Germany's new government should better involve the public in climate protection - policy paper with concrete proposals published

Berlin, March 27, 2025 - The CDU/CSU and SPD want to create a fundamentally new beginning for Germany with a new government. However, the interim results of the coalition negotiation groups still contain some key points of conflict. In view of the pressure to act in key policy areas, conflicts within the government or among the population must no longer lead to political blockades - this applies in particular to climate policy.

The next German government should therefore seek to involve the public as early as possible in key legislative proposals on which no compromise can be found in coalition negotiations or on which conflicts are emerging in the population. This is the conclusion reached by the authors of a new policy paper containing the first results of a feasibility study by Klimamitbestimmung e.V. and Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH.

A goal of climate neutrality by 2045 for the special fund and 100 billion for climate protection - the adopted amendment to the German constitution is an important step and a commitment by politicians to work together to move Germany forward on the path to climate neutrality," says Simon Wehden, co-founder of Klimamitbestimmung e.V. and co-author of the study. However, climate protection requires not only financial resources, but also changes that affect people in their everyday lives. In order to build broad and sustainable support for these changes, it is essential to involve the population in decision-making processes.

The policy paper makes concrete suggestions as to how the public and important interest groups can be meaningfully integrated into Germany's climate protection architecture in the future. To organize such participation processes, the authors recommend a central competence center, which could be set up in the Federal Chancellery, for example, based on the model of the Citizen Participation Unit in Baden-Württemberg.

Public participation is just as important for climate protection as global alliances," says Tabea Lissner, head of the Climate Change Team at Robert Bosch Stiftung. Without citizens who support and promote the implementation of concrete measures, there will be no change.

For example, a combination of citizens' forums and the consultative participation of interest groups could be used to develop a viable basic consensus for climate-related legislative proposals that appear controversial to society. In addition, the authors recommend examining whether and how the consultation process required by the Climate Protection Act could be expanded to include citizen participation in the development of the climate protection program at the beginning of a legislative period.

Background:
For the study "Moving Ahead Together? Deliberative Participation in Climate Protection", experts from politics, administration, science and participation practice were interviewed. The scenarios developed on this basis were further elaborated in numerous interviews.
The policy paper can be downloaded here. The full study will be published in May/June.