Federal budget for 2027: Criticism of Klingbeil's climate savings plans

The federal government wants to save on climate protection - and is receiving criticism from the Greens, the Left and environmental and development organizations. The federal government is cutting funding for the fight against global warming, criticized Green MP Claudia Müller in the Bundestag on Tuesday. Here, Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) presented his budget draft for 2027 and financial planning until 2030. “The climate crisis costs human lives and the economy costs billions,” said the politician.

Particularly in the focus of the Greens: Klingbeil wants to push 2.7 billion euros from the climate and transformation fund, from which the federal government finances climate programs, into the normal budget. The Social Democrat argues that some of them also benefit climate-friendly purposes. The Greens, on the other hand, see misuse.

An alliance of 13 environmental and social associations, trade unions, youth associations and development organizations also called on the government in a joint appeal on Tuesday to reverse the redeployments.

The experts from the Future Climate Social think tank have analyzed the plans for the KTF. According to this, there is a 7.8 billion euro gap between planned expenditure and the fund's foreseeable lower income - partly because of the reallocation. And: “A large part of the expenditure from the fund goes into energy cost relief for industry instead of into urgently needed investments for companies or support programs with a social focus for private households,” says think tank boss Brigitte Knopf, who advised the federal government in the Expert Council on Climate Issues until September 2025.

The renewed decline in the budget for economic cooperation and development is also causing criticism. The ministry is expected to have almost 6 percent less money available next year at 9.47 billion euros.

This also has an impact on climate protection. The lion's share of the money that Germany pays to countries in the Global South for climate protection and climate adaptation comes from the development budget. As Chancellor, Angela Merkel (CDU) made a promise at a G7 summit in 2021 that Germany would increase annual aid funds from around 4 billion euros at the time to 6 billion euros by 2025. According to government figures, Germany will reach the target for the first time in 2024. There is still no official balance sheet for the past year.

The answer to a request from left-wing MPs to the Development Ministry of Reem Alabali Radovan (SPD) suggests: Black and Red apparently no longer want to explicitly commit to the 6 billion promise. The document is available to the taz.

When asked whether the federal government was confident that it would keep its commitment for 2026 and 2027, Parliamentary State Secretary Johann Saathoff gave an evasive answer. The German contribution to international climate financing will only be collected in the following year, “so that no binding statements can be made for the years 2026 and 2027 at this point in time.” Considerations are currently underway as to what the German fair share of the international climate financing target should look like in the future.

“All the numbers clearly indicate that the federal government is breaking the 6 billion promise and is thus breaking its word with an announcement both nationally and internationally,” says Charlotte Neuhäuser, spokeswoman for global justice for the Left in the Bundestag. “Less international climate finance is failing the countries of the Global South and will lead to a further loss of trust on the international stage.”

Jan Kowalzig from the development organization Oxfam is also worried. He fears that “the government wants to downplay the promise made internationally because it knows that it will not meet the target.”