Reaching 2030 climate target will be “very, very challenging" - Merkel

The German government will introduce a climate protection law to ensure the country reaches its 2030 climate targets, but achieving these goals will be “very, very challenging”, said Chancellor Angela Merkel during her annual summer press conference. The government recently officially confirmed that Germany’s 2020 emissions reduction target has already slipped out of reach. Asked about her 2017 campaign promise to find ways to still reach it, Merkel said: “We made our projections on the basis of the assumptions that were also used in the Climate Action Plan by former environment minister Barbara Hendricks. During the government formation process, we suddenly had new assumptions that made the gap to reaching the 2020 climate target seem bigger.” Merkel said her government coalition had now acted by setting up the new coal-exit commission, and that its approach to first resolve the prospects for workers in the lignite regions “and then talk about which lignite power plants we can shut down” was right. “That’s politically reasonable and why the commission will work very fast,” she added. Merkel also said that her government would find a joint stance on possible mandatory hardware retrofits for old diesel cars by the end of September. Whereas environment minister Svenja Schulze supports these retrofits, transport minister Andreas Scheuer opposes them.

For background, read the articles First 100 days - German government in disarray neglects energy policy and Germany on track to widely miss 2020 climate target – government.