Governmental climate cabinet commences work in Germany

BERLIN, March 20 (Xinhua) -- The climate cabinet of the German government that is tasked to develop new laws to help Berlin meet its climate protection targets and obligations began its work on Wednesday.

The German governmental climate cabinet will be led by environmental minister Svenja Schulze as the chairwoman.

There is no time limit for the work of the climate cabinet, but first laws are to be passed before the end of 2019, according to the coalition agreement of the German government.

Germany has so far failed to meet its own climate protection targets that seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent compared with 1990 levels by 2020.

However, the governmental climate protection report for 2017 showed that greenhouse gas emissions in Germany are expected to fall by only 32 percent until 2020, missing the government's goal by 8 percent.

A draft proposal by German environmental minister Schulze for a new climate protection law already faced considerable headwinds by Chancellor Merkel's Christian union CDU/CSU in February.

Schulze is planning to force German ministries to lower carbon dioxide emissions by making each ministry responsible for achieving the climate protection targets set for their specific sector.

Schulze is seeking to move the German ministries towards more climate protection with budgetary cuts. If a specific ministry fails to comply with climate protection targets, fines would have to be paid out of the budget of this ministry. The draft proposal, however, would not dictate the ministers how the climate protection goals are to be achieved.

The proposed national budget by German finance minister Olaf Scholz, who is also part of the climate cabinet, is showing that the German government is expecting such carbon fines to be paid by the ministries. One hundred million euros per year have already been earmarked for this purpose.