German Climate Advisers Warn Net-Zero Goal Slipping

Germany's independent Council of Experts on Climate Change delivered the day's sharpest verdict on the government. Industry and energy emissions fell in 2025, the council said, but the drop reflected a stagnant economy rather than policy, and chairwoman Barbara Schlomann said the measures taken so far had "clearly failed" to put the country on track for net-zero by 2045. More worrying, the report found, natural carbon sinks -- forests, moors, grasslands and farmland -- are turning into net emitters, and even full delivery of the climate package lawmakers presented in March, after a court forced their hand, would still miss the targets. Environment Minister Carsten Schneider said the priority must now be "to give full priority to renewable energies" and to reform EU emissions trading -- a stance at odds with Economy Minister Katherina Reiche, who has drawn criticism this week for steering policy back toward gas and trimming renewables support.

The courts reopened an old political wound. The Berlin Regional Court approved an indictment of former Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer (CSU) and his former state secretary Gerhard Schulz on suspicion of giving false testimony to the Bundestag inquiry into the collapsed car-toll scheme. At issue is Scheuer's October 2020 claim that he could not recall the would-be toll operators offering to delay signing their contract until after an expected European Court of Justice ruling; the ECJ struck down the Pkw-Maut in 2019, leaving the German state to pay €243 million in damages to the intended operators. Both men reject the accusations.

German foreign policy pulled in two directions on China. A five-member cross-party Bundestag delegation, the Berlin-Taipei Parliamentary Friendship Group led by Green MP Till Steffen and including Merz's CDU/CSU lawmakers Klaus-Peter Willsch and Markus Reichel, began a visit to Taiwan to deepen economic and cultural ties and reduce dependence on China -- at the very moment Economy Minister Reiche was in Beijing. Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning restated Beijing's opposition to official exchanges with Taipei.

Berlin also lined up with allies after a Russian drone struck an apartment block in NATO-member Romania. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the incident showed "we need a strong NATO presence on the eastern flank" and that Germany stood "shoulder to shoulder" with its allies, while Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said "Russia's reckless behavior continues to threaten our collective security" and offered Berlin's solidarity with Bucharest.