The ruling centre-left-led alliance had to postpone a Friday vote on controversial new heating regulations until September after the country's top court ruled the government had failed to give lawmakers sufficient time to read the fine print.
The left-leaning daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung welcomed the reversal, calling it a "long overdue humiliation for the coalition" for attempting "to ambush parliament with their last-minute bill".
The coalition "deserves nothing less", said the conservative newspaper Welt while the business daily Handelsblatt said the 11th-hour decision "should go down in legal history".
The new rules in the draft law mean heating systems will need to be powered by at least 65 percent renewable energy, effectively banning new oil and gas boilers, as Germany seeks to slash emissions and become climate neutral by 2045.
The legislation has been championed by environmentalists but sparked concerns that homeowners will be forced to shell out huge sums.
The plan was watered down after it provoked a furious row between Scholz's two junior coalition partners, the business-friendly Free Democrats and the ecologist Greens.
It was finally introduced in the Bundestag lower house last month.
After several weeks of negative media coverage that hit the government's popularity, lawmakers had been scheduled to debate and vote on the legislation Friday.
But the Federal Constitutional Court late Wednesday ruled in favour of a conservative opposition MP who had accused the government of trying to ram through the legislation without sufficient parliamentary oversight.
"We respect the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court and met this morning," the parliamentary group leaders of the coalition parties said in a statement after crisis talks.
Rather than call a special legislative session during the summer recess, they opted to postpone the vote by two months.
The leader of the Christian Democrats, Friedrich Merz, welcomed the political debacle for the government.
"This shows that climate protection cannot be achieved with a crowbar, but only through good and thorough consultation in the Bundestag," he said.
Austria court rejects children's climate lawsuit
Vienna (AFP) July 7, 2023 -
An Austrian court Friday rejected a lawsuit brought by 12 minors who accused the government of failing to revise a climate protection law, which they said insufficiently protects their constitutional rights.
A growing number of organisations and individuals around the world have turned to the courts to challenge what they see as government inaction on preventing climate change.
The Austrian lawsuit, the first of its kind in the nation and submitted in February, claimed a law dating from 2011 is not ensuring that children are shielded from the consequences of global warming.
Austria's Constitutional Court rejected the suit as "inadmissible", stating that "not all parts of the law were challenged" despite them being "inextricably linked", according to a statement after the ruling.
The court deemed the lawsuit's scope "too narrow".
Michaela Kroemer, a lawyer representing the plaintiffs, aged five to 16 years old, told AFP that the court hadn't addressed the lawsuit's actual content.
She has previously said that the law "which lacks greenhouse gas reduction targets, clear responsibilities and an accountability mechanism clearly infringes" on constitutional rights.
The challenge is being supported by environmental activists, including Fridays for Future, the movement inspired by Sweden's Greta Thunberg.
In February, Environment Minister Leonore Gewessler of the Green party -- the junior partner in Austria's conservative-led coalition government -- praised the "great commitment of young people to climate protection".
Several lawsuits by Greenpeace and the Austrian activist group Global 2000 have also accused the conservative-led government of inaction in the face of climate change.
In 2021, an Austrian with multiple sclerosis sued the government in the European rights court for failing to protect the climate, saying global warming has worsened his condition.
A ruling is still pending, according to a Fridays for Future spokeswoman.
Kerry to return to China to restore climate talks
Washington (AFP) July 7, 2023 -
US envoy John Kerry will travel soon to China to discuss cooperation on climate change, a US official said Friday, as the rival powers gradually resume diplomacy after high tensions.
A State Department official confirmed an upcoming trip to China by the former secretary of state, his third since he took the climate position under President Joe Biden, without giving details.
Kerry in an interview with The New York Times said the trip would take place next week and seek "genuine cooperation."
"China and the United States are the two largest economies in the world and we're also the two largest emitters. It's clear that we have a special responsibility to find common ground," he told the newspaper.
Kerry would follow Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who last month paid the highest-ranking US visit to Beijing in nearly five years, and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen who is in China this week.
Kerry has enjoyed comparatively cordial and consistent relations with China, with the Biden administration identifying climate as an area for potential cooperation despite tensions elsewhere.
But China last year briefly said it was suspending talks on climate in anger after Nancy Pelosi, then speaker of the House of Representatives, defiantly visited Taiwan, the self-ruling democracy claimed by Beijing.
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