2024-04-17 22:01:24
Transport Minister Volker Vissing (FDP) has scared millions of Germans with the possibility of a weekend driving ban. According to him, this may be necessary because only drastic measures will be enough for Germany to meet its climate goals in the field of transport.
“I told the citizens the truth,” Vissing confirmed to Deutschlandfunk radio in connection with his statement in a letter to representatives of the government coalition, which has been in unsuccessful negotiations for months to pass reforms to the climate protection law.
According to German journalists, the goal of the 5-year-old politician was to put pressure on the coalition government of the Social Democrats (SPD), Free Democrats (FDP) and the Greens, so that change finally occurs.
Germany is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent by 2030 compared to 1990. Maximum annual emissions are set for individual sectors such as industry, energy, housing or transport. But the transport sector exceeded it last year, and German law stipulates that in such a case, the responsible state authorities must take immediate corrective measures.
An accurate assessment of last year’s data by a panel of climate experts is to be presented on Monday, after which relevant ministries have three months to present immediate programmes. In this context came the statement of the Minister of Transport, according to which emissions in his department can be sufficiently reduced only “through restrictive measures that are difficult to explain to people, such as driving bans on Saturdays and Sundays”.
Only in this way, according to Vissing, will it be possible to reduce harmful emissions by another 22 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO 2 ) this year, which corresponds to 15 percent of the kilometers driven by passenger cars or more than 10 percent of the kilometers by trucks.
The minister’s words evoked memories of the oil crisis in the 1970s, when traffic on Germany’s autobahns was prohibited 4 times a month.
Now, however, it is unlikely that drastic measures will be taken. The coalition is considering changing the climate law, which would monitor compliance with climate targets as a whole, rather than by individual sectors. However, the change has not yet been approved.