According to a survey by the polling institute Forsa, a majority of people in Germany support achieving climate neutrality by 2045. This assessment is based on data from the RWI Leibniz Institute for Economic Research, as reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (Wednesday edition).
One-third of respondents consider this key element of climate and economic policy to be “unquestionably correct” while an additional 38% view the 2045 target as correct, with “minor reservations”. Only 13% of those surveyed in October and November of the previous year believe that climate neutrality, as currently aimed for, is incorrect.
However, when asked whether this goal will actually be met by 2045, only four percent of respondents believe it will happen. A significant portion-64% of respondents-anticipate that Germany will “clearly miss” the target, while 32% think the target will only be “narrowly missed”.
The survey also tested how agreement with the goal changes if respondents are told that Germany intends to become climate neutral independently of the rest of the world. Among those who received this information before answering, even more people supported the German national goal being “unquestionably correct” (38%, up five percentage points from the comparison group without this premise). Nevertheless, a slightly higher number of respondents also declared the goal “incorrect” (16% compared to 13%).
The Paris Agreement required Germany and 194 other nations to commit to achieving climate neutrality in the second half of this century. This international treaty also stipulated that the temperature increase must be kept well below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels, and efforts must be made to limit this rise to 1.5 degrees. Based on this, the German Expert Advisory Council on Environmental Issues calculated a remaining budget of greenhouse gas emissions for Germany up to achieving climate neutrality. In 2021, the Federal Constitutional Court referenced this expert report when overturning climate intermediate goals that were still aimed at neutrality by 2050.