Closing 2020 climate gap increasingly difficult, says German environment minister

In an interview with Silke Kersting and Klaus Stratmann of financial daily Handelsblatt, German environment minister Svenja Schulze warns that the country is facing an uphill battle to achieve its climate protection goals. “We have already lost too much time, with the result that the likelihood of narrowing the gap for our 2020 target is diminishing.” Schulze says it is indeed a problem that the special auctions for wind and solar power capacity agreed upon by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government are overdue and must take place soon. “Germany was a pioneer in climate protection, but unfortunately that is no longer the case. That is why we are not only unable to fulfil our national climate goals, but also our European obligations. And that will be expensive.”

Read the article in German here.

For background, read the article Renewables hit record as concerns of German government quarrels grow and the factsheet Climate, energy and transport in Germany’s coalition treaty.