Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) v. Bayern

On June 24, 2021, environmental organization Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH; Environmental Action Germany) brought a claim against the state of Bavaria for failing to set up a climate protection program. In its submission, DUH asks the Higher Administrative Court to order the Bavarian government to adopt a new climate protection program, whose measures are suited to: (i) reduce the GHG emissions in Bavaria by at least 55% by 2030; (ii) reduce GHG emissions to less than 5 tons per inhabitant of Bavaria; and (iii) achieve climate neutrality by 2050. Claimant argues that this lack of a climate protection program is in violation of Bavaria’s 2020 Climate Protection Act (BayKlimaG), which explicitly requires the state to establish a climate protection program for the implementation of its reduction goals (albeit not stipulating a detailed timeframe). Claimant relies on the Constitutional Court’s findings in Neubauer v. Germany, which recognized the constitutional nature of climate protection (as a means of guaranteeing and protecting fundamental rights), to argue that a new climate protection program has to be set up. As the state’s only existing climate protection program was adopted in 2015 – 5 years before the Bavarian Climate Protection Act entered into force in 2020 and has not been updated since – claimant submits that it is inadequate to address the requirements of the BayKlimaG.