Berlin At the Petersberg climate dialogue, Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and his Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) are pulling together. In his speech at the end of the two-day meeting in Berlin, Scholz explained that he would “like to suggest what we could decide together in Dubai: a clear goal for the global expansion of renewable energies”.
The next United Nations climate conference will begin in Dubai at the end of November with thousands of participants from almost 200 participating countries. The Petersberg Climate Dialogue is considered a working conference with around 40 participating countries preparing for the big meeting there. It has been held annually in spring by Germany since 2010.
On Wednesday, for example, Scholz proposed tripling the rate of expansion for renewable energies. That would be “a clear signal to the real and financial economy”.
The proposal is in line with figures from the International Renewable Energy Organization. According to them, renewables would have to be expanded by an average of 1000 gigawatts per year in the coming years – three times as much as today.
Scholz pledges billions more for climate protection in poorer countries
Scholz also used the conference to pledge further financial support for more climate protection. Specifically, it is about replenishing the so-called “Green Climate Fund”, a key instrument of multilateral climate finance. The money is intended to drive the transformation towards low-emission development worldwide. “Germany plans to support the second replenishment with two billion euros,” announced the Chancellor. “That’s a third more than our last deposit.”
Germany will top up the climate fund for poorer countries with two billion euros, said Scholz.
(Photo: Reuters)
Environmental and development organizations spoke of an important political signal. The decision to set up the fund was made at the 2010 World Climate Conference. According to the development aid ministry, Germany initially provided 750 million euros, and later another 1.5 billion euros. In October, Germany is also hosting an international conference in Bonn, at which funds are to be mobilized for the years 2024 to 2027. The two billion euros that have now been announced are intended for this period.
Scholz reiterated that Germany stands by its promise to increase funds for international climate finance to a total of six billion euros annually by 2025.
Overall, the rich countries of the world have promised to support poorer countries in climate protection with 100 billion US dollars annually. That should be achieved as early as 2020, but at that time the aid only amounted to around 80 billion US dollars. “That created a lot of distrust and frustration,” said the head of the United Nations Development Agency, Achim Steiner, before the last climate conference in Egypt in November.
Climate crisis: Scholz is confident
With a view to the fight against the climate crisis, Scholz expressed confidence. After the changes of the past twelve months, he believes that no one underestimates the kind of change that is possible in the next ten years, said the Chancellor. Russia’s attack on Ukraine was not just an “infamous breach of the international peace order”. “He promoted a fundamental change of direction in terms of our energy supply.” Within a few months, Germany had made itself completely independent of coal, oil and gas from Russia.
Numerous countries around the world are also changing their course, according to Scholz. The trend that many countries temporarily had to use more climate-damaging coal, including Germany, must be reversed as soon as possible. He left it open what that means for coal-fired power generation in this country. In the west of the republic, the coal phase-out by 2030 has now been sealed, in the east the phase-out date has so far been 2038.
Scholz recalled what it means in concrete terms if Germany wants to cover 80 percent of its electricity consumption with renewable energies by 2030: “That means building four to five wind power plants on land every day and 43 football pitches of photovoltaic systems, mind you, every day.” new rail routes, energy networks and a CO2-neutral heat supply. “To do this, we must gradually replace old heating systems with climate-friendly heating systems – this truth also needs to be said,” said the Chancellor.
He indirectly reminded of the dispute in the traffic light coalition about the amendment of the Building Energy Act, which is said to have gone through the legislative process by the middle of the year. According to the plans, newly installed heating systems are to be operated with 65 percent renewable energies. In many houses, this requires a rethinking of the heat supply.
Scholz said: “We are supporting this with funding programs so that every citizen can take this necessary step towards the heating transition without worrying about the future.”
1.5 degree target could be missed
Germany wants to be climate-neutral by 2045, as Scholz confirmed on Tuesday. For too long, however, people were content with “formulating ambitious goals”. The result: neither Germany nor the world as a whole are on course to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times. The current rate of global warming is estimated at 1.1 degrees by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The value of 1.5 degrees is considered the limit for containing the effects of climate change to a level that is just tolerable. The international community has agreed on this value. At the next world climate conference in Dubai, a global inventory of progress in climate protection is planned for the first time, known in technical jargon as “Global Stocktake”. The result should encourage countries to step up their climate protection efforts.
Scholz recalled that the EU had already agreed to describe new interim goals for the period after 2030 no later than six months after the inventory in Dubai. He hopes that many other countries will do the same, he said, and encouraged all states to become members of the climate club.
>> Read also: Will Olaf Scholz still become climate chancellor?
Scholz pushed this way up the agenda during Germany’s G7 presidency last year. The coalition of states wants to develop comparable rules and standards and thus simplify innovations, said the Chancellor on Wednesday.
Al-Dschaber has been criticized for being the head of an oil company at the world climate conference.
(Photo: dpa)
“The world is not on course,” Sultan Ahmed al-Dschaber, President-elect of the climate conference in Dubai, agreed with the words of the Federal Chancellor. Al-Dschaber is Industry Minister of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and also head of the state-owned oil company Adnoc. Environmentalists are therefore sharply critical of possible conflicts of interest.
Al-Dschaber said he was very aware of the urgency of fighting the climate crisis. Secretary of State Baerbock said the United Arab Emirates was the first country in the region to set a target for carbon neutrality. The country stands in a special way for the transition from fossil to renewable energies. At the same time, she reminded al-Jaber of his responsibility as conference president. The climate crisis is increasing every day.
More: Baerbock calls for a global target for the expansion of renewables