It will be Germany's greenest government yet, literally.
Climate risks, underscored by the worst floods in half a millennia, helped propel Germany's Green Party to its biggest victory ever in September's parliamentary election.
Armed with 118 seats, the Green Party and the center-left Social Democrats, and the pro-business Free Democratic Party unveiled a coalition agreement last Wednesday, outlining the policy goals of what is to likely be Germany's next government.
The agreement includes a string of new measures, many of which are aimed at curbing Germany's reliance on coal, which generated roughly a quarter of its power this year.
Crucially, Annalena Baerbock, leader of the Greens, will step in as foreign minister-giving her ample room to use Germany's leadership in Western Europe as leverage to push for stronger climate action across the continent.
Meanwhile, the Greens' co-leader Robert Habeck will oversee Germany's clean energy transition, while the Party will also pick the agriculture and environmental conservation ministers.
"We are in charge of all key energy and climate ministries," Sven Giegold, a Green member of the European parliament, told Time, "and we have a whole roadmap for a post-fossil future based on renewable energy."
The climate measures contained in the coalition agreement are at once time laudable for their specificity and notable for their vagueness.
The agreement clearly defines the expansion of renewables as a major project for the new government. Under the deal, no less than 2% of German territory will be set aside to expand wind and solar capacity.
Solar generation will increase five-fold to 200GW, as wind generation quadruples to 40GW. There are also bold steps in the agreement to retrofit Germany's aging power grid as well. It's hoped that a rapid push for renewables can speed up Germany's shift away from coal, "ideally" by 2030.
"Honestly, it's not the phasing out, but the phasing in, which will inspire others to act," said Giegold.
"[The Greens] have sort of gone on the offensive: focusing on getting real ambition on renewables deployment, and perhaps they haven't used their energy on putting in negative criteria on gas and coal as much," Lisa Fischer, energy transition expert at E3 told time.
But it was the lack of such negative criteria, such as end dates for the use of coal and natural gas, that has many environmentalists worried.
The European Environmental Bureau, a network of environmental concerns, said the fuzziness in the agreement was "highly disappointing" and represented "a missed chance for Germany to give clear indications," to energy markets.
The agreement itself even calls the use of natural gas, "indispensable," to help the country bridge the gap as it transitions away from coal.
Fischer believes that 2030 is an achievable end-date for coal in Germany, as market forces take over and coal falls out of favor worldwide. The greater challenge will be ensuring there is enough clean energy available as the country shifts away from natural gas and winds down nuclear reactors, she said to Bloomberg.
Meanwhile, Bloomberg notes the agreement keeps Germany's emissions targets set at 65% below 1990 levels by 2030. Recent data from Climate Action Tracker a non-profit shows that a 70% reduction is necessary if the terms of the Paris Climate Accord are to be kept.
"Small steps are not enough, fundamental changes would have to be made," said Niklas Höhne, research partner at NewClimate Institute, to Bloomberg.