seriously in government as they did in the opposition, can hardly agree to such horse trading. However, if the FDP remains stubborn in the coalition talks on Thursday, there will be no progress with the “immediate programs”. And the federal government will continue to break its own law. For the balance sheet of the year 2022, the next, even greater failure to meet the target is already in the offing. The courts would probably have more to do.
So far, there has only been agreement on one topic of the crisis talks: the troubled railway can expect more money. Your funds will probably be increased by several billion euros in the fight against delays and the modernization of the network. With regard to the upcoming budget deliberations and the medium-term financial planning, talks are being held, the Federal Ministry of Transport said. Volker Wissing has recently made it clear time and again that the funds required for the modernization of the railway network must be made available and must not fail due to financing.
So it’s a pile of wood for a coalition committee, maybe even too much. It is questionable whether the party leaders could already come to a solution for the entire package on Thursday evening. Those who were still fighting for the Fechenheimer Forst yesterday will not be very impressed by the result anyway. “The conflict may be lost for the time being,” says Alexis Passadakis, opponent of the Autobahn. “But that doesn’t mean we’re going to rest.”