Green Revolution in Business: The Editor-in-Chief’s Weekly Review

Good morning dear readers,

Unfortunately, we have to start this weekend thoughtfully: The climate summit in Glasgow begins on Sunday. Once again the world community is meeting to talk about the climate crisis. Once again, many countries with major climate targets are outdoing each other. And once again it becomes clear: the 1.5-degree target is meanwhile moving further and further away.

Because there is a gigantic gap between claim and reality: the history of global climate policy is a history of failure. For 2021, the International Energy Agency expects a dramatic increase in CO2 emissions, the second strongest in history. “Unfortunately, other large industrial nations are in some cases considerably behind in implementing the global goal,” wrote EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen in the Handelsblatt this week.

All of this will be discussed. That is why the Handelsblatt will closely follow, analyze and comment on the discussions at the summit, including my colleague Carsten Volkery. But we don’t want to leave it with this gloomy outlook.

There is also reason to be optimistic. Because apart from dramatic scenarios, a lot is happening: industrial companies are decarbonising their production. Energy companies are investing billions in renewable energies, and still others are being forced by financial investors to convert to green: a large part of the economy is experiencing a green revolution.

We want to describe this revolution in the Green Innovation Week, which starts on Monday. That’s why the Handelsblatt looks a little different for a few days. We will start every day with a major focus topic, in which we deal with the future of the industry, the high hopes of battery manufacturers or the booming business with green financing. Above all, we want to deal with the green pioneers with this very special focus, which is being developed under the direction of my colleague Kirsten Ludowig. So the thinkers and doers who are driving this change.

There will also be two events in the live stream: In our live podcast Handelsblatt Green On November 3rd, sustainability researcher Maja Göpel will also answer your questions (here you can register for the discussion). and on November 5th we will talk to the people behind the green restructuring of the economy about what drives and drives them (click here to register).

Incidentally, the economic potential of this green revolution is enormous: in 2020 the global market volume of environmental technology and resource efficiency alone exceeded the four trillion euro mark for the first time, according to the Green Tech Atlas. In ten years it should be a good nine trillion euros. There is much to suggest that Germany will play an important role in this business.

What else has been on our minds this week:

1. It will come as no surprise to readers of the Handelsblatt: There is not enough money for many of the great ideas of the possible new federal government. The traffic light negotiators have now also noticed this. That is why they are looking for creative ways to bypass the debt brake. KfW should play an important role in this. The plans for this are described by Yasmin Osman, Martin Greive and Jan Hildebrand.

2. Because more and more countries in the euro area are breaking their debt limits, the EU wants to reform the rules. Last week one of the most important European institutions got involved in the debate: The economists of the EU rescue fund ESM developed a concept that provides for higher debt limits and new requirements, as the Handelsblatt exclusively reported this week. There are reform proposals with explosives.

3. The softening of the debt limits in the euro area would be another chapter in the long history of saying goodbye to the culture of stability: Handelsblatt political chief Thomas Sigmund sees such thought games as a highly dangerous development “.

4th An interview by Eva Fischer and Christoph Herwartz, which they conducted with Klaus-Heiner Lehne, the head of the EU Court of Auditors, is likely to have caused discussion in Brussels: Lehne does not see himself in a position to see the use of the Corona reconstruction fund control, he said. He considers his staffing to be a “bad joke”. That is why he warns against massive waste of Corona aid.

5. The debate about a nuclear renaissance has long since begun. In an interview with Handelsblatt, Bill Gates also spoke up on the subject: “The demand for electricity will rise dramatically because we not only use it to power our cars, but also to heat houses and convert many factories to it,” says Gates. New, comparatively safe and low-waste nuclear reactors could help avert the climate catastrophe. It would be a mistake to ignore this debate.

6th Shopping centers are in crisis. Old malls are falling into disrepair, new ones are rarely opened. What remains are nightmares made of concrete – and completely new ideas for the malls of the future, as my colleague Florian Kolf describes in an exciting report.

7th The conflict between the US and China has been extensively described. Less attention is paid to how this new cold war is dividing all of Asia. Our Asia-Bangkok correspondent Mathias Peer describes the dangerous battle of strength: “Nowhere else do the interests of the two superpowers clash as strongly as in Southeast Asia,” he writes.

8th. After almost ten years, Bosch boss Volkmar Denner is giving up his post at the end of the year. Shortly before he left, I spoke to the quantum physicist in my podcast about the transformation of his company, about electromobility and the future of hydrogen and e-fuels. We also talked about how he personally learned to program algorithms – and why quantum computers are becoming so important for the automotive industry. An open and highly informative conversation about the state of the German technology industry.

9. Corona has made a new world of work possible: It has become more flexible and open. Old structures were broken up and new working models made possible. That is the one truth. The other is: This beautiful new world of work also brings a lot of problems with it. Chaos due to unclear structures, slack, teams and mail stress in the home office. The alienation of colleagues from their company who have not been in the office for months. This dark side of the new work is dealt with in our big Friday report, which I recommend to both critics and apologists of the new world of work. Incidentally, I and the team of authors of the title are already noticing that this topic is enormously polarizing from the many reactions we have received. “The best text that has ever appeared on this topic,” wrote a relevant scientist. “Thank you, thank you, thank you” a manager who is currently struggling with the depths of a New Work project. However, there was also the accusation that we wanted to preserve yesterday’s working world with our criticism. Nothing is further from us. But I think: Progress does not come from uncritical enthusiasm, but from controversial discourse.

Have a nice weekend to all of you

Best regards
you

Sebastian Matthes
Editor-in-chief Handelsblatt

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