Germany enshrined climate neutrality in its constitution

As part of a deal on Germany’s defence and infrastructure spending package, the Greens succeeded in securing a reference to climate neutrality in the constitution. The amendment is being hailed as a historic breakthrough, but most legal experts agree that it will have no wider legal consequences, Euractiv reports.

Germany’s Bundestag approved a wide-ranging financial package at an extraordinary session on Tuesday, 18 March, freeing up hundreds of billions of euros for defence, infrastructure and the fight against climate change. The proposal secured the required two-thirds majority, with 513 of 733 MPs voting in favour. The approved package is a key step towards a new government led by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose conservative CDU/CSU alliance put it forward together with the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

The financial package required a constitutional amendment because Germany’s “debt brake” normally limits government borrowing. The amendment gives funding for defence, climate and infrastructure projects an exemption, allowing exceptional resources to be used without breaching strict fiscal rules.

As part of the deal, the Greens succeeded in having spending provisions referring to climate neutrality written into the country’s constitution. Under pressure from the Greens, the amendment to the Basic Law now allows for a special fund of 500 billion euros under Article 143, earmarked for investment in infrastructure, with 100 billion euros set aside for climate projects.

The funding is crucial to responding to security challenges, taking climate action and reviving the economy. The approved changes also include an adjustment to the debt brake that will allow defence spending exceeding 1.1 trillion crowns to be financed through borrowing.

Defence spending above one per cent of national GDP will therefore no longer count towards the debt limit, nor will the new 500-billion-euro special fund for further investment in infrastructure and climate action. The funds can be allocated over twelve years, with 100 billion euros transferred directly to the Climate and Transformation Fund, the government’s main instrument for investing in the energy transition.

The changes were approved by the outgoing Bundestag. From 25 March, when the newly elected parliament convenes, passing constitutional amendments will be more difficult because of the blocking minority formed by the AfD and Die Linke parties.

The Greens and Social Democrats welcomed the constitutional amendment as a historic step in difficult times.

“For the first time, our goal of climate neutrality by 2045 is included in the constitution,” said Matthias Miersch, an MP from the Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Significance of the amendment and its legal impact

Most German constitutional law experts agree that the amendment merely earmarks part of the funding and is very unlikely to have wider legal consequences. Nevertheless, some critics, especially on the far right, warn that it could pave the way for sweeping court rulings on carbon emissions and lead to an increase in legal disputes.

Franz Josef Lindner, a law professor at the University of Augsburg, described the inclusion of a reference to climate neutrality in the constitution as “highly risky”. In an interview with the right-wing newspaper Bild, he warned that environmental groups could use the clause in lawsuits before Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court.

Germany’s Federal Constitutional Court has intervened in climate legislation several times, notably in 2021, when it ruled that insufficiently ambitious climate policy threatened the constitutional freedoms of future generations. The ruling led to a revision of the Climate Protection Act.

In 2023, by contrast, the court struck down plans to redirect 60 billion euros from the pandemic fund to climate projects, triggering budget disputes and weakening the government’s climate plans. Other lawsuits, including one challenging the abolition of sectoral decarbonisation targets, are still awaiting decisions.

Constitutional law experts agree that the new constitutional amendment is largely declaratory in nature and does not represent a fundamental legal change. Article 20a of the constitution already contains a commitment to protect the environment, while the specific goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2045 remains in the Climate Protection Act. Nevertheless, some warn that the reference to climate neutrality in the constitution could be used in future court cases. Overall, however, Germany’s climate policy is firmly embedded in the legal framework, and any attempt to weaken it would likely encounter constitutional limits.