With regard to the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice presented yesterday, Federal Environment Minister Carsten Schneider remarked:
"The International Court of Justice has rightly underscored that mitigating climate change is a universal obligation for all countries. Germany has long accepted this responsibility, which is why we ratified the Paris Climate Agreement. Countries must not be allowed to shirk this responsibility, and certainly not those with high per capita greenhouse gas emissions.
Regardless of where in the world coal, oil or gas is burned, or forests and peatlands are destroyed, the impacts are real and the damage threatens our very existence. The difference in whether the Earth's temperature increases by 1.5 degrees Celsius or by two degrees or more is enormous. The significance of the 1.5 degree limit has once again been highlighted in the advisory opinion published today. Every tenth of a degree of warming that we can prevent will help avert damage caused by heatwaves, droughts and floods.
We have a duty to work together, also under by international law, to solve this problem facing humanity. All countries are called upon to contribute more to the solution, and stronger countries must support weaker ones in these efforts. The Court emphasised this central principle of the Paris Climate Agreement today. It also clearly stated that simply presenting a climate action plan (NDC) is not enough. The climate action plan must be so good that it represents the greatest possible contribution to the fight against climate change. Collectively, the climate action plans must be good enough to comply with the 1.5 degree limit.
I hope that the international community will see this advisory opinion as an opportunity to step up its commitment to climate action and improve international cooperation. This includes accelerating the transition to a sustainable, renewable and resilient economy with new climate action plans, to be submitted by September, for the next ten years up to 2035."
The German government will analyse the advisory opinion in detail in the coming days.