“Fridays for Future” has accused the federal government of continuing to miss the CO2 reduction targets stipulated in the Climate Protection Act. This is a “clear breach of the law”. At the same time, the movement presented its own immediate program.
The climate protection movement “Fridays for Future” has accused the federal government of undermining the climate protection law. This is a “clear breach of the law”. The background to this is the CO2 reduction targets required in the current climate protection law, which both the transport and construction sectors still failed to meet.
The Ministry of Transport and Building should actually present an immediate program today on how the goals can be achieved as quickly as possible. However, none of the ministries have presented such a program, criticized the climate protection movement.
Criticism of the planned change of the Climate Protection Act
Instead, the cabinet passed a draft amendment to the Climate Protection Act in June. According to this, the previous sector targets are to be repealed, replaced by an overall balance sheet and the obligation for emergency programs to be removed. However, the Bundestag has not yet approved the new law, so strictly speaking it is not yet valid.
With the planned change, the heart of the climate protection law would be removed, criticized “Fridays for Future”. The Federal Government and in particular Transport Minister Volker Wissing would not comply with their own laws.
federal government and Ministry of Transport deny allegations
The Federal Government and the Ministry of Transport see things very differently. They rejected the allegations. One complies with the legal obligation, said a spokesman for the Ministry of Transport. Concrete measures have already been initiated that will have a long-term effect – including a CO2-based truck toll, the Deutschlandticket and the expansion of cycle paths and the charging station infrastructure for e-cars.
A government spokeswoman added that they share the concern “to make Germany climate-neutral as quickly as possible and also to promote climate protection internationally”.
“Fridays for Future” calls for Wissing’s dismissal
The “biggest construction site” remains the transport sector, said Fridays for Future spokesman Pit Terjung. Against this background, the movement called for the dismissal of the transport minister. Terjung said what Wissing was doing was refusing to work. “He would be fired immediately in any company for that.”
At the same time, the movement presented its own emergency program for the transport sector. In order to reduce CO2 emissions in the transport sector, “Fridays for Future” called for a speed limit of 120 km/h on motorways and a ban on new motorways and federal roads.
Pit Terjung, spokesman for “Fridays for Future”, spoke at a press conference in the Museum für Naturkunde about a possible immediate program for the transport sector.
Expand local public transport and rail
In addition, the movement called for a massive expansion of local public transport and rail, car-free inner cities and the gradual abolition of fossil fuel subsidies with a ban on the installation of combustion engines from 2025.
For months, the FDP and the Greens have been arguing about appropriate measures to be able to implement the required climate targets by 2030.