Marlene Lemme, et al. v. State of Bayern

Ten youth plaintiffs challenged the State of Bavaria's climate legislation, arguing that inadequate greenhouse gas reduction pathways violated their constitutional rights to freedom, life, and physical integrity. The Federal Constitutional Court of Germany rejected the claims on 18 January 2022, ruling that it was not possible to determine the specific extent of the state legislature's power to prevent future rights violations, partly because the federal government had not provided specific requirements for state-level emission reductions.

• The plaintiffs argued that the State of Bavaria's climate protection legislation (Bayerische KSG) was inadequate because it failed to set goals compliant with the federal Climate Protection Act (KSG), thereby increasing risks to their fundamental rights and freedoms.
• The claimants alleged that the state's failure to implement necessary CO2 reductions violated several constitutional articles, including the right to freedom of development (Art 2(1)), the duty to protect natural foundations of life for future generations (Art 20a), the right to life and physical integrity (Art 2(2)), and the right to property and inheritance (Art 14(1)).
• The Federal Constitutional Court did not admit the complaints for adjudication, reasoning that the state legislature maintains some leeway in regulating emissions and that the specific acts or omissions by the state in this case did not lead to a disproportionate shift in reduction burdens.
• The court noted that while states share the responsibility for climate protection under Art 20a of the German Constitution, the federal government has not provided specifications regarding the timing, location, or extent of required state-level emission reductions, nor an estimation of the residual CO2 emission budget.
• The court ultimately rejected the claims because it could not determine the degree to which the state legislature had the power to prevent future violations of the constitutional rights cited by the plaintiffs.

APA

Contributor, C. (2024). Marlene Lemme, et al. v. State of Bayern. ClimaTalk. https://climatalk.org/2024/03/18/marlene-lemme-et-al-v-state-of-bayern/

Chicago

Contributor, ClimaTalk. Marlene Lemme, et al. v. State of Bayern. ClimaTalk, 2024. https://climatalk.org/2024/03/18/marlene-lemme-et-al-v-state-of-bayern/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Contributor |first1=ClimaTalk |title=Marlene Lemme, et al. v. State of Bayern |publisher=ClimaTalk |date=18 March 2024 |url=https://climatalk.org/2024/03/18/marlene-lemme-et-al-v-state-of-bayern/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{contributor2024marlene, author = {Contributor, ClimaTalk}, title = {{Marlene Lemme, et al. v. State of Bayern}}, institution = {ClimaTalk}, year = {2024}, month = mar, url = {https://climatalk.org/2024/03/18/marlene-lemme-et-al-v-state-of-bayern/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }