Germany “is doing nothing” to reach its climate targets – opinion

Contrary to the German government’s promise to close the gap towards reaching the country’s 2020 climate target as much as possible and take steps towards reaching the 2030 target, it “is doing nothing," Malte Kreutzfeldt writes in an opinion piece in the Tageszeitung (taz). “The drought and heat wave this summer could have been a wake-up call that brought climate change back onto the agenda,” he says. But neither the additional renewables auctions promised in the coalition treaty nor additional funds for energy-efficient building modernisation have been delivered as of yet, he says. Meanwhile, the “central question” of ending coal-fired power production “has been outsourced to a commission” and another commission that is supposed to help make the transport sector more sustainable has not even been set up yet. “The only measure that would lead to immediate effects in the transport sector, namely tighter EU emission limits for new cars, are being actively blocked by the German government,” much like the EU Commission’s proposal for more ambitious European climate goals, Kreutzfeldt says.

Read the opinion piece in German here.

See the CLEW dossier The energy transition and climate change for more information.