The “Climate Restart” initiative wanted to carry out the referendum “Berlin 2030 climate-neutral” for the re-election next February. Berlin’s mayor Giffey decides against it. The vote is now scheduled to take place in March. That causes criticism.
The referendum “Berlin 2030 climate-neutral” will not take place on the day of the repeated parliamentary elections, as desired by the initiators. “We have decided to comply with the virulent warnings of the state returning officer,” said Berlin’s governing mayor Franziska Giffey from the SPD after a Senate meeting. He had warned against merging the referendum with the repeat election on February 12, 2023. The Social Democratic Interior Senator Iris Spranger did the same.
Giffey now named March 26 of the coming year as the date for the vote. The initiative criticized the decision of the Berlin state government: The Senate is weakening trust in democracy, she wrote on Twitter. “The handling of the climate referendum shows that we cannot rely on politics.”
“Berlin 2030 klimaneutral” then tried to legally force the state government to merge, but failed before the Administrative and Higher Administrative Court (OVG) Berlin-Brandenburg. The initiative then turned to the Constitutional Court of the State of Berlin, which has not yet announced a decision.
The SPD politician also emphasized again that the Senate has a clear position on the referendum and does not believe that climate neutrality by 2030, as required by the initiative, can be implemented. “We can’t say the city will be completely carbon neutral in seven years,” Giffey said.
The initiative disagrees, and has also worked with scientists and other experts to develop a plan on how a climate-neutral Berlin can be implemented by 2030. Reforestation and rewetting of moors, promotion of organic farming, more efficient recycling, more cycle paths, attractive public transport networks, more heat pumps and the energy-efficient refurbishment of buildings are among the proposed measures.
