Climate and energy views of candidates to follow Merkel at helm of CDU

Climate and energy views:

• In the political TV talk show “Anne Will” by public broadcaster ARD, Kramp-Karrenbauer said it would be “too radical” to withdraw political support for the Russian-German gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2 as a reaction to Russia’s actions near the Crimea region. However, Germany could look at reducing the amount of gas to flow through the pipeline. The increased conflict put the European discussion about the political implications of the pipeline back into focus, she said.
• At the regional conference in Düsseldorf, she said Germany has a leadership role in the world on climate protection. “If Germany cannot prove that climate protection, new technological developments, and industrial strength can be brought together – frankly I don't see many countries in the world that can." She warned that Germany must not lag behind on fulfilling its own climate goals. “We have only one climate on this planet. Germany alone cannot save it,” she said. “But I warn that we must not start a debate now along the lines of ‘let the others save it’. What is an emerging or developing country supposed to think when we demand of it to adhere to the [Paris] climate agreement, while we as a strong and rich industrial nation say we can’t do it at home. I do not believe this would do justice to the leadership role of Europe and Germany in the world.” “I would be happier if the French phased out their nuclear power. But in the end, we will only succeed if we’re not content with exiting nuclear ourselves while everyone around us stays in. We will only succeed if we create a blueprint that shows you can have a strong economy and industry even without nuclear power and in a CO₂-friendly way. That is the great art of the energy transition.”
• At the same conference, Kramp-Karrenbauer said the German energy transition in the past had seemed like an unsolved puzzle to her, where the pieces still had to be placed right to create the whole picture. Renewables expansion had to be regulated with market economy instruments and it had to be coupled with grid expansion. Heating and the mobility transition had to be aligned with the energy transition as well. Regarding the coal exit, she agreed with rival candidate Friedrich Merz that an alternative energy source needed to be at hand to ensure supply security for the country’s industry.
• She also pointed to the government's responsibility for workers: “Behind terms such as kilowatt hours and tons of CO2 there are always the workers and their families. The people who work in the energy industry today, including coal, deserve that we represent their interests with as much passion as we do in climate protection.”
• Asked about Germany's energy supply in the regional CDU conference in Idar-Oberstein on 21 November, she said: “We must choose an exit from coal that ensures that it can be replaced by baseload capacity, either by gas or by other storage options. I want to say this in particular with regard to the affected areas, especially in eastern Germany. We here in the region know what structural economic change means. It must always take place in such a way that it is socially acceptable and we keep an eye on the jobs. If there is a big difference between the Greens and us, then that they say - for example regarding the Hambach Forest "What do we care about the 6000 people whose lives depend on it. We just want to get out." That is not our position. We are also responsible for these people and their families. That must go hand in hand. And if it takes a little longer, then the process has to be stretched out a little.”
• In the political talkshow maybrit illner by public broadcaster ZDF, Kramp-Karrenbauer gave her view on renewables support: "At the outset, we pushed subsidies for renewable energies to very high levels to get the expansion going. In the meantime, this has become degressive. Nevertheless, energy prices in Germany are very high and it must also be a task in view of the energy transition to reduce this burden - both for individual consumers and for industry, which is dependent on energy. Otherwise we will damage our competitiveness."
• Kramp-Karrenbauer has warned of overambitious climate targets. In 2017, she said: “If it is necessary to jeopardise the basis of our prosperity with an insecure and overpriced energy supply in order to achieve the 40 percent target, then, as premier of an energy- and industry-oriented federal state, I would be of the opinion that it would be better to achieve 38 percent than to risk the energy supply with 40 percent.”
• In a 2015 interview, she said that the Paris Agreement goal of limiting global warming to 2° Celsius (the agreement’s less ambitious target) was “very ambitious” in light of the widely varying interests of governments around the world. She said she was against setting very ambitious goals if poor countries in particular were likely to struggle to achieve them. She warned against setting an excessively high target that would later have to be abandoned.
• In a 2018 interview, Kramp-Karrenbauer said, “The question is, how do you define conservative? Is nuclear energy conservative? I am considered conservative in socio-political terms, but I've never been a proponent of nuclear energy.”

Climate and energy views:

• At the regional conference in Berlin, Merz said he agrees with Merkel that the Russian German pipeline project Nord Stream 2 is “first and foremost an economic decision. However, the more the conflict between the Ukraine and Russia escalates, the more the question comes into focus, whether or not it is right to build this pipeline. Putin has to know that we will at the very least think about this if he continues to act as he does.”
• At the regional conference in Düsseldorf, Merz said that his strategy for reaching the climate targets would be “innovation and new technologies, and not repression and constantly changing regulations.“ On Germany’s coal exit, Merz said that “it’s not so easy to tell the affected people that ‘we’ll just exit now’, and we have a responsibility for the jobs in the regions.” He said that the responsibility for climate protection has to be reconciled with the responsibility for families and jobs. Germany also needed “reliable alternatives” to guarantee supply security for industrial plants.
• When Merz gave first details about his candidacy at a press conference in Berlin on 31 October, he said: “Migration, globalisation, climate change, digitalisation - these are the greatest challenges of our time in my view.”
• Merz has worked for the German Chemicals Industry Association (VCI) in the 1980s.
• He has advocated protecting German industry from the country’s relatively high power prices.
• Merz was one of 40 public figures to sign the 2010 “energy policy call” that said nuclear and coal power would continue to be necessary for Germany. The statement said renewables needed strong and flexible partners: “These include state-of-the-art coal-fired power plants. This also includes nuclear energy, which will enable us to achieve our high CO₂-reduction targets much faster and, above all, more cheaply than if the existing plants were to be shut down prematurely.”
• Merz has warned of an overly hasty energy transition. In a 2011 op-ed for weekly Die Zeit, he criticised the speed with which Merkel’s government decided to shut down several nuclear reactors after the Fukushima disaster. “Those who call for a rapid phase-out must explain what our energy supply should look like in the future,” he wrote, arguing that renewables could not simply replace reliable nuclear power. He also warned that more coal and gas power – which might be needed to replace nuclear – would lead to higher CO₂ emissions. At the time he was not professionally connected to any energy companies, he wrote. In an interview with mass daily Bild on 14 November 2018, Merz said it was correct to exit nuclear power, "but not so sudden and without the necessary discussion."
• In a 2012 interview he said: “My impression is that the energy transition was decided very abruptly and that the timeframe was perhaps too ambitious.”