By Jason Adolph (FRFG–Intern)
With its Legislative Prize, the Foundation for the Rights of Future Generations (FRFG) reviews every legislative period to evaluate all laws passed during that time. It identifies the law that best promotes and the one that most undermines the principle of intergenerational justice.
To be awarded the Positive Prize, a law must make an outstanding contribution to intergenerational justice – for instance, by removing existing burdens on future generations or protecting them from foreseeable risks. Conversely, the Negative Prize is given to legislation that does the opposite.
The 2025 awardees strikingly illustrate how political decisions can either safeguard future generations from additional burdens or shift these burdens forward in time.
Legislative Prize 2025: When Two Familiar Faces Meet Again
The 2025 Legislative Prize marks the return of two familiar names – but in reversed roles. While the first amendment to the Federal Climate Protection Act (2021) received the Positive Prize, the second amendment, adopted by the current coalition government (Ampel-Regierung), has now been awarded the Negative Prize for the 2021–2025 legislative period.
At the same time, another ruling of the Federal Constitutional Court has once again earned the Positive Prize – this time the landmark judgment on the Debt Brake (Schuldenbremse) of 15 November 2023.
Comprehensive dossiers and a visually designed bilingual booklet (in German and English) are available for both award-winning decisions.
Why the Legislative Prize Matters
Laws shape the future, often far beyond the term of the parliament that enacts them. The FRFG’s Legislative Prize draws attention to this long-term dimension of policymaking. It highlights which political decisions assume responsibility for coming generations, and which ones neglect it.
At a time when short-term interests too often dominate the political agenda, the prize creates a necessary counterbalance. It recognises courageous legislation that integrates ecological, fiscal, and social sustainability, and it criticises measures that defer today’s costs to tomorrow. In this way, intergenerational justice becomes not merely an ethical demand, but a measurable criterion of political action.
Positive Prize 2025: A Milestone for Intergenerational Justice – The Federal Constitutional Court Ruling on the Debt Brake
For the 2021–2025 legislative period, the FRFG once again honours a judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court (Bundesverfassungsgericht, BVerfG) – the historic ruling on the Debt Brake of 15 November 2023 concerning the Second Supplementary Budget Act of 2021.
The CDU/CSU parliamentary group had challenged the reallocation of €60 billion from emergency COVID-19 loans to the Climate and Transformation Fund, arguing that it violated the Basic Law (Grundgesetz). The Court declared the Second Supplementary Budget Act 2021 null and void, affirming that budgetary funds may not be arbitrarily shifted between fiscal years – particularly not in circumvention of the debt brake.
Crucially for the FRFG, the Court rejected the Federal Government’s argument that emergency loans could be repurposed across budget years for future-oriented investments. The judgment prevents the instrumentalisation of ecological goals to justify fiscal exceptions, thereby ensuring that ecological and financial intergenerational justice are not pitted against one another.
The ruling was awarded the Positive Prize because it protects future generations from unsustainable financial burdens. By demanding fiscal transparency and sustainability, the Court safeguards the budgetary freedom of future generations and shields them from escalating interest costs. Moreover, it reinforces the debt brake as a key instrument of intergenerationally just fiscal policy.
A detailed analysis and evaluation of the judgment can be found in our accompanying dossier.
Negative Prize 2025: A 180-Degree Turn in Climate Policy – The Second Amendment to the Federal Climate Protection Act (2024)
In 2021, the first amendment to the Federal Climate Protection Act (Klimaschutzgesetz) received the Positive Prize for strengthening climate targets and protecting future generations. Three years later, the Federal Government adopted the second amendment, aiming to ‘improve the steering mechanism’.
However, this second amendment abolished the sector-specific targets of individual ministries and replaced them with an aggregate multi-year emissions budget. The revised mechanism now requires government action only if the climate targets for the period 2021–2030 are missed in two consecutive years.
The FRFG awarded the Negative Prize to this law for the following reasons:
- It weakens key steering mechanisms;
- It introduces no more ambitious reduction targets;
- It dissolves sectoral targets and ministerial accountability;
- It defers responsibility into the future.
This amendment violates the principle of intergenerational justice by allowing today’s generations to continue emitting CO₂ without facing the full consequences. Future generations, in contrast, will suffer both the intensified effects of climate change and potential restrictions on their freedoms when emergency measures become unavoidable.
At a time when scientific evidence urgently calls for stronger climate action, Germany has chosen to dilute its commitments. Failing to invest adequately in climate protection today imposes financial, health-related, and freedom-related burdens on those yet to come. As the law fails to protect future generations from foreseeable harms, the FRFG has awarded it the Negative Prize.
A detailed analysis and assessment of the second amendment can be found in our dossier.
Further Developments
The FRFG team has also redesigned both the German and English versions of its website. In addition, selected dossiers from the 2017–2021 legislative period are now available in English. We invite you to explore and learn more about our work on intergenerationally just legislation.