NEUBAUER ET AL. V. GERMANY

A case study on the legal challenge Neubauer et al. v. Germany, in which the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany ruled that parts of the Federal Climate Protection Act were incompatible with fundamental rights because they failed to specify sufficient emission cuts beyond 2030.

• A group of German youth challenged the Federal Climate Protection Act, claiming that the target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030 (relative to 1990 levels) was insufficient and violated human rights under Germany's constitution. The applicants contended that a 70% reduction by 2030 was necessary to meet international obligations under the Paris Agreement to keep global temperature rise "well below 2 degrees Celsius".
• The Federal Constitutional Court ruled that the Federal Climate Protection Act was incompatible with fundamental rights because it did not mandate sufficient emission reductions after 2030. The Court determined that the legislature had failed to proportionally distribute the carbon budget between future and current generations and mandated that clear reduction targets for the period from 2031 onward be established by the end of 2022.
• The case is viewed as groundbreaking due to the success of the applicants during a period when many global climate lawsuits are unsuccessful. It is part of a broader global trend of youth-led litigation based on intergenerational equity, similar to cases in Colombia, Portugal, and a ruling in France regarding emission cutting targets.

APA

Natural Justice (2021). NEUBAUER ET AL. V. GERMANY. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Neubauer-et-al.-v.-Germany.pdf

Chicago

Natural Justice. NEUBAUER ET AL. V. GERMANY. 2021. https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Neubauer-et-al.-v.-Germany.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Natural Justice |title=NEUBAUER ET AL. V. GERMANY |date=December 2021 |url=https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Neubauer-et-al.-v.-Germany.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{naturaljustice2021neubauer, author = {{Natural Justice}}, title = {{NEUBAUER ET AL. V. GERMANY}}, institution = {Natural Justice}, year = {2021}, month = dec, url = {https://naturaljustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/Neubauer-et-al.-v.-Germany.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }