In September 2021, environmental organisations Greenpeace and Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH) announced their intentions to sue car manufacturing companies BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen for not doing enough to reduce carbon emissions, and for their subsequent detrimental impact over the climate.

At the end of the same month, DUH activists filed a lawsuit against BMW and Daimler. While the companies stated that their targets are already in line with the Paris Agreement, climate groups argue that the companies should do more to adhere to the German climate ruling and to carbon emissions budgets set by the Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC). In November 2021, Greenpeace submitted a claim against Volkswagen.

In September 2022, the court rejected the lawsuit against BMW. Deutsche Umwelthilfe said they intended to appeal the decision. In February 2023, a court in Braunschweig dismissed the lawsuit against Volkswagen. Greenpeace said it would appeal.