Berlin Palau, an island state in the Pacific Ocean, a South Seas dream. But also a place of terror. “The sea is devouring our crops, our beaches, our islands, our houses,” was the message to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock when she visited the archipelago in the summer.
Baerbock flew to Palau to see “how we can support resettlement there – in the next 20 or 30 years”. There she realized that this wasn’t a matter for the next 20 or 30 years, but for the next ten years.
And she decided that in future Germany should no longer talk around it when it comes to compensating for damage and losses in developing countries as a result of climate change.
The financing of damages and losses, called “loss and damage” in the jargon of the United Nations, is one of Baerbock’s central topics when she flies to Egypt this Wednesday for the climate conference (COP). For years it had led a shadowy existence at the conferences, blocked by the industrialized countries.
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Only this year was it possible to place the topic on the agenda as a separate strand of negotiations. The Baerbocks Secretary of State Jennifer Morgan and the Chilean Minister of the Environment Maisa Rojas pushed through. The Egyptian COP presidency commissioned them to act as mediators to advance the issue.
Baerbock insists on solidarity between industrialized countries and developing countries
Many delegations in Sharm el-Sheikh were “literally fighting for the survival of their country,” the Foreign Minister said in the Bundestag last week. It is “a blatant injustice,” said Baerbock, “that parts of Pacific island states are being swallowed up by rising sea levels, even though they bear almost no responsibility for the current greenhouse gases”. It is necessary for the industrialized countries to show solidarity with these countries.
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The 41-year-old has been in the new office for almost a year, initially confronted with all sorts of skepticism that she will not be able to fill the office. In the “ZDF-Politbarometer” published on Friday, Baerbock took first place in the popularity list for the first time.
She, the former climate policy spokeswoman for the Greens parliamentary group and later Green Party leader, succeeded in bringing the control and coordination of international climate policy – including the international climate negotiations – from the Ministry of the Environment to the Foreign Office. And she convinced Jennifer Morgan, the former head of the environmental organization Greenpeace International, to come to her house as a special representative for international climate protection.
While Baerbock herself made her inaugural visits abroad and was busy with the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, her “dream cast” Morgan had to do with anchoring international climate policy in the Federal Foreign Office.
German climate policy put to the test
A lot has changed since then. After initial hesitation, the coordination of the departments within the federal government was strengthened and projects were better coordinated. There is also a lot of praise for Baerbock’s State Secretary at the COP. Morgan knows the business of negotiation, but now she’s on the other side, the diplomatic side.
Until Baerbock arrives, Morgan is the head of the delegation, but she doesn’t show any affectation. In Egypt, the four key ministries involved in climate protection – in addition to the Federal Foreign Office, these are the departments for economics, environmental and development policy – act as “Team Germany”.
Jennifer Morgan coined this term, says Kathrin Henneberger, an expert on economic cooperation and development for the Greens. “Jennifer” did an “incredible” job of bringing the ministries together at a working level “and also involving us in Parliament so that we act as a common team”.
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Lisa Badum, climate policy spokeswoman for the Greens parliamentary group, is not quite as euphoric. When asked whether the restructuring within the federal government had worked, she said: “We are currently being put to the test.” The touchstone is an ambitious climate foreign policy strategy that must be presented promptly.
The climate and environmental scene is largely in agreement: the traffic light paints a better picture of climate policy than previous German governments. The redistribution of responsibilities between the ministries has potential, they say. But it remains to be seen whether this will influence the actions of the entire federal government.
No policy from a single source
The performance is far from consistent. “Further reforms are urgently needed so that Germany exhausts all possibilities for a coherent, consistent and effective climate foreign policy and can implement the formulated vision, according to which German foreign policy should act from a single source,” says the think tank NewClimate Institute.
People are more dissatisfied with the chancellery than with the foreign office. Kai Niebert, President of the Deutscher Naturschutzring, says: “The climate crisis can only be stopped by all departments. That’s why climate protection also belongs in the Chancellery – but it has to be taken seriously there.”
Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Federal Director of the German Environmental Aid (DUH), sums up the criticism of many observers: “The contradictory signals about the financing of new natural gas projects in Senegal and elsewhere contradict the commitments made at last year’s conference in Glasgow to finance fossil projects in developing countries and make German politics appear less credible internationally.” According to Müller-Kraenner, decarbonization goals and practical action in Germany do not go together.
Even if this criticism is also more likely to be directed at the chancellor than at the foreign minister, it will be the focus in the next few days. It’s about a lot. Going home empty-handed at the end of the conference would be an embarrassment.
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