Overview
- Hamburg voters approved the Zukunftsentscheid on October 12 with 53.2% support to shift climate neutrality to 2040 with annual interim targets and monitoring.
- CDU leader Dennis Thering argues the 2040 goal would entail billions in costs, raise rents and energy prices, and endanger social cohesion.
- The CDU bases its case on a feasibility study from the environment authority that deems the accelerated timeline technically hard to implement, economically burdensome, and socially unbalanced.
- The opposition will table an amendment in the Bürgerschaft requiring only a simple majority, and Thering signals possible backing from the SPD.
- If parliament restores the 2045 target, the referendum’s initiators have three months to gather about 33,000 signatures to force a new public vote.