Friends of the Earth Germany, Association of Solar Supporters, and Others v. Germany

In November 2018, the environmental organisation Friends of the Earth Germany filed a constitutional complaint against the German government, claiming that plaintiffs' fundamental human rights were violated by Germany's failure to adhere to both its national greenhouse gas emission reduction goals as well as the EU 2020 climate and energy targets.

Background
Given the rising risk to the fundamental rights to life, health and property, as posed by heat waves and natural disasters in Germany and worldwide, the Federal Government and the Bundestag must consistently combat global warming. At the very least, they must comply with the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial levels and use their powerful role in the EU to achieve this. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this requires zero emissions in all sectors worldwide in three decades. At the same time, given the large time span of three decades in light of the exponentially rising risk of climate change and its adverse effects, the IPCC sees a considerable probability of missing the aspired goal. Therefore, things need to move even faster. However, the German government and the majority of the Bundestag are not even aiming for near-term zero emissions of greenhouse gases in electricity, heat, mobility, plastics and agriculture. It is true that politics has democratic decision-making leeways. Constitutionally, however, these do not allow the physical foundations of human existence to be put at risk, and thus also democracy to be undermined. However, as this is exactly what threatens to happen if climate policy remains this unambitious, the Friends of the Earth Organisation along with the Association of Solar Supporters and others decided to file this lawsuit.

Relevant Law and Principles

 * Art. 2, para. 1 of the German Constitution: The right to general freedom of action
 * Art. 2.1 of the German Constitution: The right to the ecological minimum subsistence level (in conj. with Art. 1, para. 1 GG, Art 20a GG, and Art. 47 Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union (complainants re 12. and 13.))
 * Art. 2.2 of the German Constitution: The right to life and physical integrity
 * Art. 14.1 of the German Constitution: The right to protection of property
 * Art. 20, para. 3 of the German Constitution: The principle of materiality and the reservation of parliamentary rights (for all complainants)

Status
The current status of the lawsuit is categorised as filed, yet the further process is at the discretion of the German Federal Constitutional Court.

Takeaways
If the German Federal Constitutional Court granted the complaint, this ruling would certainly set a precedent beyond German borders. Such a verdict would highlight that this issue does not demonstrate a mere political favour of a certain majority but rather a severe large scale human rights violation.

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