Climate policy of the new German Government

Climate change mitigation was at the core of the German electoral campaign in summer 2021 and one of the decisive election topics for German citizens. After the elections, Social-Democrats (SPD), the Green Party (Bündnis90/DieGrünen) and the Liberals (FDP) started negotiating a coalition to build a government. On 24th of November, the parties presented their coalition agreement with the title “Dare More Progress”. The so-called treaty is a declaration of intent, not a contract in the legal sense of the term. It contains on 177 pages the program of the government for its period of four years in office.

The new government coalition took office in December 2021. Just one month later, on January 11th 2022, Robert Habeck, new German Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Change Mitigation, presented his initial assessment of the status quo in climate change mitigation saying: “We need to triple the yearly emission reductions”. He further announced a climate emergency program with legislative packages for spring and summer 2022 that should provide a basis to reach this tripling of climate efforts. Additionally, the new government is fully committed to support the reform of the EU legislation to meet its objective of reaching climate neutrality by 2050.

For twenty years, Germany has been implementing its “energy turnaround” (Energiewende). The new coalition is determined to launch what looks like a revolution of the energy system and economy in order to reach climate neutrality by 2045, five years ahead of France or the European Union. This policy brief examines the coalition treaty and first governmental announcements for each sector (electricity, industry, mobility, buildings), and gives an overview of cross-cutting policies (innovation, governance, carbon pricing). It concludes with concrete recommendations on how EU climate policy can reinforce the strengths and compensate for the flaws in the plans of the new German government.