Climate change: where does Germany stand?

“We will not deviate an inch from our climate targets,” said Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock after the Petersberg climate dialogue. But since nothing concrete was decided apart from these verbal promises, non-governmental organizations expressed their disappointment at the conference. A Handelsblatt reader wrote: “One conference replaces the next, one prepares the next and the last supposedly follows up.” But results were hardly achieved.

When it comes to the question of where Germany stands in the fight against climate change, many Handelsblatt readers are pessimistic about the current status there are still seven at the signpost and are discussing what is supposed to be the right way, fortunately the other three are already on the way.”

There are some suggestions for improvement. A reader calls for concerted action by all those involved and, above all, wants practical solutions from science.

Others call for an intergenerational dialogue, closer cooperation with other countries, especially with the major CO2 emitters, or a politician with charisma and the ability to swear people to a good goal. There are also people who believe that climate change cannot be stopped by us.

We have put together a selection for you from the various letters from the Handelsblatt readership.

Reversing brakes

“In my view, we are still at the very beginning. The pace needs to be increased significantly. Brakers turning backwards must step aside.

We need concerted action by everyone involved: the state, industry, trade and finance, and the population. Science is called upon to develop practicable solutions on how we can make progress in our private lives and on a small scale: how to heat properly in old buildings, new buildings, buildings from the 1970s… We also have to live with a little sacrifice for a few years (speed limit, meat consumption, travel …) – and we need better planning for our infrastructure (What should the city of the future look like, how should our mobility?), Here, too, science is called upon to start the idea machine!

In Germany alone we have hundreds of universities and thousands upon thousands of bright minds who can work on projects and simulations here. Not everything will succeed, but a lot is possible. We just have to tackle it!!!

So the most important thing will be: courage to change and drive! Here we go.”
Uwe Velten

We will not stop climate change!

“In its four billion years of existence, the earth has experienced more climate change, catastrophes and changes than it is difficult for humans to imagine in its 300,000-year history. Now we imagine that we can change something about this constant development of the earth.

Of course we have contributed to a certain acceleration of the current climate change. But we will not stop this development! There is a high probability that the earth will still exist in a million years, but humans probably won’t. What it will look like on earth and what the climate will be like is another question and the earth doesn’t care.”
Bernhard Derdzinski

One conference follows the next – without any real results

“The topic has now become inflationary and ‘makes itself superfluous’. One conference follows the next, one prepares the next and the last supposedly follows up. Results are rarely achieved and if they are, then not implemented. Everything with thousands of participants who don’t travel in an environmentally friendly way for happy group photos, produce garbage and waste energy.

Germany is wasting its resources in the climate rescue mania and has open, naive ears when representatives of well-known corrupt states demand more money and debt relief in order to be guaranteed to first save themselves and then maybe the climate.”
Carsten Kayatz

We think too much in reasons than in possibilities

“If we should finally succeed in starting a dialogue across generations – from grandparents who feel innocent to parents who maintain their standard of living to children who raise their index fingers – then and only then will we be able to protect climate protection as the greatest economic, social and to understand the ecological opportunity that it is.

If you want to make something possible, you will find possibilities, if you want to prevent something, you will find reasons. From longer-running coal-fired power plants to species protection in the expansion of wind energy – so far we think too much in reasons than in possibilities.
Michael Krieger

The majority of the population would be willing to make an effort

“The Chancellor is good at making promises and saying nothing, he takes no responsibility and never wants to have been (see Cum-Ex scandal). It follows that Germany will not achieve its ambitious goals in the fight against climate change.

The majority of the population would be willing to make an effort, to do without, if everyone did it. But this requires a politician with charisma and the ability to swear people to a good goal. I see black for the economy, which could migrate because of the excessive bureaucracy and the lack of pragmatism, and for the prosperity to which we have become so accustomed.”
Anna Maria Sobizack

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Germany is playing Don Quixote

“In my opinion, Germany is playing Don Quixote when it comes to preventing climate change. With just two percent of global CO2 emissions, Germany wants to save the world and is crashing its own economy into the ground.

A global problem – which I do not dispute at all – must also have a global answer. Here, progress can only be made together and in close cooperation with the major polluters. Role model is good, but no one in the world takes the ideologically blinded schoolmaster Germany seriously anymore. As can be seen very clearly from the worldwide construction and expansion of nuclear technology.

In Germany far too much is ideologically charged and discussed to death. Instead of taking on the tasks of the future with sober expertise and a cool technical head. The technical solutions for this exist, but Germany excludes itself here.

If a rethinking doesn’t take place quickly here, then I see pessimism for Germany as a business location – Mr. Scholz lacks the clout for that. Ideology and fear have never been good advisors in history.”
Peter Archinger

We almost lost the fight

“We have all but lost the battle to preserve our environment and climate. Hardly anyone is willing to give up anything. Especially not on his vacation flight or even on his truck-like car. Even the smallest short-term gain is more important than the climate.

We give our children a full bank but leave a world they can no longer live in.”
Karl Josef Federlein

For the survival of all

“So far I haven’t seen anyone in politics making clear decisions for the climate and against our personal comforts, because then you won’t be re-elected…

What is the willingness for a change that at first seems like a deterioration of our comfortable/accustomed life? Perhaps we are much better off if we live differently? How much courage does politics have to consistently decide for the continued existence of ALL people?”
Johanna M. Pabst

Like in kindergarten

“I find it shocking that, despite the tense situation, politics is like in kindergarten, although the children are probably still wrong with this comparison.

‘Every kilowatt hour must be saved.’ But: speed limit? None! (What are a few million liters of saved oil … and CO2 emissions) Nuclear power instead of gas power generation: tactical bickering. Thousands of deaths in southern Europe and unprecedented forest fires and water shortages in Germany, too, but the pools in German gardens and elsewhere are filling up. Economically and ecologically unjustifiable waste of taxpayers’ money in hybrid vehicles… it’s still going on for a while.

The series can be continued … only: It won’t work like that with the climate chancellor.”
Gregory Wies

The world is just beginning

“Knowledge about climate change is more than 50 years old, and some of the technologies needed to deal with it have been around for longer.

As long as Germany and large parts of the world are controlled remotely by classic energy companies, the oil and gas industry and a neoliberal market religion (keyword CO2 certificates), nothing will change in the right direction, or only very slowly.

In my opinion, Germany, like the rest of the world, is still in its infancy, and regardless of who holds the office of Chancellor, it is unlikely that he or she will become Climate Chancellor for the reason given above.

The effects of climate change are well known and need not be repeated here, and listing them would go beyond the scope of the five sentences.

For me personally, just this much: I recommend my children not to get their own.”
Piero Kirchner

Lost on the hike towards climate neutrality

“Of ten of those who set off on the journey towards climate neutrality, seven are still standing at the signpost and are discussing what they think is the right path, fortunately the other three are already on the way.

I don’t think that Olaf Scholz will develop into climate chancellor, so I’d rather have Habeck – maybe initially (only) as deputy with a recommendation for the next legislature.

I fear that this time Germany will be more concerned with the speed of adjustment than the ability to adapt and that we will hesitate for too long. In terms of the economy, I expect that the Covid crises and the Russian war of aggression will claim a lot of the German creativity that is needed to deal with the third climate crisis.

Personally, I fear that at some point my daughter will ask me very forcefully: ‘What was your creative contribution to climate neutrality?’”
Michael C. Blum

If you would like to have your say on this topic in the Handelsblatt, write us a comment, either by e-mail [email protected] or on Instagram at @handelsblatt.

More: Last week, the readership of the Handelsblatt debated which energy-saving measures are personally possible for everyone in view of the gas crisis.