Overview

• The draft fourth Modernization Act, now in a stakeholder hearing, would remove the annual climate report first introduced in 2022.
• The government defends the change as a cut to redundant bureaucracy and says the state statistics office already provides more timely greenhouse gas figures.
• Environment Minister Thorsten Glauber has pledged to replace the paper report with a new digital climate reporting platform to maintain transparency.
• Greenpeace and the Greens accuse Minister-President Markus Söder’s cabinet of using the reform to mask stalled emissions reductions.
• Critics note that past reports uncovered a 2023 slowdown in emission cuts and mistakenly counted unbuilt wind turbines in 2024, underscoring calls for independent oversight.