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Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze
Photo: Kay Nietfeld / dpa
Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) has criticized Economics Minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) unusually harshly when dealing with the expansion of renewable energies.
"We as the federal government have set a clear expansion path that the federal states must follow," she told the Rheinische Post.
However, only a few weeks ago, when it was too late for concrete action in this electoral term, Altmaier recognized a significantly higher demand for green electricity in the coming years.
"This behavior is incredible and highly incompetent," said Schulze.
Altmaier's policy of delaying states such as Bavaria and North Rhine-Westphalia could have delayed the necessary expansion of renewable energies even further.
With a view to the new special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which will be presented on Monday, Schulze and German Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU) called for more global cooperation on climate protection.
"In the next ten years it will be decided whether we will manage to limit the global temperature to 1.5 degrees," said Schulze.
According to Schulze, the new report “clearly” states: “There is no longer any doubt about man-made climate change.” The report also “makes it unmistakably clear that we have to be prepared for more and more extreme weather events in Germany,” she said. She therefore called for the federal government to be more closely involved in measures to adapt to climate change. So far, states and municipalities are responsible for protection against floods and droughts.
In order to accelerate climate protection efforts in Germany, after the federal election in September, "the blockades must come to an end" in the new federal government, demanded Schulze. Specifically, she accused Altmaier and the Union-led state governments of North Rhine-Westphalia and Bavaria with a "delaying policy" in the energy transition. Baden-Württemberg's Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann (Greens) has not yet triggered a "wind energy boom," she criticized.
Müller emphasized in the newspapers of the Funke media group that 92 percent of CO2 emissions take place outside the EU.
That is why the EU must significantly expand its “Green Deal” climate protection program.
"We need a global green deal," said Müller, "with huge private investments to expand renewable energies as well as technology transfers and an investment offensive by industrialized countries in emerging and developing countries."
as / AFP / Reuters