Berlin's climate proposal fails to get enough votes in favour to win

A Sunday referendum in Berlin that would have forced the city to ramp up its climate goals failed because there weren't enough votes in favour of the proposal, the German news agency dpa reported.

After about 98 per cent of the votes had been counted, the supporters of the proposal were just ahead of the opponents of such a change in the law, according to an announcement by the city-state's election administration.

However, that result only met one requirement for a successful proposal. The second requirement, a quorum of at least 25 per cent of all eligible voters, was not met, dpa reported.

Shortly before the end of the count, there were around 423,000 votes in favour and around 405,000 votes against. The quorum for a successful referendum would have been around 608,000 votes in favour of the proposal.

The referendum had called for Berlin to become climate neutral by 2030. The target meant that in less than eight years, the city would no longer be allowed to contribute further to