Berliners vote for referendum on tougher climate targets | – #Berliners #vote #referendum #tougher #climate #targets

BERLIN, March 26 (Reuters) – A referendum in Berlin to force the city to become climate neutral by 2030 failed on Sunday, the city’s mayor, Franziska Giffey, said.

The measure would force the new conservative local government to invest heavily in renewable energy, building efficiency and public transportation.

If it passes, Berlin would legally become carbon neutral in seven years mandatory A few big ones with a purpose Europe would be one of the cities.

The result “shows that the majority of Berliners also see that the demands of the referendum could not be implemented even if they were enacted into law,” Giffey said.

Last year European Union inside and outside the block 100 launched a scheme to help the city become climate neutral by 2030, but this scheme and offer his financial support legally mandatory not.

The referendum was a test of whether Germans, or at least Berliners, want more ambitious climate policy in Germany, which aims to make Europe’s largest economy carbon neutral by 2045.

Climate activists behind the vote said the government’s target to prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius was too far in the future.

Climate New Start Berlin spokeswoman Jessamine Davis said, “Current climate policy is not enough to ensure a livable future in our city.”

Unlike previous Berlin referendums, including the expropriation of large landlords or the former Tempelhof weather from the development of the port free retention – Sunday’s climate referendum would be legal for the Berlin government.

The referendum follows the landslide victory of Germany’s conservative CDU party in the re-election in the city Social It came as he negotiated a possible coalition with the Democrats and turned the environmentalist Greens into opposition.

In addition to the large number of positive votes, the results mandatory the initiative needed at least 608,000 “Yes” votes.

But the clock 20441,000 votes short in favor at :40 (1840 GMT).

As a city of four million people, with few renewable energy sources or geothermal heating nearby, Berlin does not have what it takes to achieve this goal, says Bernd Hirschl of the Berlin Institute for Environmental Economic Research.

Still, the referendum was a way to reinvigorate the debate about climate policy and the changes people need to make to reach climate neutrality, regardless of deadlines, Hirschl told Reuters.

“Because we are not talking about 2030. It is a question of whether we want to send a signal to politicians or not,” he added.

Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Added by Tom Sims report; Edited by Tomasz Janowski and David Holmes

Our standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Riham Alkousa

Thomson Reuters

Riham Alkousaa is Reuters’ energy and climate change correspondent in Germany, covering the green transition of Europe’s largest economy and Europe’s energy crisis. Alkousaa is a graduate of Columbia University’s School of Journalism and a journalist covering the refugee crisis in Europe and the Syrian civil war for publications such as Der Spiegel Magazine, USA Today, and the Washington Times. 10 has years of experience. Alkousaa, Europe’s energy crisis and Ukraine was on two teams that won Reuters journalist of the year awards in 2022 for his coverage of the war. He also won a 2017 Foreign Press Association Award in New York and a White House Correspondents’ Association Fellowship that year.

2023-03-27 01:26:41
Source – reuters

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