Green Party below expectations but climate will be taken seriously in next coalition – media commentary

At first sight, this election result could be interpreted as a defeat for climate action because both the Green Party and the Left Party, which have the most convincing answers to the climate crisis, fell short of the expectations raised during the campaign, writes Malte Kreutzfeldt in a commentary for taz. “But it is still too early for too much frustration. After all, the CDU/CSU and the SPD have announced that they will pursue climate policy that is in line with the Paris targets,” Kreutzfeldt says. It will be the task of the Greens, who are needed for any new government apart from a renewal of the last CDU/CSU-SPD coalition, to make Paris-compatibility a mandatory prerequisite for a coalition, he added.

Looking into the several different combinations possible for the future three-party coalition, Tagesspiegel Background Energy & Climate writes that any combination will require “a lot of compromise.” But at least it became clear in the short remarks of the candidates that climate policy will be taken seriously and be at the centre of any coalition agreement, they write.

Only about 15 percent of Germans have elected a party whose programme is roughly compatible with the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming limit of the Paris Agreement and who wants to do much of what is needed for climate action, for example: phasing out coal by 2030, stronger CO2 pricing, phasing out the internal combustion engine, implementing a speed limit, reducing industrial-sized farming and pushing the hydrogen industry, writes Joachim Wille in a comment piece for klimareporter. “Now it is a matter of salvaging what can be salvaged from the policies necessary to protect the climate,” Wille writes. The best solution would be an agreement between the SPD and the Greens for they have the most in common and could get the FDP to make “important climate policy concessions.”

Stefan Kuzmany warns the Greens in Spiegel Online against entering an alliance with the conservatives. He points out that only 15 percent of the Greens’ voters have said in a survey that they consider a coalition with the conservatives and the Free Democrats desirable. "And it would rightly irritate not only them if the elections result in a Chancellor Armin Laschet elected with Green votes - the man who said after the flood disaster in the summer that one should not change policies because of such a day."