Germany aims for net zero emissions by 2045, 5 years early

<p>BERLIN &mdash; Officials in Germany proposed Wednesday accelerating the plans to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by setting a new goal of reaching “net-zero” by 2045.</p>
<p>Under the proposal announced by Environment Minister Svenja Schulze and Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, the country would increase its emissions reduction targets from 55% to 65% below 1990 levels by 2030, and to 88% by 2040.</p>
<p>The timetable would put Germany in a position to have net-zero emissions five years earlier than the previous target of 2050. </p>
<p>The proposed targets so far don’t include corresponding emission-reduction measures. Experts maintain that to speed up the process of cutting emissions, Germany would have to more aggressively phase out coal-fired power plants. </p>
<p>The plan must be brought before Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Cabinet, which is expected to happen next week. Scholtz and Schulze both said they were confident it would be approved. </p>
<p>The government was forced to rework its plans after Germany’s highest court ruled last week that existing legislation risks placing too much of a burden for curbing climate change on younger generations.</p>
<p>The legislation, passed two years ago, set specific targets for sectors such as heating and transportation to reach a 55% reduction by 2030 but not for the long-term goal of cutting emissions to net-zero by 2050.</p>
<p>The 2019 regulations “irreversibly pushed a very high burden of emissions reduction into the period after 2030,” Constitutional Court judges said in an April 29 ruling.</p>
<p>The court backed the argument that the 2015 Paris climate accord’s goal of keeping global warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), ideally no more than 1.5 C (2.7 F), by the end of the century compared with pre-industrial times should be a benchmark for policymakers. It ordered the German government to come up with new targets from 2030 onward by the end of next year.</p>
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