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You are here: Home / International / German Government Faces Lawsuit Over Its Failure to Meet Climate Goals
German Government Faces Lawsuit Over Its Failure to Meet Climate Goals

German Government Faces Lawsuit Over Its Failure to Meet Climate Goals

October 28, 2018 Filed Under: International

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By Dana Drugmand

Three families in Germany are suing their government hoping to compel it to cut carbon emissions as it has promised, joining a growing trend of citizens worldwide taking legal action against national governments over insufficient climate policies.

Greenpeace Germany filed the lawsuit last week on the families’ behalf. The complaint alleges that the government’s failure to meet its 2020 climate target violates the families’ rights to life and health. In 2007, the German government pledged to cut its emissions by 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, but now says it will not meet that target.

The three families—the Backsens, the Blohms, and the Lütke Schwienhorsts—are organic farmers whose livelihoods are threatened by climate change.

The German government now says the country’s emissions will fall only 32 percent by 2020 and said instead of working toward meeting that goal it will instead focus on meeting its 2030 goal of a 55 percent reduction.   

But plaintiffs in the new lawsuit are asking the court to declare that the government is obligated to still comply with its 2020 target.

The lawsuit will test whether or not the target is legally binding, as plaintiffs claim it is. While the government, led by Chancellor Angela Merkel, had officially set the target and passed Cabinet resolutions aimed at implementing it, it had not committed to the target in actual legislation.

“In essence, the success of the lawsuit depends on whether the court follows us, that the 2020 climate change target is a judicially justifiable act. Only then can it be checked by the courts at all,” Roda Verheyen, the German attorney representing the plaintiffs, explained in an interview.

Verheyen is not new to climate lawsuits. She is involved in both the Lliuya v. RWE case—in which a Peruvian farmer is suing a Germany utility for climate impacts in his home country—and the People’s Climate Case, in which 10 families, including one in Germany, are challenging the European Union over its 2030 climate target.

One of the three families in the new German lawsuit lives on an island in the North Sea. Silke and Jörg Backsen own an organic cattle and cereal farm on the island of Pellworm. Most of the island sits a meter below sea level, so flooding and rising seas are a constant concern. In September 2017, one-third of the island  was completely underwater. Drought also impacts the Backsen farm, which has been in the family for centuries.

The other two plaintiffs, the Blohm family and the Lütke Schwienhorst family, are also trying to protect the farms that their families have maintained for centuries. The Blohms are organic fruit farmers and the Lütke Schwienhorst family owns an organic dairy farm. Climate change and associated extreme weather are severely impacting both types of farming, the families say.

“The plaintiff families are already experiencing a foretaste of how existentially the climate crisis can become with us,” Anike Peters, climate expert for Greenpeace, said in a statement. “The federal government must do everything so that climate change will not endanger the livelihoods of families in the future.”

The case is inspired by a successful climate lawsuit in the Netherlands that challenged the Dutch government’s emissions reduction target. An appeals court recently upheld the landmark 2015 decision that requires the government cut emissions by at least 25 percent below 1990 levels by 2020.

Legal actions against governments relating to climate change have been on the rise in recent years. According to a 2017 report, hundreds of climate change lawsuits have been filed in nearly 25 countries around the world. Besides the Urgenda ruling in the Netherlands, plaintiffs in Pakistan and Colombia have received favorable outcomes. Current lawsuits attempting to force governments to take more urgent climate action are underway in Ireland, the UK, Norway, and the United States.

One U.S. case, brought by 21 youth plaintiffs alleging violation of Constitutional rights and of the public trust doctrine, is currently on hold awaiting a decision by the Supreme Court. It had been scheduled to start trial in Eugene, Ore. on Monday.

 

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Filed Under: International

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Trackbacks

  1. 2018 SkS Weekly Climate Change & Global Warming News Roundup #44 | Climate Change says:
    November 3, 2018 at 11:44 am

    […] German Government Faces Lawsuit Over Its Failure Meet Climate Goals by Dana Drugmand, Climate Liability News, Oct 28, 2018 […]

  2. France, home of the Paris Agreement, sued for lack of climate progress says:
    December 20, 2018 at 10:52 am

    […] Greenpeace Germany filed a suit on behalf of three farming families against the German government. Like France, which failed to meet emission […]

  3. Can Fossil Fuel Companies Be Held Responsible for Human Rights? | Rapid Shift says:
    February 19, 2019 at 3:13 pm

    […] claims under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. A suit she recently helped three families bring against the German government also argues that not meeting the country’s 2020 climate target infringes on the plaintiffs’ […]

  4. French government sued for inadequate climate action says:
    March 14, 2019 at 5:42 pm

    […] families in Germany filed suit last October to compel the government to comply with emission reduction targets. The European […]

  5. efforts to hold governments accountable grow as climate impacts worsen says:
    April 2, 2019 at 4:42 pm

    […] are currently pending in Germany, France, Ireland, Switzerland, the European Union, Canada, and the U.S. Citizens in these countries […]

  6. German climate case dismissed, but court recognizes right to safe climate says:
    October 31, 2019 at 10:12 pm

    […] German court has dismissed a climate lawsuit against the German government by three farming families and Greenpeace Germany. The Berlin Administrative Court ruled Thursday that the plaintiffs’ […]

  7. EU bank announces it will phase out funding most fossil fuel projects says:
    November 15, 2019 at 12:09 pm

    […] Germany’s legal obligations as well. A climate-related lawsuit against the German government by three farming families and Greenpeace Germany was recently […]

  8. Youth lawsuit challenges Germany's newest climate law says:
    January 21, 2020 at 2:01 pm

    […] reducing emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels, a failure that prompted three farming families to sue the government in 2018. The Berlin Administrative Court dismissed that case in October, finding that the families’ […]

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