“Once upon a time”

“Once upon a time”, Germany used to be a “world champion in climate protection” but it risks losing this title as the country’s negotiating government coalition parties mull dropping the 2020 climate target, Joachim Wille writes in a commentary for klimaretter.info. In the ongoing coalition talks, the conservative CDU/CSU’s as well as the Social Democrats’ (SPD) negotiators have proposed postponing  the envisaged emissions reduction.  If the party leaders, including “climate Chancellor” Angel Merkel, adopt this decision, “the worst-case scenario for German climate policy will have become a reality”. Party representatives argue a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 40 percent compared to 1990 levels was no longer feasible “from today’s perspective”, but energy experts have proven this assumption to be wrong, Wille argues. “The target could very well be met” if the conservatives and the SPD “carry out a courageous coal-exit policy, remove caps on renewables expansion and take other measures, for example in the transport sector”, he says. “Of course,” Wille concedes, “this won’t be easy”, but it was Chancellor Merkel herself who led Germany into its current situation, he says. The parties now “lack the courage” to bring about real change and instead “opt to conserve outdated energy structures for as long as possible”.

See the CLEW article German coalition negotiators want to postpone 2020 climate goal for more information.