Germany currently aims to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% by 2050, the same as the EU’s overall goal. The European Commission is pushing its members to raise that goal to net-zero.

Merkel said in 2017 that Germany would have to decide an exact target in the current legislative period.

But the proposal is certain to generate heated debate both within the government coalition and in parliament. The Climate Action Law is meant to guarantee that Germany fulfils its national and European climate targets.

The environment ministry draft aims to enshrine into law Germany’s greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2020, 2030, 2040 and 2050. It also divvies up these targets between economic sectors (energy, buildings, transport, industry, agriculture, waste and other), as established in Germany’s Climate Action Plan 2050.

The sectoral targets are broken up into annual emissions budgets, and the ministry most responsible for the sector is responsible for making sure they are reached.

If a target is missed, Germany might have to buy emissions allocations from European neighbours, as stipulated in the EU’s effort-sharing regulation on national reduction targets. The costs should be covered by the budgets of the responsible ministries, according to the environment ministry’s draft.

The environment ministry has sent the draft to Merkel’s chancellery for “early coordination”. If the chancellery approves it, the draft will also have to be approved by affected ministries and the parliament.

This article was originally published on Clean Energy Wire.