Germany has been warned that it is on course to miss its legally binding 2030 climate target, with an independent panel urging Berlin to overhaul a recently unveiled action plan.
The Council of Experts on Climate Change, a body appointed by the German Government, said greenhouse gas emissions were falling far too slowly to meet the goal. The findings add to concern over a softening of climate policy under Conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Europe’s largest economy has committed by law to cutting emissions by 65 per cent on 1990 levels by 2030, and to reaching climate neutrality by 2045.
The pace of reductions has slowed, with emissions almost unchanged in the latest year on record. The environment ministry has insisted the 2030 goal can still be reached.
The experts disagreed. They said the ministry’s own projections “underestimate the emissions expected up to 2030” and effectively assumed the target would be missed.
Emissions in the buildings and energy sectors were likely to come in higher than forecast, council head Barbara Schlomann said.
Schlomann said Berlin’s new climate plan, set out in March and covering measures such as electric car subsidies and a boost for wind power, did not go far enough and should be revised.
The Greens described the report as “a stinging slap in the face” for the Chancellor’s coalition.
The German Government was “knowingly heading for a breach of the law that will come at a high cost to the people and the country”, Greens lawmaker Julia Verlinden told the Rheinische Post.
An environment ministry spokesman said the government still believed it was on track, arguing the experts had relied on “more conservative assumptions” in areas such as wind power.
Environmental Action Germany (DUH), which successfully sued the previous government over an earlier plan that courts found inadequate, has vowed to challenge the new programme in court.
The group said the report had strengthened its case, insisting the climate programme must be improved “as quickly as possible”. DUH federal managing director Juergen Resch said the plans had “nothing to do with reality”.
Merz’s government, which argues that heavy regulation is weighing on a struggling economy, has moved to scale back climate measures in some areas.
He has backed a loosening of EU-wide car emission rules, while his energy minister has pushed for new gas-fired power stations.
The row comes amid a broader push by several member states to soften parts of the bloc’s climate agenda, including elements of the Green Deal.
Government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said: “Climate policy is no less important to this government than it was to the previous one.”
