According to Merkel, climate protection and economic growth are not a contradiction in terms – and Europe is required to prove it, said the Chancellor to the EU Council. Fridays for Future, however, are not enough. Merkel calls for Europe to be a pioneer in climate protection.
Merkel calls for Europe to be a pioneer in climate protection
Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged the European countries to take more responsibility for climate protection. Europe must provide practical evidence that growth can be decoupled from emissions and resource consumption, said the CDU politician on Tuesday at an online conference during the German EU Council Presidency.
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The European industrialized countries are world leaders in developing a more sustainable way of life, said Merkel. They would therefore have to “make advance payments” towards less industrialized countries, which, however, are suffering from the consequences of climate change. Europe is not solely responsible for climate protection, “but how we deal with our responsibility is being closely monitored from many sides of the world. It depends largely on our example whether other countries join in or not.”
A truly comprehensive transformation also affects sustainable agriculture and sustainable mobility. It is about profound structural adjustments in the national economies. Affected employees, whose jobs were discontinued, should not be left alone, said Merkel with a view to Germany’s decision to phase out coal by 2038 at the latest. Germany supported the EU Commission’s proposal to reduce greenhouse gases by at least 55 percent by the end of the decade compared to 1990 to reduce. This is very ambitious, but with the Green Deal there is a signpost.
Fridays for Future, the climate goals do not go far enough
From the point of view of many climate protectors, however, Germany has not yet done enough. According to a study published on Tuesday, the federal government’s climate targets are not compatible with limiting global warming to one and a half degrees Celsius. In order to achieve the target, COâ‚‚ reduction targets of at least 60 percent by 2025 and 85 percent by 2030 compared to 1990 are necessary.
The values ​​come from a study by the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy on behalf of Fridays for Future (FFF). It is about the measures that activists believe are necessary to achieve the goal of COâ‚‚ neutrality by 2035 in the areas of energy, industry, transport and buildings. “As of today at the latest, no decision-maker can claim to have known nothing of their own climate policy misconduct,” said Fridays for Future activist Carla Reemtsma.
Source: https://www.spiegel.de/
