Scholz warns at Petersberg climate dialogue

Necessary investments in the gas infrastructure would have to be “in line with our goal of becoming CO2-neutral in Germany and worldwide in the future,” said the Chancellor, with a view to new terminals for liquid gas and the possible later use for the supply of hydrogen. “We are not creating any new permanent dependencies on fossil energy sources, neither here nor in the producing countries.”

Scholz recalled the promise made by the most important western industrialized countries (G7) at their meeting in Elmau to “decarbonise the energy sector in our countries as much as possible by 2035”. For Germany, this means that 80 percent of electricity consumption will come from renewable energies by 2030.

Scholz: Chancellor for climate protection?

During the election campaign, Scholz campaigned for himself as “Chancellor for Climate Protection”. He promised green jobs, climate-neutral prosperity, and accelerating the expansion of wind power. According to observers, however, he did not appear as “climate chancellor” in the first few months of the traffic light government.

Christoph Bals, political director of the development and environmental organization Germanwatch said: “Chancellor Scholz has not exactly shined in climate policy recently.” But now that climate change is causing extreme heat waves and heating up devastating fires in Europe, the topic seems to be important for Scholz to win.

According to Germanwatch, however, he once again missed an opportunity to set new impulses. “Chancellor Scholz used his speech to explain how the goal of a climate-neutral society must be linked to a new promise of prosperity. Above all, however, real impulses for climate policy would have been necessary – they didn’t materialize,” said Bals.

Germany is now suffering billions in damage due to climate change. The extreme weather alone, such as the exceptionally hot and dry summers of recent years and the flood disaster of 2021, caused damage totaling more than 80 billion euros in Germany.

Since the year 2000, the damage has amounted to at least 145 billion euros, according to three studies published on Monday by the analysis and consulting company Prognos on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate.

>> Read here: More than 6.6 billion euros a year – this is how expensive extreme weather is for Germany

The Chancellor is sticking to the world community’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees in pre-industrial comparison. “We have to approach the conversion to climate neutrality as a global modernization project,” said Scholz at the Petersberg climate dialogue at the Federal Foreign Office.

He is certain: “Climate protection succeeds when it makes our lives noticeably better through a modern, affordable energy supply, through wind turbines and solar systems instead of smoking chimneys, through mobility without exhaust gases.”

Jan Kowalzig from Oxfam said: “We are in the middle of the climate crisis, which is already destroying the livelihoods of millions of people worldwide, while at the same time the major economic powers continue to do far too little when it comes to climate protection.” In Germany, too, the energy transition is still not taking place in central sectors adequate climate protection takes place, especially in the area of ​​transport and buildings.

The two-day meeting with 40 ministers and experts from 40 countries, organized by Germany and Egypt, serves primarily as a discussion platform to make international progress in climate protection. The next world climate conference will take place in early November, this time in the Egyptian coastal town of Sharm el Sheikh.

Scholz defended the idea of ​​a climate club to complement these meetings. He expects more speed in the climate-neutral restructuring of industry, for example by creating lead markets for climate-friendly technologies, for example for green steel.

Finding solutions to climate change-related damage and losses

The Chancellor also recalled the G7’s commitment to reach 100 billion dollars annually for climate finance in poorer countries as quickly as possible until 2025.

“By 2025 at the latest, Germany wants to achieve the goal of contributing at least six billion euros annually,” he added. One will also find practicable solutions in dealing with climate change-related losses and damage, he said to a demand from developing and emerging countries.

António Guterres, Secretary General of the United Nations, called for more international cooperation against the worsening climate crisis. “What worries me most is our inability to work together as a multilateral society in the face of this global crisis,” Guterres said in a video message. Instead of taking responsibility, states continued to point the finger at others. “We can’t go on like this,” Guterres warned.

In order to keep the agreed climate goals alive and to create climate-resilient communities, one must restore trust and take action together. Guterres expects the G7 and G20 countries to take the lead on this point. “We have a choice. Either we act together, or we commit suicide together.”

Alok Sharma, President of the World Climate Summit held in Glasgow, Scotland last year, gave a sobering summary of the fight against the climate crisis. The progress so far is very slow. He also had to say: “Many of the promises that we have made or that we have agreed on are just words, paper.” There is evidence that we are running out of time, warned Sharma. So you only have one option: “Change is necessary.”

In Glasgow, the states had committed to limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees. At the Paris Agreement, concluded in 2015, there was still talk of wanting to limit global warming to below two degrees. So far, the world has already warmed by 1.1 degrees. The next eight years are considered to be crucial in stopping man-made climate change to some extent.

More: With these measures, Germany wants to mitigate the consequences of extreme weather.