In view of the energy crisis resulting from the Ukraine war, the federal government is choosing to go back to burning coal - and has received harsh criticism from environmental activists for doing so. But Chancellor Scholz does not want to give up the goal of becoming climate-neutral by 2045.
Despite the energy crisis resulting from the Ukraine war, Chancellor Olaf Scholz underlined Germany's climate protection goals. "It's bitter that we now have to temporarily use some power plants that we have already shut down because of Russia's brutal attack on Ukraine," said Scholz in a video message. "But it's only for a very short time. We're just getting started and we want to do everything we can to fight the climate crisis."
Scholz said it would ensure that the expansion of renewable energies finally progressed. "Wind power on the high seas, on land, solar energy, biomass. We need all of this to produce electricity and to be able to produce hydrogen so that we have an industrial future without CO2 emissions. We want to achieve this by 2045 ." After the first laws were introduced, others were to follow this year.
The Chancellor explained: "Germany is one of the most successful industrial countries, and nowadays that means that we also have a lot of CO2 emissions. That's why we have to make an extra effort, and we are making an effort." The aim is to be one of the first countries to be CO2-neutral and at the same time globally competitive.
In order to save gas in view of the confrontation with Russia as an energy supplier, power plants that are operated with coal and oil and are currently in the grid reserve should be able to return to the electricity market for a limited period until the end of winter. The Petersberg Climate Dialogue will take place at the beginning of the week. Scholz, among others, is expected to speak there on Monday.
The meeting is also intended to help prepare for the world climate conference in Egypt in November. The German activist Luisa Neubauer criticized Scholz in the run-up to the meeting as a "fossil chancellor". Neubauer told the Rheinische Post that he now had to come up with a plan on how to protect people from the climate crisis and financially support the global south.
"In the first seven months of his chancellorship, Olaf Scholz was not a climate chancellor, but a fossil chancellor - new gas production in Senegal, a fossil G7 summit, new fossil energy contracts. That's dramatic," said Neubauer. The climate activist is the face of the German "Fridays for Future" environmental movement.
