Berlin No matter how sharply the Green coalition partner criticizes the Federal Transport Minister, Volker Wissing goes his own way stoically. On Wednesday, the FDP politician answered questions from the specialist politicians in the Bundestag’s Transport Committee.
For two hours it was about climate protection, speed limit and traffic forecasts – and it was like in an upside down world: The opposition praised the minister, the Greens raged.
“Anyone who doubts the prognosis must say at which point the calculation was wrong,” said Wissing undeterred. According to the minister’s forecast, traffic will increase significantly by 2051 – on the road. The representatives of the Greens are said to have foamed, as participants report.
At the same time, Wissing’s officials sent the draft law to the associations, with which not only a number of railway lines, but also 988 kilometers of new motorways are to be built more quickly in the future.
Wissing has not yet coordinated the associated law with the other government ministries. But his officials know that the minister wants to go into the cabinet with his plans at the beginning of May.
Wissing becomes a stimulus figure for the Greens
There is a lot of rumbling between Wissing and the Greens. The minister is becoming more and more of a stimulus for the Greens. Since the beginning of the week, he has also been at the center of a coalition dispute that revolves around how the decisions of the coalition summit at the end of March are to be interpreted.
Point 1 of the result paper of the summit states that compliance with the climate protection goals will in future be checked using cross-sectoral and multi-year accounts. It is similar in the coalition agreement of the traffic light partners.
>> Read here: These are the results of the coalition committee
In the future, particular attention should be paid to whether the overall balance is correct, i.e. whether the emissions in all sectors are below the CO2 upper limit. Too many emissions in one sector should be able to be offset by other sectors.
The Liberals see this as a departure from the principle laid down in the Climate Protection Act of 2019 that every emission-relevant sector – such as transport, industry, buildings, energy – has to meet specific reduction targets every year. According to the current legal situation, if the sector targets are not met, the responsible ministries must submit programs within a certain period of time, which should help to get back on the planned path.
Liberals think annual sector targets are wrong
The Liberals always found the annual sector targets wrong. The Greens, on the other hand, are convinced that the sector targets should be retained in principle.
The Greens feel particularly provoked by Wissing, who they believe is already acting as if the sector targets never existed. Wissing could be the beneficiary of a future regulation, because the transport sector regularly breaks the specifications of the Climate Protection Act.
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The only problem is that the coalition partners have agreed on an amendment to the climate protection law, but a corresponding amendment has not yet been formulated and certainly not decided.
In the meantime, the Greens have made it clear that they expect Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) to clarify climate protection in transport. “Applicable laws are observed,” said the parliamentary secretary of the Greens, Irene Mihalic. “What else?”
Under current law, Wissing would have to submit an immediate program
According to this, Wissing would have to present an immediate climate program within three months, with which excessive CO2 emissions in the transport sector would be reduced. But Wissing no longer feels bound by that. A spokesman for the FDP-led Federal Ministry of Transport said on Monday that he assumed that the revised climate protection law would be in place before the deadline for an emergency program under the old rules had to be in place.
The transport sector cannot meet the climate targets. However, the Ministry of Transport is not planning an immediate program to reduce CO2.
(Photo: dpa)
This deadline expires in mid-July. The deputy government spokesman Wolfgang Büchner described these statements as correct and said with regard to the traffic light agreement: “There is now a different decision-making situation.”
The amendment to the climate protection law must be presented by Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens); there is no schedule for submission. “Thoroughness comes before speed,” said Green politician Mihalic. It is important to come to a “good, balanced draft law”.
Union criticizes Wissing
In the Union, the Minister of Transport is seen as having an obligation to present an emergency programme. “For the second time in a row, the climate target was exceeded in traffic. Without any doubt, the transport minister has long had the legal obligation to present an immediate program. Political agreements between the government factions do not change that,” said the deputy federal chairman of the CDU and spokesman for the Union faction for climate protection and energy, Andreas Jung, the Handelsblatt.
The chancellor “can’t simply disregard the applicable law and issue charters,” said Jung. “The coalition committee is a private event of the traffic light and not a constitutional body.” He added: “If the traffic light actually wants to soften the climate protection law, it must already decide in the Bundestag.”
According to figures from the Federal Environment Agency, the transport and building sectors again failed to meet their departments’ climate targets in 2022. The independent expert council for climate issues had essentially confirmed the figures and warned against watering down the climate protection law.
Wissing received support from his party colleague Lukas Köhler. The deputy leader of the FDP parliamentary group told the Handelsblatt that he assumes “that the change in the climate protection law and the other measures agreed in the coalition committee will be implemented quickly”.
He is certain “that all legal requirements will be complied with, taking into account the forthcoming changes to the Climate Protection Act”. Transport Minister Wissing will “certainly make a number of good suggestions” for the joint immediate climate protection program that the federal government wants to develop beyond the requirements of the Climate Protection Act, said Köhler.
Economy argues like the FDP
Parts of the economy support the interpretation that the decision by the coalition committee has already heralded the end of the sector targets. The sector targets have been a nuisance for many economic actors for some time. “As I understand it, the coalition had agreed in its compromise package to take the overarching overall goal as a benchmark instead of the sector goals – and to anchor it in law,” said Hubertus Bardt from the German Economic Institute.
But that doesn’t mean that nothing has to happen in the individual sectors. “It is important to look at the overall goals, but all departments remain committed to climate protection,” he said. Presenting the compromise reached as a departure from climate protection is neither appropriate nor helpful.
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