Focus on climate crisis
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Reporting on climate change is one of the major journalistic challenges of our time. The climate crisis is also one of the most important issues of humanity for SPIEGEL. For this reason, we support an international initiative that seeks to take a look this week: "Covering Climate Now" has been initiated by the Columbia Journalism Review and the Canadian newspaper "The Nation", with more than 200 media companies worldwide including the Guardian, El País, La Repubblica, The Times of India, Bloomberg or Vanity Fair. SPIEGEL is dedicating the cover story of the current issue to the climate crisis this week and every day pays special attention to mirror.de
Chancellor Angela Merkel and Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer fly two days after the adoption of the climate coalition of the grand coalition this Sunday almost simultaneously in two aircraft of the Air Force to the US East Coast.
CDU politician Merkel flies to the UN climate summit on Monday and then participates in the general debate of the United Nations from Tuesday in New York. Her colleague Kramp-Karrenbauer flies to a meeting with US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper. Flying is especially harmful to the climate.
It was originally planned that Kramp-Karrenbauer and her delegation would fly in the Chancellor's machine, in which Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU) and Minister of the Environment Svenja Schulze (SPD) are also traveling. The Airbus A340 was to land in New York and then fly on to Washington.
"We tried hard"
Because Kramp-Karrenbauer already travels back to Germany on Monday evening, she wanted to take a scheduled flight for the trip home. The tickets had already been ordered. But then the chancellery should have signaled to the Defense Ministry allegedly, a Mitflug Kramp-Karrenbauers was not desired, reports the "Bild am Sonntag", citing government circles. Accordingly, it had been suggested that the CDU chief should travel independently.
A Defense Department spokesman told the newspaper, "In the course of planning this trip, we have made every effort to optimize the use of the aircraft." Flight planning and aircraft patterns were based on the destination airport, the route, the size of the delegation and the scheduling commitments of the government members. A concrete reason for the separate arrival was therefore not mentioned.
According to SPIEGEL information, one hour's flight of a government machine costs between € 24,000 and € 35,000, according to internal documents of the Federal Armed Forces. The additional aircraft for the trip Kramp-Karrenbauers should therefore cost in this case, at least 360,000 euros.
In any case, the Chancellor's plane must also fly to Washington, the destination of the Secretary of Defense: the aircraft must not stop at New York Airport.
More about the climate crisis
The grand coalition had announced a 22-page key issues paper on Friday to advance climate protection in Germany and make the political goals for 2030 achievable (Read more about the resolutions here). Among other things, the air traffic is to be reduced by higher ticket prices.
