“Is there a right to climate action?” – Worldwide, there is at least an increasing number of climate lawsuits fighting for it. So far, many of them have been in the USA, but they are also becoming more frequent in Europe. Today, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will make three important decisions on this matter. Alexandra Endres explains what’s at stake and what impact the rulings could have on Germany.
The next avenue for climate lawsuits could then come directly from the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor. Its latest results show that many large companies are still not doing enough in terms of climate action. Some have even rolled back their climate goals.
Additionally, we’ll share with you how China aims to encourage energy-intensive companies to demand more renewable energy. And we’ll inform you about what’s on the agenda at the end of the month for the Petersberg Climate Dialogue.
Your Lisa Kuner
Feature
Right to better climate action? That’s what’s before the Court of Human Rights
Right to climate action: Portuguese young people take Europe to court.
On Tuesday, April 9, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will rule on three climate lawsuits. The outcome of the proceedings could also influence German climate policy, even though the underlying complaints were filed from Portugal, France and Switzerland.
The chronically overloaded court is prioritizing the cases. This suggests that it assigns special relevance to climate action issues. Whether and to what extent it follows the arguments of the plaintiffs will be seen on Tuesday starting at 10:30 a.m. Then, the Grand Chamber of the ECHR will announce its decision in a public hearing. The court will later post the announcement as a video on its website.
Portuguese youth against all of Europe
The most unusual complaint was filed by Portuguese youth and young adults in September 2020. They demand that the ECHR compel all member states of the Council of Europe to adopt a more ambitious climate policy. Since the exclusion of Russia in March 2022 due to the attack on Ukraine, 32 countries remain.
Usually, citizens can demand their fundamental rights from the state in which they live before the ECHR. Only if the state denies them can they turn to the ECHR. However, the young plaintiffs argue that all Council of Europe member states together are responsible for the effects of the climate crisis. They rely on Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to life, Article 8 (Right to Respect for Private and Family Life), and Article 14 (Prohibition of Discrimination). They see their health endangered by the effects of climate change – such as extreme heat – more so than the health of older people, who generally do not live as long as they do.
Significance for Germany
Because they did not exhaust the domestic legal remedies – which they would have had to do in 32 countries – their chances of success seem slim. “Based on its previous case law, it must be expected that the ECHR will reject the admissibility of the Portuguese climate complaint due to the lack of exhaustion of national remedies,” says Christian Calliess, environmental and European law expert at the Free University of Berlin. However, he does not rule out the possibility that the ECHR might also “take innovative paths” – just as the Federal Constitutional Court did in its surprising climate ruling three years ago.
If the court rules in favor of the Portuguese youth, Germany would also be obligated to implement the judgment. It could “lead to Germany intensifying its climate action measures,” says Sam Hunter Jones, a lawyer for the environmental law organization Client Earth, which works legally for more climate action.
Hurdles before the ECHR
In principle, complaints before the ECHR must overcome several hurdles: for admissibility, the domestic legal recourse must be exhausted. Then, complainants must convince the court that the effects of inadequate climate action personally affect them – a hurdle that many complaints fail to overcome.
Only if the complaints are admissible does the ECHR examine them substantively: Has the defendant state violated its duty of care towards its citizens? That is very difficult to prove, says Calliess. “Most states have signed the Paris Climate Agreement and pursue some form of climate policy. Whether it is sufficient is a completely different question. But so far, the ECHR has always emphasized the discretion of the member states.”
Therefore, Calliess also assesses the prospects of success of the climate complaints from France and Switzerland as rather low – unless the court unexpectedly deviates from its previous case law.
Green MEP against France
The French complaint comes from Damien Carême, a green European politician and former mayor of the city of Grande-Synthe, located on the English Channel. He, too, argues that his rights guaranteed in Articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights are violated. He cites the increasing risk of flooding for his hometown. Although the municipality’s climate complaint was allowed to be heard by France’s highest administrative court, it found that Carême was not personally affected and dismissed it. He appealed to the ECtHR in January 2021.
Seniors against Switzerland
The third complaint, filed in November 2020, comes from Switzerland, where hundreds of elderly women in the association “KlimaSeniorinnen” (“Climate Seniors”) want to force their country to adopt stricter climate policies. They are supported by Greenpeace and other organizations. Like Carême, they have exhausted the domestic legal remedies. For personal relevance, the senior citizens argue that they, as older people, suffer particularly strongly from the consequences of global warming, such as heat waves. This makes their complaint special: Most climate complaints based on human rights are filed by young people, as in the Portuguese case.
The senior citizens also demand that the Swiss government protect their right to life and a family life, relying also on Articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Additionally, they argue that their right to a fair trial was not upheld in the domestic proceedings.
Consequences for a German ECHR complaint
If they succeed before the ECHR, this would indirectly also affect Germany. Because a German climate complaint lies before the court, which it could take up and decide in light of the Swiss case. It was filed by Berlin lawyer Remo Klinger, who has been promoting climate lawsuits on various legal levels for several years.
Similar to the Swiss seniors, Klinger and his young clients argue that the climate crisis jeopardizes their fundamental rights and that the German Climate Change Act still lags behind the Paris Agreement even after the climate action decision of the Federal Constitutional Court. Moreover, stricter climate targets are required. The Federal Constitutional Court had unceremoniously dismissed their demand. Now, Klinger hopes for the ECtHR: “If the Climate Seniors succeed, there is much to suggest that our complaint will also be successful,” he says.
‘Turning point for climate cases’ across Europe
A positive judgment would be “an absolute turning point for climate cases across the continent,” says Vesselina Newman, head of human rights at Client Earth. “If this case is successful, it would be one of the first cases to establish a connection between the effects of climate change on health and well-being and the rights guaranteed by the Convention.” Client Earth has submitted a statement to the ECHR as an interested third party in the Swiss case.
For the signatory states of the Convention, ECHR judgments are binding. This would require courts across Europe to consider the judgments in their deliberations on climate lawsuits. “In Germany, the courts would have to consider the judgments as soon as domestic law allows for interpretation,” explains Calliess.
However, what this means concretely depends largely on how far the ECHR goes in its judgments. Calliess considers it “unlikely that it will go beyond the German Climate Change Act. So far, it has been rather restrictive.” In that case, there would likely be no new room for interpretation in Germany for climate action.
Climate complaints
Europe
Human Rights
China struggles to reach climate targets: Companies are supposed to use more renewables
China’s industry causes high carbon emissions. The government aims to change this through regulations and control measures.
This week, the leading climate diplomats from the EU, Germany, France, Denmark and the Netherlands will meet with the Chinese leadership in Beijing. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also expected next weekend. The list of topics discussed at these meetings always includes the climate policy of the largest carbon emitter. After all, China is about to miss its targets.
That is why the People’s Republic wants to obligatecompanies fromindustries requiring large amounts of energy to cover a certain percentage of their energy needs from renewable sources. The powerful central planning authority NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission) recently urged the provinces to issue such regulations.
Experts consider this new NDRC guideline “major Chinese climate policy news.“David Fishman, energy expert at the consulting firm The Lantau Group, called the decision to no longer limit renewable energy quotas to electricity producers but to include consumers as well “big news” in a post on X. According to Lauri Myllyvirta, China expert at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), “China’s renewable energy quotas promise to be a key tool to drive installations and profitability.”
The current climate data shows just how important such new approaches are: Overall, China risks missing its climate targets for the coming years. To at least keep the government’s targets within reach, emissions from the energy sector would have to fall by an unprecedented four to six percent by 2025. China is not on the right path for many indicators.
Many details remain unclear
Yin Ming, Senior Advisor China Power at Agora Energiewende, also considers the new guidelines a good step forward: “The new policy can help to accelerate the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energies in the provinces and thus make acontribution to China’s energy transition.”
However, many details of the recently adopted directive are still unclear. This makes it questionable whether the regulations on the use of renewable energies can make a difference in time.
China’s industrial sector faces a massive transformation. Compared to other G20 countries, the country’s manufacturing industry is still very carbon heavy. Moreover, the industrial sector remains of considerable economic importance: Emissions in the iron and steel sector alone are almost as high as those of Russia, the world’s fourth-largest carbon emitter. Accelerating the energy transition in the industrial sector has the potential to have a significant impact on climate action.
However, it is still unclear to what extent the new regulations will contribute to reducing carbon emissions. “It’s still too early to say whether the new policy will reduce overall emissions or simply offset a larger increase in emissions,” Fishman told Table.Briefings, adding that there are still some unanswered questions.
More effective than Chinese emissions trading
The NDRC directive shifts a lot of responsibility to the individual provinces, which will set their own targets for renewable energy consumption, Fishman says. It is also difficult to categorize the provinces’ targets and check whether their quotas are too low, as there is a lack of access to information. However, the Lantau expert suspects that authorities at the national level will review the provincial targets and have to wave them through. This could restrict the provinces’ leeway. Yin Ming from Agora Energiewende says: “Strict oversight and enforcement will be crucial to ensure that the new regulations accelerate the industry’s transition to clean energy.”
The new guidelines potentially affect around 20,000 manufacturing companies and over one million data centers. The Chinese government classifies around 14,000 companies from the iron and steel sector, 4,000 cement manufacturers and several hundred chemical companies as well as aluminum manufacturers, oil refineries, glass manufacturers and data centers as “industries with high energy requirements”. It is not yet clear whether the latter will also be affected by the new directive.
According to Myllyvirta, the new measure is “much more likely” to be more successful than the Chinese emissions trading system (ETS). The ETS still has serious design flaws and, according to the China analyst from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, does not set a carbon price. Myllyvirta estimates that “administrative measures, targets and quotas” remain important tools in China’s climate policy.
China’s industry: electrification insufficient
Such government interventions are important to reduce industrial emissions fast enough. The sector has already achieved some successes:
The electrification of the industrial sector has progressed slightly faster in recent years than many transition scenarios for achieving the climate targets predict.
Direct coal consumption by industrial companies has also declined.
In addition, many technical solutions for improving energy efficiency have already been utilized. Government guidelines also contributed to this. “Every energy-intensive industry has its own energy efficiency benchmarks. If a company does not meet the respective benchmark, it is subject to stricter regulations. This can mean, for example, that higher energy tariffs have to be paid or that the company is barred from expanding,” says Yin Ming.
Overall, however, emissions from the industrial sector are still too high. Industrial end consumption has increased significantly in the wake of economic stimulus programs after the COVID-19 pandemic. And while electrification represents progress, it is currently only shifting emissions: Although more and more coal-fired power plants at industrial locations (“captive power plants”) are being decommissioned, coal consumption in the energy sector is rising – along with emissions – as the industrial sector demands more electricity and renewables are not yet able to meet the higher demand.
China
Climate protection
Energy transition
Erneuerbare Energien
News
Petersberg Dialogue: 40 states and COP Troika on April 25/26 in Berlin
The 15th Petersberg Climate Dialogue will take place this year on April 25 and 26 in Berlin. The Federal Foreign Office expects around 40 ministers from key states to attend the informal conference. Traditionally, this is where this year’s climate negotiations in Bonn in June and at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November are prepared.
According to the plan, the inaugural exchange will be led by the designated COP29 President, Azerbaijani Minister of Environment and Resources Mukhtar Babayev, and Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock. Also expected are greetings from the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
On the second day, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will attend the meeting. He will appear alongside the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. The traditional speech by the German head of government at the Petersberg Dialogue will be particularly interesting this year. Just a year ago, Scholz reaffirmed Germany’s promise of 6 billion euros in climate financing by 2025 on this occasion. Given the pressures of the budget situation, it will be interesting to see if he repeats this statement.
Scheduled meetings also include German Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck with UNFCCC Secretary Simon Stiell and Development Minister Svenja Schulze with a representative from Kenya. The “Troika” of representatives from the hosts of COP28, 29, and 30 – the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Brazil – is also expected to play a significant role. bpo
COP29
Report: Corporate climate targets insufficient for 1.5-degree target despite progress
None of the 51 large companies surveyed – including Adidas, Nestlé, Volkswagen and H&M – have set climate targets that are compatible with the 1.5-degree goal. On average, they commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030 compared to the base year of 2019. This falls short by 13 percentage points of what is necessary, as shown by the annual Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor (CCRM) released on Tuesday by the New Climate Institute and Carbon Market Watch.
While the report acknowledges progress compared to the previous year, where two-thirds of the surveyed companies had climate targets rated as “low” or “very low integrity”, some companies have since revised their climate targets. Eighteen of the 51 companies are now committed to deep decarbonization (more than 90 percent emission reduction).
However, most companies still provide “outdated, opaque, unclear or limited emission reduction goals“. For example, Volkswagen has completely eliminated its 2025 target since the last report. Some companies also resort to “wrong solutions”, such as CO2 compensation instead of ambitious emission reductions or CO2 storage in the electricity sector. Therefore, there is a need for “clear guidelines for sector-specific transition plans”, according to Silke Mooldijk from the New Climate Institute.
Climate targets of Adidas, Nestlé and Volkswagen rated as ‘low integrity’
Here are the ratings for some selected surveyed companies:
“High integrity“: no company
“Adequate integrity“: Enel and Iberdrola (both energy companies)
The report also criticizes that many companies have their climate targets reviewed by the Science Based Targets initiative and similar voluntary providers, but these often issue embellished certificates. lb
Climate & Environment
Climate targets
Company
Greenwashing
Greenwashing
March: tenth consecutive month of record heat worldwide
As the tenth consecutive month, March 2024 brought a new peak in global temperatures. According to data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, March was the warmest March ever recorded, with a global average temperature of 14.14 degrees Celsius, 0.73 degrees above the 1991-2020 average – and a full 1.68 degrees warmer than the pre-industrial period.
This makes March the tenth in a series of months, each of which has been the warmest in its respective period. The global average temperature over the last twelve months was 1.58 degrees above the pre-industrial era – indicating that at least in this span, the 1.5-degree threshold was surpassed. In Europe, this figure was even higher, at 2.2 degrees. According to Copernicus data, temperatures were also above average along the east coast of North America, Greenland, eastern Russia, Central America, southern Australia and vast parts of Africa, South America and Antarctica. Despite the weakening of the El Niño phenomenon, air and sea temperatures in the oceans remained unusually high. bpo
Klimawandel
Experts warn of ‘extremely active’ hurricane season
Nearly two dozen named tropical storms – including eleven hurricanes – are forecasted by researchers at Colorado State University for the upcoming season. They caution of an “extremely active” season in the Atlantic. This season officially runs from early June to late November. On average, there are 14 cyclones annually that reach sufficient strength to be classified as named tropical storms.
The Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) could be 170 percent above average during this season. ACE is a unit that describes the total energy of a storm over its entire lifespan. Additionally, there is a significantly increased probability that at least one of the storms will make landfall along the US coast.
This trend is attributed to two factors: the warm surface temperatures in the Atlantic basin, allowing the ocean to release more energy conducive to storm formation, and the likely onset of the weather phenomenon known as “La Niña” in the second half of the year, which further favors storm development. April hurricane forecasts are typically not very certain, but due to these factors, researchers are “above average in confidence” regarding the reliability of their predictions. If the forecasts prove accurate, it’s possible that the list of 21 prepared names for tropical storms may not be sufficient for the second time in four years. In such a scenario, a supplementary list would be utilized. kul
Extremwetter
Illegal imports of climate gases remain high despite EU regulation
Large quantities of climate-warming refrigerant gases are being smuggled illegally into Europe from countries including China and Turkey. This is according to a report by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). The researchers assume that the amount of illegally imported hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) has not decreased since the last study in 2021 – despite international agreements and stricter EU regulation. According to the study, HFCs illegally smuggled into Europe would continue toaccount for20 to 30 percent of legally traded quantities. This corresponds to up to 30 million tons of carbon.
HFCs are chemicals primarily used for industrial and consumer cooling purposes, for example in heat pumps and air conditioning systems. Unlike refrigerants, which are now banned, they do not damage the ozone layer but they do drive the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere, as they are up to several thousand times more harmful to the climate than carbon.
EIA undercover investigations show that law enforcement authorities in the European Union are struggling to track illegal shipments. Poland and Bulgaria have been identified as the main gateways for illegal HFCs into the EU, with the gases themselves originating from China, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and Albania.
High prices incentivize smuggling
As part of the amendment to the Montreal Protocol adopted in Kigali in 2016, European and other industrialized countries have committed to reducingtheuse of HFCs by 85 percent by 2036. In order to facilitate the gradual phase-out, HFC producers and consumers have been allocated quotas in the EU since 2015 through the regulation of fluorinated gases (F-gases). However, as demand remains high, the shortage caused by regulation has driven up prices and created incentives for smugglers, according to the report.
The recent revision of the F-gas regulation has provided enforcement authorities with additional tools to combat illicit trade. “But they will only work if they are implemented quickly and effectively,” said Fin Walravens, a climate expert at the EIA. The further shortage of refrigerants threatens to increase the demand for illegal HFCs even further.
The EIA calls on the EU Commission and all Member States to prioritize the implementation of the new F-Gas Regulation and to strengthen enforcement measures. “The illegal trade in HFCs not only exacerbates climate change but is also associated with significant tax evasion,” warns Walravens. luk
Treibhausgase
Green claims rules could harm carbon farming
The Green Claims Directive, currently under consideration by the EU Parliament and Council, aims to prevent greenwashing in advertising. Under the directive, products may only advertise climate neutrality, for example, if it can be substantiated with scientifically determined data. However, according to the version for which the EU Parliament voted in February, CO2 compensations may generally not be used for this purpose.
This could potentially hinder another EU climate action initiative: the promotion of carbon farming. This involves farmers generating “carbon removal certificates” through soil carbon sequestration on their agricultural land and selling them on voluntary carbon markets. In February, Parliament and Council agreed on the corresponding “Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CFCR)” in trilogue negotiations. The final vote in Parliament is scheduled for Wednesday.
Thünen Institute: Willingness to pay for climate action projects could decrease
“We believe that the strict limitation on the use of CO2 credits in product advertising could deter farmers from engaging in carbon farming because the market for their credits will not be profitable,” warns the EU farming umbrella organization Copa-Cogeca in an interview with Table.Briefings. If the sale of CO2 credits on a voluntary basis is effectively prevented by strict restrictions, an effective climate action instrument will be withheld from the market.
The Thünen Institute also anticipates negative impacts. “If it becomes more difficult to advertise with climate action projects in the area of carbon farming, companies’ willingness to finance such projects will also decrease,” says Bernhard Osterburg, head of the Climate, Soil and Biodiversity Department at the federal research institute, to Table.Briefings. The EU is clearly putting a brake on progress with these restrictions.
Copa-Cogeca sees double burden
Copa-Cogeca criticizes the Green Claims Directive in another aspect: Farmers who have already undergone an audit process to comply with the voluntary environmental practices of the CAP would have to undergo another process for the same issues to meet the requirements of the Green Claims Directive.
While the directive affects farmers in few cases, if a retailer wants to advertise with a green claim, the claim must also be verified at the level of the farm. The association now hopes that its criticism will be taken into account in the upcoming trilogue negotiations on the Green Claims Directive. mo
Agriculture
Carbon Farming
Carbon Farming
Carbon Removal
Germany: billions for hydrogen backbone network, millions for electrolyzer construction
By 2037, Germany aims to establish a hydrogen backbone network built by private companies and fully financed through user fees. The government reached this agreement on Friday. The project could be discussed and approved in the Bundestag in the coming weeks. It involves expenditures of around 20 billion euros for a 10,000-kilometer-long network. Sixty percent of the network could be created using repurposed natural gas pipelines, while the remainder would need to be built anew.
On Friday, there was also news from Brussels regarding hydrogen: The German government is permitted to subsidize the construction of electrolyzers in Germany with 350 million euros. The Commission granted approval under state aid rules, the authority announced. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager praised Germany’s subsidies as an important step for renewable hydrogen development.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs had announced the subsidy in December last year. Germany is the first EU member state to use the European Hydrogen Bank for the electrolyzer tender. Bids could be submitted until Feb. 8, and the evaluation is still ongoing as of Friday. With the approved amount, up to 90 megawatts of electrolyzer capacity could be subsidized. Germany aims to achieve at least ten gigawatts of capacity by 2030. rtr/ber/lb
“Is there a right to climate action?” – Worldwide, there is at least an increasing number of climate lawsuits fighting for it. So far, many of them have been in the USA, but they are also becoming more frequent in Europe. Today, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg will make three important decisions on this matter. Alexandra Endres explains what’s at stake and what impact the rulings could have on Germany.
The next avenue for climate lawsuits could then come directly from the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor. Its latest results show that many large companies are still not doing enough in terms of climate action. Some have even rolled back their climate goals.
Additionally, we’ll share with you how China aims to encourage energy-intensive companies to demand more renewable energy. And we’ll inform you about what’s on the agenda at the end of the month for the Petersberg Climate Dialogue.
Your Lisa Kuner
Feature
Right to better climate action? That’s what’s before the Court of Human Rights
Right to climate action: Portuguese young people take Europe to court.
On Tuesday, April 9, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) will rule on three climate lawsuits. The outcome of the proceedings could also influence German climate policy, even though the underlying complaints were filed from Portugal, France and Switzerland.
The chronically overloaded court is prioritizing the cases. This suggests that it assigns special relevance to climate action issues. Whether and to what extent it follows the arguments of the plaintiffs will be seen on Tuesday starting at 10:30 a.m. Then, the Grand Chamber of the ECHR will announce its decision in a public hearing. The court will later post the announcement as a video on its website.
Portuguese youth against all of Europe
The most unusual complaint was filed by Portuguese youth and young adults in September 2020. They demand that the ECHR compel all member states of the Council of Europe to adopt a more ambitious climate policy. Since the exclusion of Russia in March 2022 due to the attack on Ukraine, 32 countries remain.
Usually, citizens can demand their fundamental rights from the state in which they live before the ECHR. Only if the state denies them can they turn to the ECHR. However, the young plaintiffs argue that all Council of Europe member states together are responsible for the effects of the climate crisis. They rely on Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which guarantees the right to life, Article 8 (Right to Respect for Private and Family Life), and Article 14 (Prohibition of Discrimination). They see their health endangered by the effects of climate change – such as extreme heat – more so than the health of older people, who generally do not live as long as they do.
Significance for Germany
Because they did not exhaust the domestic legal remedies – which they would have had to do in 32 countries – their chances of success seem slim. “Based on its previous case law, it must be expected that the ECHR will reject the admissibility of the Portuguese climate complaint due to the lack of exhaustion of national remedies,” says Christian Calliess, environmental and European law expert at the Free University of Berlin. However, he does not rule out the possibility that the ECHR might also “take innovative paths” – just as the Federal Constitutional Court did in its surprising climate ruling three years ago.
If the court rules in favor of the Portuguese youth, Germany would also be obligated to implement the judgment. It could “lead to Germany intensifying its climate action measures,” says Sam Hunter Jones, a lawyer for the environmental law organization Client Earth, which works legally for more climate action.
Hurdles before the ECHR
In principle, complaints before the ECHR must overcome several hurdles: for admissibility, the domestic legal recourse must be exhausted. Then, complainants must convince the court that the effects of inadequate climate action personally affect them – a hurdle that many complaints fail to overcome.
Only if the complaints are admissible does the ECHR examine them substantively: Has the defendant state violated its duty of care towards its citizens? That is very difficult to prove, says Calliess. “Most states have signed the Paris Climate Agreement and pursue some form of climate policy. Whether it is sufficient is a completely different question. But so far, the ECHR has always emphasized the discretion of the member states.”
Therefore, Calliess also assesses the prospects of success of the climate complaints from France and Switzerland as rather low – unless the court unexpectedly deviates from its previous case law.
Green MEP against France
The French complaint comes from Damien Carême, a green European politician and former mayor of the city of Grande-Synthe, located on the English Channel. He, too, argues that his rights guaranteed in Articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights are violated. He cites the increasing risk of flooding for his hometown. Although the municipality’s climate complaint was allowed to be heard by France’s highest administrative court, it found that Carême was not personally affected and dismissed it. He appealed to the ECtHR in January 2021.
Seniors against Switzerland
The third complaint, filed in November 2020, comes from Switzerland, where hundreds of elderly women in the association “KlimaSeniorinnen” (“Climate Seniors”) want to force their country to adopt stricter climate policies. They are supported by Greenpeace and other organizations. Like Carême, they have exhausted the domestic legal remedies. For personal relevance, the senior citizens argue that they, as older people, suffer particularly strongly from the consequences of global warming, such as heat waves. This makes their complaint special: Most climate complaints based on human rights are filed by young people, as in the Portuguese case.
The senior citizens also demand that the Swiss government protect their right to life and a family life, relying also on Articles 2 and 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Additionally, they argue that their right to a fair trial was not upheld in the domestic proceedings.
Consequences for a German ECHR complaint
If they succeed before the ECHR, this would indirectly also affect Germany. Because a German climate complaint lies before the court, which it could take up and decide in light of the Swiss case. It was filed by Berlin lawyer Remo Klinger, who has been promoting climate lawsuits on various legal levels for several years.
Similar to the Swiss seniors, Klinger and his young clients argue that the climate crisis jeopardizes their fundamental rights and that the German Climate Change Act still lags behind the Paris Agreement even after the climate action decision of the Federal Constitutional Court. Moreover, stricter climate targets are required. The Federal Constitutional Court had unceremoniously dismissed their demand. Now, Klinger hopes for the ECtHR: “If the Climate Seniors succeed, there is much to suggest that our complaint will also be successful,” he says.
‘Turning point for climate cases’ across Europe
A positive judgment would be “an absolute turning point for climate cases across the continent,” says Vesselina Newman, head of human rights at Client Earth. “If this case is successful, it would be one of the first cases to establish a connection between the effects of climate change on health and well-being and the rights guaranteed by the Convention.” Client Earth has submitted a statement to the ECHR as an interested third party in the Swiss case.
For the signatory states of the Convention, ECHR judgments are binding. This would require courts across Europe to consider the judgments in their deliberations on climate lawsuits. “In Germany, the courts would have to consider the judgments as soon as domestic law allows for interpretation,” explains Calliess.
However, what this means concretely depends largely on how far the ECHR goes in its judgments. Calliess considers it “unlikely that it will go beyond the German Climate Change Act. So far, it has been rather restrictive.” In that case, there would likely be no new room for interpretation in Germany for climate action.
Climate complaints
Europe
Human Rights
China struggles to reach climate targets: Companies are supposed to use more renewables
China’s industry causes high carbon emissions. The government aims to change this through regulations and control measures.
This week, the leading climate diplomats from the EU, Germany, France, Denmark and the Netherlands will meet with the Chinese leadership in Beijing. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is also expected next weekend. The list of topics discussed at these meetings always includes the climate policy of the largest carbon emitter. After all, China is about to miss its targets.
That is why the People’s Republic wants to obligatecompanies fromindustries requiring large amounts of energy to cover a certain percentage of their energy needs from renewable sources. The powerful central planning authority NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission) recently urged the provinces to issue such regulations.
Experts consider this new NDRC guideline “major Chinese climate policy news.“David Fishman, energy expert at the consulting firm The Lantau Group, called the decision to no longer limit renewable energy quotas to electricity producers but to include consumers as well “big news” in a post on X. According to Lauri Myllyvirta, China expert at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), “China’s renewable energy quotas promise to be a key tool to drive installations and profitability.”
The current climate data shows just how important such new approaches are: Overall, China risks missing its climate targets for the coming years. To at least keep the government’s targets within reach, emissions from the energy sector would have to fall by an unprecedented four to six percent by 2025. China is not on the right path for many indicators.
Many details remain unclear
Yin Ming, Senior Advisor China Power at Agora Energiewende, also considers the new guidelines a good step forward: “The new policy can help to accelerate the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energies in the provinces and thus make acontribution to China’s energy transition.”
However, many details of the recently adopted directive are still unclear. This makes it questionable whether the regulations on the use of renewable energies can make a difference in time.
China’s industrial sector faces a massive transformation. Compared to other G20 countries, the country’s manufacturing industry is still very carbon heavy. Moreover, the industrial sector remains of considerable economic importance: Emissions in the iron and steel sector alone are almost as high as those of Russia, the world’s fourth-largest carbon emitter. Accelerating the energy transition in the industrial sector has the potential to have a significant impact on climate action.
However, it is still unclear to what extent the new regulations will contribute to reducing carbon emissions. “It’s still too early to say whether the new policy will reduce overall emissions or simply offset a larger increase in emissions,” Fishman told Table.Briefings, adding that there are still some unanswered questions.
More effective than Chinese emissions trading
The NDRC directive shifts a lot of responsibility to the individual provinces, which will set their own targets for renewable energy consumption, Fishman says. It is also difficult to categorize the provinces’ targets and check whether their quotas are too low, as there is a lack of access to information. However, the Lantau expert suspects that authorities at the national level will review the provincial targets and have to wave them through. This could restrict the provinces’ leeway. Yin Ming from Agora Energiewende says: “Strict oversight and enforcement will be crucial to ensure that the new regulations accelerate the industry’s transition to clean energy.”
The new guidelines potentially affect around 20,000 manufacturing companies and over one million data centers. The Chinese government classifies around 14,000 companies from the iron and steel sector, 4,000 cement manufacturers and several hundred chemical companies as well as aluminum manufacturers, oil refineries, glass manufacturers and data centers as “industries with high energy requirements”. It is not yet clear whether the latter will also be affected by the new directive.
According to Myllyvirta, the new measure is “much more likely” to be more successful than the Chinese emissions trading system (ETS). The ETS still has serious design flaws and, according to the China analyst from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, does not set a carbon price. Myllyvirta estimates that “administrative measures, targets and quotas” remain important tools in China’s climate policy.
China’s industry: electrification insufficient
Such government interventions are important to reduce industrial emissions fast enough. The sector has already achieved some successes:
The electrification of the industrial sector has progressed slightly faster in recent years than many transition scenarios for achieving the climate targets predict.
Direct coal consumption by industrial companies has also declined.
In addition, many technical solutions for improving energy efficiency have already been utilized. Government guidelines also contributed to this. “Every energy-intensive industry has its own energy efficiency benchmarks. If a company does not meet the respective benchmark, it is subject to stricter regulations. This can mean, for example, that higher energy tariffs have to be paid or that the company is barred from expanding,” says Yin Ming.
Overall, however, emissions from the industrial sector are still too high. Industrial end consumption has increased significantly in the wake of economic stimulus programs after the COVID-19 pandemic. And while electrification represents progress, it is currently only shifting emissions: Although more and more coal-fired power plants at industrial locations (“captive power plants”) are being decommissioned, coal consumption in the energy sector is rising – along with emissions – as the industrial sector demands more electricity and renewables are not yet able to meet the higher demand.
China
Climate protection
Energy transition
Erneuerbare Energien
News
Petersberg Dialogue: 40 states and COP Troika on April 25/26 in Berlin
The 15th Petersberg Climate Dialogue will take place this year on April 25 and 26 in Berlin. The Federal Foreign Office expects around 40 ministers from key states to attend the informal conference. Traditionally, this is where this year’s climate negotiations in Bonn in June and at COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, in November are prepared.
According to the plan, the inaugural exchange will be led by the designated COP29 President, Azerbaijani Minister of Environment and Resources Mukhtar Babayev, and Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock. Also expected are greetings from the Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley and California Governor Gavin Newsom.
On the second day, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will attend the meeting. He will appear alongside the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev. The traditional speech by the German head of government at the Petersberg Dialogue will be particularly interesting this year. Just a year ago, Scholz reaffirmed Germany’s promise of 6 billion euros in climate financing by 2025 on this occasion. Given the pressures of the budget situation, it will be interesting to see if he repeats this statement.
Scheduled meetings also include German Minister for Economic Affairs Robert Habeck with UNFCCC Secretary Simon Stiell and Development Minister Svenja Schulze with a representative from Kenya. The “Troika” of representatives from the hosts of COP28, 29, and 30 – the United Arab Emirates, Azerbaijan and Brazil – is also expected to play a significant role. bpo
COP29
Report: Corporate climate targets insufficient for 1.5-degree target despite progress
None of the 51 large companies surveyed – including Adidas, Nestlé, Volkswagen and H&M – have set climate targets that are compatible with the 1.5-degree goal. On average, they commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent by 2030 compared to the base year of 2019. This falls short by 13 percentage points of what is necessary, as shown by the annual Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor (CCRM) released on Tuesday by the New Climate Institute and Carbon Market Watch.
While the report acknowledges progress compared to the previous year, where two-thirds of the surveyed companies had climate targets rated as “low” or “very low integrity”, some companies have since revised their climate targets. Eighteen of the 51 companies are now committed to deep decarbonization (more than 90 percent emission reduction).
However, most companies still provide “outdated, opaque, unclear or limited emission reduction goals“. For example, Volkswagen has completely eliminated its 2025 target since the last report. Some companies also resort to “wrong solutions”, such as CO2 compensation instead of ambitious emission reductions or CO2 storage in the electricity sector. Therefore, there is a need for “clear guidelines for sector-specific transition plans”, according to Silke Mooldijk from the New Climate Institute.
Climate targets of Adidas, Nestlé and Volkswagen rated as ‘low integrity’
Here are the ratings for some selected surveyed companies:
“High integrity“: no company
“Adequate integrity“: Enel and Iberdrola (both energy companies)
The report also criticizes that many companies have their climate targets reviewed by the Science Based Targets initiative and similar voluntary providers, but these often issue embellished certificates. lb
Climate & Environment
Climate targets
Company
Greenwashing
Greenwashing
March: tenth consecutive month of record heat worldwide
As the tenth consecutive month, March 2024 brought a new peak in global temperatures. According to data from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, March was the warmest March ever recorded, with a global average temperature of 14.14 degrees Celsius, 0.73 degrees above the 1991-2020 average – and a full 1.68 degrees warmer than the pre-industrial period.
This makes March the tenth in a series of months, each of which has been the warmest in its respective period. The global average temperature over the last twelve months was 1.58 degrees above the pre-industrial era – indicating that at least in this span, the 1.5-degree threshold was surpassed. In Europe, this figure was even higher, at 2.2 degrees. According to Copernicus data, temperatures were also above average along the east coast of North America, Greenland, eastern Russia, Central America, southern Australia and vast parts of Africa, South America and Antarctica. Despite the weakening of the El Niño phenomenon, air and sea temperatures in the oceans remained unusually high. bpo
Klimawandel
Experts warn of ‘extremely active’ hurricane season
Nearly two dozen named tropical storms – including eleven hurricanes – are forecasted by researchers at Colorado State University for the upcoming season. They caution of an “extremely active” season in the Atlantic. This season officially runs from early June to late November. On average, there are 14 cyclones annually that reach sufficient strength to be classified as named tropical storms.
The Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) could be 170 percent above average during this season. ACE is a unit that describes the total energy of a storm over its entire lifespan. Additionally, there is a significantly increased probability that at least one of the storms will make landfall along the US coast.
This trend is attributed to two factors: the warm surface temperatures in the Atlantic basin, allowing the ocean to release more energy conducive to storm formation, and the likely onset of the weather phenomenon known as “La Niña” in the second half of the year, which further favors storm development. April hurricane forecasts are typically not very certain, but due to these factors, researchers are “above average in confidence” regarding the reliability of their predictions. If the forecasts prove accurate, it’s possible that the list of 21 prepared names for tropical storms may not be sufficient for the second time in four years. In such a scenario, a supplementary list would be utilized. kul
Extremwetter
Illegal imports of climate gases remain high despite EU regulation
Large quantities of climate-warming refrigerant gases are being smuggled illegally into Europe from countries including China and Turkey. This is according to a report by the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). The researchers assume that the amount of illegally imported hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) has not decreased since the last study in 2021 – despite international agreements and stricter EU regulation. According to the study, HFCs illegally smuggled into Europe would continue toaccount for20 to 30 percent of legally traded quantities. This corresponds to up to 30 million tons of carbon.
HFCs are chemicals primarily used for industrial and consumer cooling purposes, for example in heat pumps and air conditioning systems. Unlike refrigerants, which are now banned, they do not damage the ozone layer but they do drive the greenhouse effect in the atmosphere, as they are up to several thousand times more harmful to the climate than carbon.
EIA undercover investigations show that law enforcement authorities in the European Union are struggling to track illegal shipments. Poland and Bulgaria have been identified as the main gateways for illegal HFCs into the EU, with the gases themselves originating from China, Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and Albania.
High prices incentivize smuggling
As part of the amendment to the Montreal Protocol adopted in Kigali in 2016, European and other industrialized countries have committed to reducingtheuse of HFCs by 85 percent by 2036. In order to facilitate the gradual phase-out, HFC producers and consumers have been allocated quotas in the EU since 2015 through the regulation of fluorinated gases (F-gases). However, as demand remains high, the shortage caused by regulation has driven up prices and created incentives for smugglers, according to the report.
The recent revision of the F-gas regulation has provided enforcement authorities with additional tools to combat illicit trade. “But they will only work if they are implemented quickly and effectively,” said Fin Walravens, a climate expert at the EIA. The further shortage of refrigerants threatens to increase the demand for illegal HFCs even further.
The EIA calls on the EU Commission and all Member States to prioritize the implementation of the new F-Gas Regulation and to strengthen enforcement measures. “The illegal trade in HFCs not only exacerbates climate change but is also associated with significant tax evasion,” warns Walravens. luk
Treibhausgase
Green claims rules could harm carbon farming
The Green Claims Directive, currently under consideration by the EU Parliament and Council, aims to prevent greenwashing in advertising. Under the directive, products may only advertise climate neutrality, for example, if it can be substantiated with scientifically determined data. However, according to the version for which the EU Parliament voted in February, CO2 compensations may generally not be used for this purpose.
This could potentially hinder another EU climate action initiative: the promotion of carbon farming. This involves farmers generating “carbon removal certificates” through soil carbon sequestration on their agricultural land and selling them on voluntary carbon markets. In February, Parliament and Council agreed on the corresponding “Carbon Removal Certification Framework (CFCR)” in trilogue negotiations. The final vote in Parliament is scheduled for Wednesday.
Thünen Institute: Willingness to pay for climate action projects could decrease
“We believe that the strict limitation on the use of CO2 credits in product advertising could deter farmers from engaging in carbon farming because the market for their credits will not be profitable,” warns the EU farming umbrella organization Copa-Cogeca in an interview with Table.Briefings. If the sale of CO2 credits on a voluntary basis is effectively prevented by strict restrictions, an effective climate action instrument will be withheld from the market.
The Thünen Institute also anticipates negative impacts. “If it becomes more difficult to advertise with climate action projects in the area of carbon farming, companies’ willingness to finance such projects will also decrease,” says Bernhard Osterburg, head of the Climate, Soil and Biodiversity Department at the federal research institute, to Table.Briefings. The EU is clearly putting a brake on progress with these restrictions.
Copa-Cogeca sees double burden
Copa-Cogeca criticizes the Green Claims Directive in another aspect: Farmers who have already undergone an audit process to comply with the voluntary environmental practices of the CAP would have to undergo another process for the same issues to meet the requirements of the Green Claims Directive.
While the directive affects farmers in few cases, if a retailer wants to advertise with a green claim, the claim must also be verified at the level of the farm. The association now hopes that its criticism will be taken into account in the upcoming trilogue negotiations on the Green Claims Directive. mo
Agriculture
Carbon Farming
Carbon Farming
Carbon Removal
Germany: billions for hydrogen backbone network, millions for electrolyzer construction
By 2037, Germany aims to establish a hydrogen backbone network built by private companies and fully financed through user fees. The government reached this agreement on Friday. The project could be discussed and approved in the Bundestag in the coming weeks. It involves expenditures of around 20 billion euros for a 10,000-kilometer-long network. Sixty percent of the network could be created using repurposed natural gas pipelines, while the remainder would need to be built anew.
On Friday, there was also news from Brussels regarding hydrogen: The German government is permitted to subsidize the construction of electrolyzers in Germany with 350 million euros. The Commission granted approval under state aid rules, the authority announced. Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager praised Germany’s subsidies as an important step for renewable hydrogen development.
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs had announced the subsidy in December last year. Germany is the first EU member state to use the European Hydrogen Bank for the electrolyzer tender. Bids could be submitted until Feb. 8, and the evaluation is still ongoing as of Friday. With the approved amount, up to 90 megawatts of electrolyzer capacity could be subsidized. Germany aims to achieve at least ten gigawatts of capacity by 2030. rtr/ber/lb
