The interim report of the „Initiative für einen handlungsfähigen Staat“ (Initiative for an Effective State) (Jäkel, de Maizière, Steinbrück, Voßkuhle, 2025) has sparked broad public debate – including within the Kopernikus-Projekt Ariadne.

In our new briefing, we critically examine the report’s diagnosis of shortcomings in Germany’s climate and energy policy and offer concrete proposals to enhance state capacity.

Our key insight:

The core issue is not unclear task allocation, but insufficient coordination across levels of government. Structural challenges exist both horizontally within the federal government and vertically between federal, state, and local levels.

Our recommendations:

- Strengthen cross-ministerial coordination, e.g., through interministerial working groups with clear political mandates

- Improve strategic alignment across federal levels, via new or expanded federal-state coordination bodies

- Provide targeted support for municipalities, especially in terms of staffing and funding

- Consider constitutional reform (e.g., a new joint task “climate protection and adaptation”) only if coordination efforts prove insufficient

A first opportunity for such improved coordination will come with the revision of the Federal Climate Action Programme, due in the first 12 months of the next legislative period.

Read the full briefing here: https://lnkd.in/d86t9RBz

#ClimatePolicy #EnergyPolicy #Governance #Federalism #AriadneProject #StateCapacity #ClimateAction #Coordination

Ariadne Team Darmstadt at Technische Universität Darmstadt