The Federal Audit Office (BRH) criticizes one of the central projects of the traffic light government in the environmental and climate sector because the federal government is not responsible for it and thus partially disregards “budgetary principles”. In the case of funding guidelines for the “Natural Climate Protection Action Program“, with which a total of […]
The next state election in Germany is just ten days away, and migration and populism will be at the heart of the vote. And just like Saxony and Thuringia, the climate crisis has practically disappeared from the public debate in Brandenburg. But not for us: We present the Brandenburg climate check with an overview of […]
Climate issues have traditionally had a difficult status in the German state of Brandenburg. The energy infrastructure is based on climate-damaging lignite-fired power generation, and the state has one of the highest per capita CO2 emissions in Germany at around 18 tons. Although agriculture is extremely vulnerable to climate extremes and the “Potsdam Institute for […]
Shortly after the EU elections and at the start of the Bundestag election campaign, serious debates are starting on how we should deal with the challenges of the future – including the climate crisis. When presenting his report on the competitiveness of the European Union, former ECB chief Mario Draghi linked decarbonization and the preservation […]
In an assessment of the lack of necessary future investments in Germany, climate policy issues account for almost half of the requirement. Of the total of €782 billion needed between 2025 and 2030 for “broadly accepted goals” such as defense, health or economic resilience, around €340 billion would have to flow into the areas of […]
The German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) has refused to release the certificates in eight cases as part of the scandal surrounding the alleged fraud with climate certificates in China. Several large, internationally active companies had applied for the certificates in question, as the agency announced on Friday. Using the eight denied certificates, the companies in […]
A closer look reveals just how important government rules and their correct enforcement are for climate policy: For instance, the European economy currently complains that the EU regulations on the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) are so complicated that they are almost impossible to implement. And in the scandal surrounding the possible fraud surrounding UER […]
Following allegations of fraud against the UER certificate system, the new “Initiative gegen Klimabetrug” (Initiative against Climate Fraud) from the biofuel industry has now turned to the German Federal Ministry for the Environment with demands. It accuses the Ministry of “sluggish clarification” and demandsThe accusations against “Upstream Emission Reductions” (UER) projects have been known for […]
According to new studies, parliaments and governments are apparently facing a dilemma in the search for effective climate policy measures. On the one hand, there are indications that a mix of different measures brings the greatest reductions in emissions and that political decisions are the most important factor in achieving ambitious climate targets. On the […]
The old slogan “Elections change nothing” has always been wrong. It becomes even more absurd when we take a look at Thuringia through the climate lens, as we are doing today: After all, the federal state in the heart of Germany has been leading the country in cutting emissions and expanding renewables – but should […]