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Climate action The German government wants to establish an international climate club
In the federal cabinet today, Germany’s Finance Minister Olaf Scholz presented a joint key-issues paper for an international climate club. The goal is to give the implementation of the Paris Agreement additional impetus at the international level. At the heart of this initiative is the cooperation between countries that want to press ahead with the social and economic transformation needed to …
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Climate action European Sustainable Finance Summit
As the European Sustainable Finance Summit gets underway, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz and Environment Minister Svenja Schulze are calling on European companies to invest more in sustainable economic activities. The first survey, published today, on applying the EU taxonomy shows that just 2% of companies’ activities by revenue meet the taxonomy’s level of ambition for climate action and …
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Public finances The cabinet makes social cohesion and modernisation priorities
On 20 March 2019, the federal cabinet adopted the benchmark figures for the 2020 federal budget and the financial plan to 2023. The government is planning record-level investments, the biggest tax cuts in over 10 years as well as comprehensive measures to boost social cohesion, ensuring that everyone in the country benefits from Germany’s economic success.
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Financial markets Sustainable finance
The COVID-19 pandemic and climate change highlight how important the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are to economic growth and financial market stability. SDG 3 aims to ensure healthy lives for all, while SDG 13 focuses on climate action.
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Public Finances Spending reviews in the federal budget
Since 2015, the German government has included annual spending reviews in its top-down procedure for preparing the federal budget. Spending reviews analyse revenues and expenditures in selected policy areas, with the aim of giving the budget preparation procedure a stronger focus on content and enhancing the outcome orientation of the allocated budget funds. They help to improve the structure of …
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Climate action Sound financing for effective and socially equitable climate action
Today the federal cabinet has approved the draft supplementary federal budget for 2020 and the draft budget for the Energy and Climate Fund for 2020. Today’s decision has created the budgetary conditions for rapid implementation of the Climate Action Programme agreed by the German government on 25 September 2019.
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Climate action German Sustainable Finance Strategy
Today the federal cabinet adopted the first German Sustainable Finance Strategy. The goal of the strategy is to mobilise investments that are urgently needed for climate action and sustainability while also addressing the climate risks that are increasingly relevant to the financial system. Germany’s Sustainable Finance Strategy is setting a new course in the financial system based on the core …
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Public finances Report on Germany’s public finances sent to EU: Budget surpluses amid a strong upturn
On 18 April 2018, the federal cabinet adopted the German Stability Programme for 2018. Germany will now send the programme to the European Commission and the ECOFIN Council, thereby fulfilling its obligations under EU rules to submit its medium-term fiscal plans to Brussels by the end of April each year. In the Stability Programme, Germany reports on its compliance with the requirements of the …
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Public finances Provisional closure of the 2018 federal budget
On 15 January 2019, the Federal Ministry of Finance presented the provisional closure of the 2018 federal budget. It showed that budgets have been well-managed while investments reached record levels. The provisional data shows that the Federation achieved a structural surplus of roughly 0.15% of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018, thus meeting the requirements of Germany’s constitutional …
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Climate action Phasing out coal to fulfil climate targets
On 29 January 2020, the German cabinet adopted draft legislation on the phasing out of coal in Germany. The bill sets out a detailed roadmap for shutting down coal-fired power stations, which are harmful to the climate. The Federation has allocated €40bn for the structural transformation. The funds will help the affected regions to build new capacity and create new jobs.