Dhe decisions of the traffic light coalition on climate protection and planning acceleration have caused criticism from several associations and opposition parties. Environmental organizations accused the coalition of softening climate protection rules. The social association VdK and the child protection association complained about the lack of an agreement on the financing of the planned basic child security. Sharp criticism of the resolutions came from the left and the AfD. Leading politicians from the SPD, Greens and FDP, on the other hand, spoke of groundbreaking results.
The coalition committee met with interruptions from Sunday evening to Tuesday evening. The three coalition parties agreed on a reform of the climate protection law. In addition to railway lines, certain motorway projects intended to eliminate bottlenecks are also to be accelerated. We are talking about 144 projects. The train should get more money. In the course of a reform of the truck toll, additional income is to be used predominantly for investments in rail. So far, revenue from the truck toll has only been used to build long-distance roads.
The German Environmental Aid (DUH) expressed clear criticism of the results of the coalition committee. “This anti-climate protection coalition is seriously laying hands on the Federal Climate Protection Act. In doing so, she sins against all future generations,” explained DUH Federal Managing Director Jürgen Resch. “In the transport sector, the horror news is almost uncountable, including a whopping 144 accelerated motorway construction projects and the planned de facto equal treatment of combustion engine cars with electric vehicles,” criticized Resch.
He called on the members of the Bundestag to “roundly reject the planned deterioration of the already unambitious law from the Merkel era”.
Criticism of softening of the sector targets
In the case of interventions in nature and the landscape, for example through the construction of wind turbines or roads, not only should land be compensated, but money should also be paid as compensation in the future. The annual amounts of CO2 emitted by sectors such as energy, industry, transport, buildings, agriculture and waste management are to be re-handled. If an area exceeds the agreed annual amount, the ministries must submit so-called emergency programs for more climate protection. The coalition wants to stick to this survey for each sector, but the government should only make adjustments in the future after two consecutive missed targets – for all sectors together.
Nabu President Jörg-Andreas Krüger criticized that with the softening of the sector targets, the traffic light government was falling behind the level of ambition of the previous government. The executive director of Greenpeace, Martin Kaiser, also complained that giving up the obligation to implement each individual sector goal would gut the climate protection law. If 144 additional “climate-damaging highway projects” were to be paved through the country at an accelerated rate, the climate would be further driven into the wall.
Economy: “The results are encouraging”
The economist Veronika Grimm, on the other hand, praised the results of the coalition committee. “It turns out to be positive that the coalition committee took its time,” Grimm told the Düsseldorf Rheinische Post. “Financing the expansion of the railways through a truck toll is a good idea,” emphasized the member of the Advisory Council for the Assessment of Overall Economic Development.