With a turnout of 35.8%, there were not enough voters to pass the amendment to Berlin’s Climate Protection and Energy Transition Act, which obliges the German capital to become carbon neutral by 2030.
The minimum number of votes for the plebiscite to become law was 607,518 (i.e. 25% of the total number of voters) and the favorable vote garnered 442,210 votes, the official results show.
In percentage terms, 50.9% of voters agreed with the proposal of the group Klimaneustart Berlin. These climate activists say that Germany’s targets for reducing CO2 emissions are too far off and will not help prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Berlin, like Germany as a whole, aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 95% by 2045 from 1990 levels.
However, at least 80% of Berlin’s energy comes from fossil fuels.
Few members of the Berlin state parliament believed that seven years is enough to make the transition to renewables and were concerned about the short-term costs that the legally binding deadline would entail. In this way the coalition
The result “shows that the majority of Berliners also recognize that the demands of the referendum could not have been applied – even if they had been enshrined in law,” Mayor Franziska Giffey told DW.
Giffey, who leads the council with a coalition made up of the Greens, Social Democrats and Die Linke (Left), said earlier this week that while it is important to address the issue, it would not be possible for Berlin to to be climate neutral by 2030. “You need to say this clearly to people: everything else is bullshit.”
Source: DN
