Climate Neutrality by 2045: What does this mean for Germany?What does it mean for the EU Green Deal?

On Thursday, 29 April 2021, Germany’s Constitutional Court declared the German Climate Change Act of 2019 as partly unconstitutional. In their unanimous ruling, the judges found that the law disproportionately shifts the burden of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to future generations, directly threatening the future exercise of their constitutional rights to freedom. With national elections only four months away and polls showing the German Green Party to close in on the leading conservative CDU/CSU, the Court’s ruling caused frantic action in the German coalition government. Already on 30 April, it became clear that a fast reform of the Climate Law before the national election was possible. On 6 May, Chancellor Merkel (CDU) and Vice-Chancellor Scholz (SPD) publicly confirmed the government’s intention to increase Germany’s 2030 climate target to 65 percent greenhouse emission reductions, compared to 55 percent today, to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045 and net removals after 2050. Parliamen