Lina-Marie Dück, Fellow of Ecologic Institute, presented a case study examining climate change litigation in Germany at a workshop held online in Beijing and Berlin. The study highlighted seven distinct cases, encompassing matters related to climate mitigation at both federal and state levels, as well as within specific administrative decisions concerning project approval. The analysis offers a nuanced perspective, especially on the application of the German Federal Climate Change Act in the context of climate-related issues within the German jurisdiction. A major conclusion is the insight that even though climate litigation in Germany is mostly useful as a way to raise public awareness for the relevance of climate mitigation and to speed up legislative processes, it is likely to be not as effective in actually fostering climate mitigation as it may seem.

Integral to the event was also a presentation on climate litigation in China by the Deputy Director of the Strategic Planning Department at the National Center for Climate Change Strategy and International Cooperation (NCSC) in China. The cases presented concerned the goal of promoting an emission peak as well as carbon neutrality and dealt mostly with criminal and civil law issues. Central were aspects of the emission trading and criminal liability.

Following the presentations, participants of the workshop engaged in a discussion about parallels and distinctions between Germany and China regarding significant climate litigation cases. This exchange facilitated a cross-cultural understanding of legal approaches and potential collaborative strategies in addressing the global challenge of climate change. The event underscored the significance of international cooperation and knowledge exchange in formulating effective strategies for sustainable environmental practices.

The studies and their presentations were part of the project "Sino-German Cooperation on Climate Change – Nationally Determined Contributions (NDC) Implementation", by which the Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) supports China by strengthening exchange between experts and stakeholders from the two countries and providing information on German and EU experience in this field.