Abstract

Climate Control Legislation on State Level: Placebo or Effective Instrument for Climate Protection by Law ?

Against the background of climate change several German states (Länder) have enacted laws on climate protection. Further states are expected to introduce similar legislation shortly. Since the competences of the states for legislation in this field are limited according to the German Basic Law (Grundgesetz), those laws cannot cover comprehensive measures for climate protection. A comparison of the existing legislation of the states on climate protection reveals similarities as well as differences. Some of the laws qualify climate protection as an independent field of law whereas others understand it as a part of energy law. All laws provide specific (and varying) aims for the reduction of greenhouse gas – in no case more (but often less) ambitious than those formulated on the federal level. The main addressees of the laws are the states themselves. Only some of the state climate protection laws additionally impose obligations for citizens and industrial undertakings. The existing measures vary; most important is the obligation to draw up a climate protection plan which has to be reviewed regularly. The state laws on climate protection interact with many other fields of (mostly federal) law. Energy law, especially the law of renewable energies and energy efficiency, and environmental law at the same time limit the scope of the state climate protection laws and also approve a complementary legislation. Most state climate protection laws refrain from filling the existing regulatory gaps. Modern planning and building law has a focus on climate protection and is therefore open for complementary rules. Public procurement law allows a climate friendly award of contracts. In spite of this, for financial reasons, such obligation exists only in very few states. The question whether states should pass climate protection laws needs to be answered politically. Still, from a legal point of view, such legislation may contribute to climate protection on a regional level, provided that its rules are not only of symbolic nature.