“Nice chatting isn’t enough”

The fact that climate protection has been one of the most discussed topics at the G20 summit in Hamburg is “one of the paradoxical achievements of Donald Trump”, Michael Bauchmüller writes in an opinion piece for Süddeutsche Zeitung. “Alas, the climate won’t be saved by talking about it,” he says. The climate and energy action plan agreed on in Hamburg “essentially is a derivation of the Paris accord” for climate protection made in 2015, Bauchmüller argues. G20 members like Germany, China, Australia, Russia, Canada, Indonesia or South Africa continue to use and produce coal unchecked, he adds. US President Trump has “already shifted the balance” so gravely that a simple “commitment to a matter of course”, namely the majority of the G20’s affirmation to eventually act on the Paris Climate Agreement, “is seen as remarkable”, he says.

Read the opinion piece in German here.

See the CLEW dossier G20 2017 – Climate and energy at the Hamburg summit for background.