The debate over abandoning sector-specific climate targets is escalating in Germany after Transport Minister Volker Vissing of the Liberal Democratic Party warned that he may have to impose a car ban on weekends unless the country’s climate law is reformed.
Vissing warned last week A nationwide driving ban on weekends may become necessary under the country’s current climate law, which forces ministries to introduce immediate action programs if their sector’s annual emissions targets are not met.
“I told citizens the truth because this sectoral point of view means that we have to save 22 million (tons) of carbon dioxide equivalent (in transport) immediately,” Vissing told a radio station. Deutschlandfunk Friday (April 12).
“These savings of 22 million tons cannot be achieved through speed limits or other measures, and such large amounts can only be saved by not using cars and trucks,” Wessing said, adding that banning driving on all weekends would be necessary to achieve To such a reduction in emissions.
Germany’s transport sector has repeatedly failed to meet its targets under the national climate law, which includes sector-specific annual emissions limits and tasks responsible ministries with ensuring compliance with their targets or correcting excess emissions through additional measures.
Last year, the three-party government coalition agreed to a radical overhaul of the law, initially passed in 2019, to replace sector-specific emissions limits with a comprehensive target.
This was a key demand of Wissing’s liberal FDP, which claims that emissions from transport are the responsibility of all citizens, not a single ministry, and wants to avoid controversial interventions in people’s mobility.
In keeping with its pro-market view, the party also claims that emissions cuts should take place where the cost is lowest, which for now would be primarily outside the transport sector.
Climate law reform is stuck
However, climate law reform is currently stuck in the legislative procedure, which Vissing blames on the Green Party, another member of the ruling coalition. Green politicians fear that economy-wide targets will not provide the accountability needed to cut emissions sufficiently.
Wesling says unless the reform is passed soon, he will need to follow existing rules, which will leave him no choice but to impose a driving ban.
He said in the radio interview that the driving ban is “what people will face if the Green Party succeeds in achieving its goal.”
“Those like Greenpeace and the Green Party, who have always said climate protection law should remain as it is, may now be shocked by the consequences of their policies, but you cannot simply ignore reality,” Wessing added.
But the Greens were quick to reject the minister’s claim.
“We, the Green Party, do not consider the driving ban to be a reasonable measure. It is irresponsible for a minister to raise unfounded fears,” Katarina Droege, head of the Greens group in the German Bundestag, said in a statement.
“Instead, Volker Wessing should do his job and finally put forward sensible proposals for more climate protection in the transport sector,” she said, adding that the Green Party had been “waiting for two years for the transport minister to act.”
Dirk Messner, head of the German Environment Agency (UBA), also refuted the minister’s claims, saying: “Of course we don’t need a driving ban.”
“Such a ban is not seriously discussed and scares people for no reason,” Messner said. the magazine SPIEGEL.
Slow progress in transportation emissions
On Monday (April 15), the Expert Council on Climate Change, a government-commissioned expert group, will present findings on total greenhouse gas emissions for 2023, along with more specific comments on “selected” sectors, which is likely to include transport given its legacy . From missing goals.
According to UBA data, the transport sector Emitted 146 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalents in 2023, representing 22% of total emissions and 13 million tons more than expected in the climate law.
However, Germany has met its overall climate target and is also on track to do so in the coming years, mainly due to lower emissions in electricity generation as the country promotes renewable energy sources such as solar and wind.
In the field of transportation, things are going much slower.
The number of newly sold electric cars fell by 5% in the first quarter of 2024 after the abrupt end of the bonus scheme, which was canceled In December 2023, he secured the government’s agreement to resolve its budget crisis.
The rollout of charging infrastructure – Wessing’s responsibility – is also very slow, and must triple in speed to reach the government’s target of 1 million charging points by 2030, according to the VDA, the automotive industry association.
There are “a whole range of things that could be possible (to boost electric mobility), from reductions on existing charging to a few more obvious programs to speed up charging infrastructure,” Andreas Rade, VDA’s managing director, said on Thursday. (April 11).
For his part, Wessing praised the presentation Monthly subscription ticket worth €49 For all regional and major public transport Investment package For the national railway operator Deutsche Bahn.
“I’m fighting to protect the climate, but at the same time I’m telling people the truth,” he said.
(Editing by Donagh Cagney/Zoran Radosavljevic)
