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Foresight for the climate

The new Federal Climate Action Act is to ensure that Germany can get its climate policy back on course when it is in danger of missing a target.

The Federal Climate Action Act serves as the framework of Germany’s national climate policy and stipulates binding climate targets designed to make Germany greenhouse gas neutral by 2045. This is to be achieved through comprehensive climate action programmes stipulating key measures taken by the Federal Government. Among the measures that have already been implemented are the acceleration of approval procedures for renewables installations and funding programmes for energy-efficient retrofitting and construction.

^{Comprehensive climate action programmes at the beginning of each parliament}

In future, every Federal Government will have to present a climate action programme at the beginning of the new parliament. This programme is to underpin its climate policy. The main objective is still a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. A new addition is the focus on a future-oriented, cross-sectoral national account to monitor emissions for each decade (2021-2030, then 2031-2040). Compared to the previous focus on past target failure, this allows for a better adjustment of measures and prevents one-off effects gaining too much importance.

^{Germany’s climate targets remain unchanged and ambitious}

Greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced across the board, irrespective of the sector where they originate. This allows for greater flexibility and holds everyone accountable. Nevertheless, the Federal Ministries still need to make their individual contributions to the targets. It is important to bear in mind that Germany’s climate targets remain unchanged, meaning that no additional CO₂ can be emitted as a result of the reform. In future, it will be all about the reduction of emissions from all sectors combined (e.g. transport, buildings, energy industry), but it will still be clear which sectors cause what levels of emissions.

^{The role of the Council of Experts on Climate Change is strengthened}

The new Act strengthens the Council of Experts on Climate Change, which is tasked with assessing emission and forecast data. The Council of Experts on Climate Change can also table proposals as to how measures for climate action can be improved. In June 2024, it first made use of the review mechanism under the new Federal Climate Action Act and carried out an assessment of the forecast data for 2024. This shows that the climate targets for 2030 can be met, provided the assumptions made are correct. Stefan Wenzel said it very clearly: “Only if we stay on course can we meet the climate target for 2030.” After the adoption of the legislation by the Bundestag and the approval of the Bundesrat, the new Act has yet to be signed by the Federal President.