Firms call for ambitious climate plan / Unions push for e-mobility

A group of more than 40 companies has called for 2030-targets for all sectors in a Climate Action Plan 2050 that “clearly signals” the implementation of the commitments made in the Paris Agreement. “This is the only way that new business models and concrete decarbonisation plans can be developed,” the companies write in a public appeal. They emphasise the “economic possibilities” of climate protection efforts and call for planning security. “Climate protection through businesses creates jobs and secures the competitiveness and sustainability of Germany as a business location,” says the appeal. Commerzbank, Hochtief, IKEA, EnBW, German Telekom, METRO Group and Adidas have all signed the appeal. The industry has so far mostly criticised strict climate protection measures laid out in earlier drafts of the environment ministry’s climate plan.

Find the appeal in German here.

For background read the CLEW article Ministry avoids concrete targets in weakened Climate Action Plan.

Unions want to push car industry managers to speed up the transition to emission-free mobility, reports weekly magazine Der Spiegel. Powerful metalworkers’ union IG Metall plans to publish a paper on “Cutting CO2 pollution in individual transport”, write Sven Böll, Horand Knaup, and Gerald Traufetter. Unions fear the shift to e-mobility will put hundreds of thousands of jobs in the car industry at risk in Germany but IG Metall demands carmakers go on the offensive to lead the transformation. “Technical finesse to reduce emissions won’t get us any further. It’s about a system change at full throttle. It’s about a transport transition – we won’t be able to avoid it,” Frank Iwer, head of the union’s planning, told the magazine. The IG Metall paper recommends diesel driving bans in cities to push e-mobility and a faster roll-out of charging infrastructure, among other suggestions.

Read the article in German here.

For background on the struggle of Germany’s automotive industry to shift to decarbonised mobility read the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.

New guidelines for the industry in the German government’s Climate Action Plan 2050 bear traces of a planned economy, writes Christoph Eisenring in Neue Zürcher Zeitung. He cites measures such as expanding the area of arable land reserved for ecological agriculture from about six to 20 percent until 2030, or obligations for companies to issue “climate reports”, as examples of a policy approach that favours fixed goals over market mechanisms. Conflicting objectives would simply be quenched with public money – as, for instance, the remuneration for feeding renewable energy into the grid demonstrates, Eisenring writes. Berlin should instead make use of its upcoming G20 presidency to strengthen market-based tools such as the flawed emission trading scheme within the EU, the author says.

Read more on the costs of energy transition in the CLEW dossier Energiewende effects on power prices, costs and industry.

It has been unclear for a long time whether offshore wind turbines can produce power without subsidies, writes Franz Hubik in business daily Handelsblatt. But the industry is about to reach competitiveness, and hopes this will lead to a growth spurt, according to a new analysis by management consultancy Roland Berger. “Offshore wind is set to take off in a big way,” writes Roland Berger senior partner Arnoud van der Slot in a Blog post. “Now the tide has turned and offshore wind is garnering enormous interest around the world.”

Read the Handelsblatt article in German here, and a Roland Berger Blog post on offshore wind in English here.