BERLIN, June 27 (Xinhua) -- The German Ministry for the Environment should be given "a suspensive right of veto" on laws affecting the environment, according to a special report published by the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) on Thursday.
The SRU has been advising the government on environmental issues since 1972 and is currently comprised of seven professors of various academic disciplines.
The environment ministry should also be allowed to initiate laws outside its area of responsibility, for example for agriculture or transport, noted the SRU report.
The SRU also called for Germany to implement "rapid and ambitious environmental policy measures as well as institutional reforms and legislative procedures."
"Our successful legal and welfare state must act sustainably and thus be supplemented by an effective ecological dimension," said Christian Calliess, professor of public law at the Free University Berlin and member of the advisory body.
The government was not only legitimized to protect the environment but also "constitutionally bound to do so," noted Calliess.
A similar call recently came from Minister for the Environment Svenja Schulze, who stressed that "the German state must ensure better framework conditions for climate protection."
A recent study published by the environment ministry found that 64 percent of Germans over the age of 14 viewed environmental and climate protection as a "very important challenge".
The majority of Germans, however, did not believe that the government was doing enough to protect the climate, the study found.
The SRU report noted "with great concern" that German policy remained too hesitant in view of the environmental and climate crisis.
Most Germans did "not believe that the market alone can solve environmental problems" and felt that the state is responsible for climate protection, the report indicated.
