The lower house of Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, has passed a controversial reform of the country's Climate Protection Act, which will significantly overhaul how targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions are implemented.
The proposed changes have been deeply controversial, with some environmental groups sharply opposed to the changes. The opposition conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) also objected to the reforms, and unsuccessfully sued to delay Friday's vote.
The reforms have been primarily pushed by the free-market liberal Free Democrats (FDP), the smallest member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition government, which includes Scholz's Social Democrats (SPD) and the Greens.
The current German climate law sets CO2 emissions reduction targets by sector, such as housing or transport, and includes requirements that ministries prepare immediate action programmes if a sector falls short of achieving those targets.
Under the proposed reforms, however, compliance with the climate targets will no longer be monitored retrospectively by sector but will instead be forward-looking, multi-year and take multiple sectors as once.
Critics of the changes have complained that requirements which ensured accountability, such as placing specific responsibility with individual ministries, will be stripped from the law.
Last year, Germany's transport and construction sectors missed targets.