Boris Johnson and His Green Magic Tricks

"And from Mount Sinai I brought down a ten-point plan that will guarantee our country a green, better future."

It sounds bizarre, but that's exactly what Boris Johnson announced in the run-up to the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow.

Cocky announcements and jovial self-presentations are known from the man who has already compared himself to Churchill, the unbelievable Hulk and, most recently, James Bond. But Johnson had not been noticed as a pioneer against climate change. If only not because a new coal-fired power station is to be built in the county of Cumbria and new oil and gas fields are waiting to be exploited off the coast of Scotland. The approval for this has long been granted and corresponds to the government plan “Maximizing Economic Recovery” of 2015, which is still valid.

When asked about this controversy, Boris Johnson repeats all the statistics of British climate achievements until the questioners give up, exhausted.

And in fact, Britain's successes in climate protection are remarkable for the time being: The dependence on coal energy, for example, has been reduced from about 80% to just 1% of national consumption since Johnson's youth in the 1970s.

But how credible is Johnson's commitment to his new green agenda, having so often broken wholehearted promises, raised false expectations and so often lied to the British?

more on the subject

• Boris Johnson as host at the UN summit: The Climate Fighter By Jörg Schindler, London

• Scottish Prime Minister Sturgeon in an interview: “We are currently experiencing what Brexit really means.

  None of it is good «An interview by Jörg Schindler, London

• Claus Hecking reports from Whitehaven

“

Johnson was a journalist before he started his political career and mostly wrote columns for the Daily Telegraph.

And there are endless examples of how he made a fool of not only environmental protection, but also climate protection, ”says Jörg Schindler, a long-time SPIEGEL correspondent in London.

“He said that one would crucify the landscape with wind turbines, that climate change and Admonishers, Doomster and Gloomster are, that is, black painters.

And in 2015 he also said that climate change is not necessarily man-made, it is just the way it is «.

At second glance "a lot of window dressing"

So what's behind Boris Johnson's new image as modern Moses?

What does he want to achieve with it and how good is the UK's current and future carbon footprint really?

"There are some points that look pretty good at first glance, but at second glance it is a lot of window dressing," explains Jörg Schindler in this episode of the international podcast he says: We have reduced our CO2 emissions by 44 percent in the last 30 years.

But the University of Leeds recently showed in a study that the actual emissions have risen if you include the consumption of the British - that is, the production of these goods in China, for example «.

In the current episode of "Eight Billion" you can hear what Boris Johnson's climate initiative has to do with the effects of Brexit, why this hardly scares his voters and how much the prime minister must fear critics and rivals.

You can hear the current episode here: