Greetings and welcome to EURACTIV’s Green Brief. Below you’ll find the latest roundup of news covering energy & environment from across Europe. You can subscribe to the weekly newsletter here.
Since she took office in December 2019, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been talking big about climate change, saying global warming is “an existential crisis” and dubbing the European Green Deal as “Europe’s man on the moon moment”.
That EU leaders are finally addressing climate change is a welcome development. But it also creates expectations. What if Europe fails to deliver? What if the transition to a green economy creates social and economic disparities within the EU?
By KARIN MATUSSEK AND ARNE DELFS | Bloomberg | Published: May 5, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more staff and wire stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. Chancellor Angela Merkel s coalition is rapidly revising its pandemic strategy over concerns its controversial lockdown law may suffer a court setback, which would be the second legal defeat in quick succession just months before September elections. Germany s Constitutional Court is considering at least 289 challenges to the law, which was pushed through in April after authorities failed to find common ground on steps to fight a renewed surge in covid-19 infections. Opponents argue that the legislation oversteps the national government s authority and impinges on individual rights.
German top court hands climate advocates important win
The government now has until the end of 2022 to update its legislation accordingly.
As the effects of climate change worsen, citizens are taking their governments to court to ask for more effective action. Following favorable rulings across several European countries, now it was the turn of Germany – with the country’s highest court recently siding with a group of young campaigners in a landmark climate case.
A climate protest in Germany. Credit: Flickr / Campact
Germany’s Constitutional Court has called current official climate plans “incompatible with fundamental rights” as they lack specificity and “irreversibly offload major emissions reduction burdens” onto the next decade. It gave the government until the end of next year to set clearer targets to reduce greenhouse emissions starting in 2031. It