BERLIN (Reuters) – Germany’s economy ministry has forwarded a climate protection bill to other ministries for approval, a text that follows months of wrangling over the phasing out of heating systems in oil and gas and which led to an agreement at the beginning of the week.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy and industrial engine, is implementing a series of measures to achieve climate neutrality by 2045. Berlin is developing its renewable energy sector and has launched an affordable train ticket that can be used across the country as well as a new road toll for trucks.
“The new climate protection program brings together the coalition’s efforts to achieve national and European climate protection targets,” Economy Minister Robert Habeck said in a statement released on Wednesday.
“The goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2030 is within reach,” he said.
The draft law notably provides that the evolution of emissions will be monitored in a multi-year framework, and no longer only from one year to the next, in order to reduce one-off effects and increase transparency, the ministry said.
(Report by Madeline Chambers and Miranda Murray; French version Victor Goury-Laffont)
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