the model was known from corporations like RWE: to separate old, eco-problematic businesses from future sectors. “The good ones in the potty, the bad ones in the croup” – according to the “Cinderella” motto, the activist star investor Daniel (“Danny”) Loeb from Third Point cleans up the oil company Royal Dutch Shell. As a new major shareholder, the 59-year-old is calling for the division into two separate companies.
One would do the old business with refineries, the other with high investments the new business with renewable energies. Shell reacts like in the diplomatic service: “An open dialogue with all shareholders” is welcomed and the strategy is regularly evaluated. Let’s see if Loeb moves more in the oil company than at the food giant Nestlé, where he was noticed and noticed in 2017.
I was recently in Wrocław, Poland (formerly Breslau). In a discussion, the liberal city director admitted that it was clear that Poland had to recognize the rules of the European Union.
That is exactly what the right-wing conservative, well-Catholic government in Warsaw is not doing – it is hoping that an escalation of the various conflicts with Brussels will evidently provide mobilization advantages among the electorate.
Warsaw is currently reviling EU policy as “blackmail”. Due to the transformation of Poland into an illiberal democracy with a politically controlled judiciary, the EU has so far withheld corona reconstruction aid.
And now the European Court of Justice decided that Poland had to pay one million euros a day because, contrary to EU standards, the country installed a disciplinary chamber that controls judges. The art of politics from Brussels must now consist in not making a minority out of the majority of the Europe-loving, freedom-loving Poles.
The promise was great, the achievement is small. Of the $ 100 billion in financial aid announced annually for poorer countries, the richer countries have only provided part, although the World Bank already paid $ 26 billion in 2020 alone. In an interview with Handelsblatt, Axel van Trotsenburg, deputy head of the organization, was disappointed about this before the G20 meeting and the climate summit at the weekend. In detail, the 62-year-old says about …
- the coal-fired power generation: “One fifth of global CO2 emissions come from coal processing. Countries like China, India and Indonesia get almost 60 percent of their electricity from coal. In Asia alone, the coal phase-out would cost between nine and thirteen trillion dollars, of which almost ten trillion would go to China. “
- climate change: “We estimate that negative climate effects could plunge another 100 million people into poverty in the next ten years. Africa is particularly affected, although the continent only contributes around four percent of the greenhouse gases. “
- the vaccination fairness: “Many industrialized countries have quantities of vaccines that are several times the population. Some of these stocks could be left to poorer regions like Africa. Apparently there is no political will to do this. The behavior is incomprehensible to me. “
Conclusion: If you read the World Banker, the cabaret artist Helmut Qualtinger comes to mind: “Moral indignation is the halo of the hypocritical.”
(Photo: AFP, Montage Handelsblatt)
With the “Green Deal” of Europe, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) sees the continent “at the top of the world” in terms of climate neutrality. The upcoming Glasgow climate summit will only be a success “if we succeed in meeting the great common climate target,” she writes in the Handelsblatt guest commentary: “We have to agree on concrete steps to reduce emissions.” The Christian Democrat complains about the ecological one Some countries backlog.
Such appeals before political talks are as normal as the withholding of important details. The fact that power plants for nuclear and gas have recently stood for the “green economy” in Brussels, that is, somehow serve sustainability, is ignored by the former chancellor of the reserve. Perpetual costs, for example for radiant rubbish, are sustainable.
The “Springer affair”, which has been analyzed from all sides, has arrived in the well-ventilated spaces of the creative sector. CEO Mathias Döpfner is fighting to remain President of the Federal Association of Digital Publishers and Newspaper Publishers (BDZV), which the Presidium will judge on November 24th. It is about his SMS comments from the Federal German “GDR authoritarian state” in the matter of Corona as well as from journalists as “propaganda assistants”.
Even with the most beautiful apology, the faux pas remains a faux pas, as the reaction of the former BDZV Vice President Richard Rebmann shows. He leaves the sporty greeting that Döpfner has “done our industry and all journalists a disservice” and has given “radical, right-wing forces” a boost.
In the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” the new “Bild” boss Johannes Boie, 37, now promises a “culture of respect”. One will “not tolerate an inch of abuse of power and harassment, intimidation or worse.”
The new dual strategy is to be soft on the inside and hard on the outside. In the words of Heinrich Böll, the tabloid had to go too far “to find out how far it could go”.
(Photo: Bloomberg)
The men of the day include Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is ordering increased gas deliveries to Germany and Austria due to rising energy prices, starting on November 8th.
VW boss Herbert Diess is also able to learn and now wants to go to the works meeting in Wolfsburg next week – contrary to an initial refusal. There he can demonstratively eat a currywurst with the working people in the “power bar” department.
CDU politician Hendrik Wüst, 46, finally elected prime minister of North Rhine-Westphalia in the first ballot, is the Union’s new hopeful figure – formerly a drummer from the right, now soft and liberal in the middle. He wants a country “where the internet is fast and CO2 levels are falling”, but who doesn’t want that?
Today, Thursday, you can immerse yourself in the thoughts of digital visionaries at the “Giga Summit” from 9.15 am in the live stream. Together with 50 pioneers from business, politics and science, we are discussing a new digital agenda for global health, digital skills, smart cities and sustainability. Bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari discusses the opportunities and risks of digitization with editor-in-chief Sebastian Matthes. Here you can follow the summit live.
And then there is national soccer player Joshua Kimmich, 26, who yesterday attracted more attention with the views of a non-vaccinated person than with allusions in the Borussia Mönchengladbach stadium. The ambitious athlete was reminded by DFB honorary captain Philipp Lahm of his “role model function” and by CEO Oliver Kahn that “our players must be vaccinated”.
On the field, Kimmich could not prevent his FC Bayern Munich from going down in the second round of the DFB Cup with an embarrassing 5-0. That’s never happened before.
It is possible that previous victories and general expressions of respect for the record champions had caused a certain paralysis of success. According to Sigmund Freud: “You can defend yourself against attacks, you are powerless against praise.”
I wish you a successful day and a lot of strength for praise. Tomorrow my colleague Christian Rickens will take over the wake-up service.
Greetings you warmly
you
Hans-Jürgen Jakobs
Senior editor
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