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The Climate Action Plan
The 2050 Climate Action Plan describes the Federal Government’s climate policy objectives and principles.
The Federal Government adopted the 2050 Climate Action Plan in November 2016 in the light of the agreements relating to the Paris Climate Agreement. The 2050 Climate Action Plan provides guidance to attain the national climate targets in all fields of action: energy supply, buildings, transport, industry, agriculture and forestry.
Guiding principles have been developed for each sector. Transformation paths including important milestones describe how these principles are to be realised.
Involving the general public was an essential element of the development of the strategy. In a dialogue process, the Länder, municipalities, associations and citizens together elaborated proposals for strategic climate action measures which have been included in the Climate Action Plan.
The Climate Action Plan is also Germany’s long-term strategy in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement and with chapter 3 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 on the Gouvernance of the Energy Union and Climate Action. Since the adoption of the Climate Action Plan in 2016 both the climate targets and the guiding principles have been further developed.
The Climate Change Act
The Federal Climate Change Act is the legal basis for climate action policy in Germany and a key instrument to implement the Paris Climate Agreement and to meet the European climate action requirements. The Act ensures a higher level of trust, as binding climate targets and procedural steps for monitoring and attaining the targets, including an adjustment mechanism, have been laid down.
In 2021, the Federal Climate Change Act was amended and more ambitious targets were adopted against the background of the decision by the Federal Constitutional Court and the higher EU climate targets. The climate targets have been amended as follows:
- by 2045: net greenhouse gas (GHG) neutrality
- by 2040: a reduction of GHG emissions by at least 88% compared with 1990
- by 2030: a reduction of GHG emissions by at least 65% compared with 1990 (up from at least 55%).
The annual emission volumes for the individual sectors have also been brought into line with the more ambitious 2030 climate target. In the context of the amendment, specific targets have also for the first time been introduced to improve the sink performance. Sinks include, for example, forests and peatlands. They are important for the absorption of carbon.
The Climate Action Programmes
Pursuant to the Federal Climate Change Act, a new Climate Action Programme needs to be submitted at the latest in the year following the update of the 2050 Climate Action Plan – the German long-term climate action strategy. The Federal Government may also adopt a new Climate Action Programme before this. The projection report on the development of GHG emissions, for example, points out at an early stage when targets will foreseeably not be met and can thus provide an impetus to draw up a new Climate Action Programme.
On 4 October 2023, the federal cabinet adopted the 2023 Climate Action Programme, which contains measures to reduce GHG emissions in all sectors, cross-sectoral measures to reduce GHG emissions and activities to protect and expand natural sinks.
The Federal Government involves the Länder, municipalities, business associations and civil society associations, the climate change mitigation scientific platform and supporting scientific bodies of the Federal Government in a public consultation procedure when it draws up Climate Action Programmes. The Council of Experts on Climate Change examines the assumptions that have been made for the reduction of emissions in the context of the individual measures.
