Germany: New Scandal Blocks Climate Cooperation with China
Environmental NGOs appeal to the Constitutional Court against the German government's climate policy
The German Federal Environment Agency (Umwelt Bundesamt, UBA) has decided to block 45 climate projects prepared for implementation in China “on suspicion of fraud.” “We concluded that a significant portion of these 45 projects were non-compliant and raised strong suspicions of fraud. It’s a deceptive contractual system that registers projects that don’t meet stated requirements, such as those related to reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” UBA Director Dirk Messner told reporters. The director said the agency had investigated a total of 56 projects by German companies to be launched in China.
And Berlin’s climate policy has been in the crosshairs of harsh criticism from environmental organizations Greenpeace and Germanwatch, which, along with 54,607 co-plaintiffs, have filed an appeal with the Karlsruhe Constitutional Court against the German government to present “a climate protection law that complies with the Constitution.” In addition, effective measures are required to “actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions, especially in the transportation sector.”
As Roda Verheyen, a lawyer for environmental organizations, told German and international media, the Greens accuse Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government of “delaying effective and socially just climate protection measures, thereby violating civil liberties and equal rights.”
“To protect our fundamental rights,” Verheyen emphasized, “emission reductions must be enacted and implemented in a timely manner. The amendment to the Climate Protection Act recently passed by the Bundestag achieves just the opposite.”
