“This reform is a disaster,” Green Party parliamentary group co-leader Katharina Dröge told the German Press Agency (dpa).

“The CDU and SPD [Social Democratic Party] have today made it abundantly clear: climate protection is completely irrelevant to this coalition,” she added. “The federal government has abandoned the achievement of the climate targets.”

The managing director of the German Environmental Aid Association (DUH), Barbara Metz, described the revised law as “an unconditional fulfilment of all the wishes of the fossil fuel lobby”.