Carsten Schneider

Carsten Schneider
Schneider in 2025
Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Climate Protection and Nuclear Safety
Assumed office
6 May 2025
ChancellorFriedrich Merz
Preceded bySteffi Lemke (Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection)
Minister of State for East Germany and Equivalent Living Conditions
In office
8 December 2021 – 6 May 2025
ChancellorOlaf Scholz
Preceded byMarco Wanderwitz (as Parliamentary State Secretary for the New States)
Succeeded byElisabeth Kaiser
Chief Whip of the SPD Group in the Bundestag
In office
24 October 2017 – 8 December 2021
LeaderRolf Mützenich
Preceded byChristine Lambrecht
Succeeded byKatja Mast
Member of the Bundestag for Thuringia
Assumed office
26 October 1998
Preceded byNorbert Otto
Constituency
Personal details
Born (1976-01-23) 23 January 1976
PartySPD
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Carsten Schneider (born 23 January 1976) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Climate Protection and Nuclear Safety in the government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz since 2025.

Schneider has been a member of the German Parliament since 1998. From 2017 until 2021, Schneider was the First Secretary of his party's parliamentary group, in this position assisting the group's successive chairs Andrea Nahles (2017–2019) and Rolf Mützenich (2019–2021). In addition to his parliamentary work, he served as Parliamentary State Secretary for East Germany and Equivalent Living Conditions in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's cabinet from 2021 to 2025.