Dear readers,
if there is a particularly large gap between claim and reality, then most of the time we talk about climate policy.
Angela Merkel summed up the problem with the presentation of the German government's “climate package” in September 2019 in what I think is the legendary sentence “Politics is what is possible”.
Legendary because he frankly admits that politics sometimes seems to orient itself more towards what is subjectively affordable than objectively necessary.
The sentence is evidence of an attitude that has lost the political will to shape.
Which brings us to the reform of the Renewable Energy Sources Act.
On Monday, the grand coalition agreed on a reform in the expansion of green electricity, and the Bundestag should deal with it at the end of the week.
The aim of the amendment should actually be much more speed in the energy transition, because that same climate package from last year is intended to increase the share of green electricity to 65 percent in the next ten years.
But according to all that is known so far, the new agreement does not shake the expansion targets for solar and wind energy.
Experts had already warned in September that the previous plans were far too short.
"Energy consumption will rise sharply by 2030, if only because we have more electric cars on the streets and we need a lot of renewable energy to produce hydrogen," said Thorsten Lenck from the Agora Energiewende think tank.
It is to be foreseen that the 65 percent target will not be achieved with the planned expansion for wind and sun.
After all, the GroKo has now prevented old wind turbines from being disconnected from the grid from January, improved the promotion of small sun catchers on house roofs and made it easier to produce solar power on apartment buildings - but this is not the urgently needed reform.
New expansion targets should come in spring.
The EU is driving the climate-neutral continent
They are needed more urgently since Thursday at the latest.
The heads of state and government of the EU voted for an improvement in the Union's climate target from minus 40 to "at least" minus 55 percent compared to the CO2 emissions of 1990. "With this decision, the EU is sending a strong signal to the international community that it wants to live up to its pioneering role in climate protection «, said Brick Medak from the British think tank E3G.
But the increase of 15 percentage points must now be distributed among the 27 member countries - this makes the rapid decarbonization of the energy sector in this country even more important.
There are many indications that we have to raise our national climate target significantly. After all, the Federal Republic of Germany is by far the EU's biggest climate offender in absolute terms.
Patrick Graichen, head of Agora Energiewende, assumes that Germany will have to reduce emissions by 65 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.
This could be achieved "by phasing out coal by 2030 and tripling the pace of expanding renewable energies".
Jakob Schlandt had a completely different explanation for the ambitious EEG reform on Monday in a comment in Berlin's »Tagesspiegel«.
According to this, the Union is perhaps deliberately delaying the energy transition because it can assume a coalition with the Greens after the next federal election: “The lower the bar before the election, the safer the Union is from excessive demands by the Greens of choice".
In order to close the gap between claim and reality, you can of course simply adapt the claims to reality (or what you think are).
However, that would be the completely wrong way.
If you like, I will inform you once a week about the most important things about the climate crisis - stories, research results and the latest developments on the biggest topic of our time. You
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Iceberg off Greenland: higher temperatures lead to less ice - and vice versa
Photo: Ulrik Pedersen / NurPhoto / Getty Images
The topics of the week
EU heads of state
agree on
new climate target: Europe's compromise to save the world
The heads of state and government of the EU have agreed on a new climate target for 2030.
Experts praise the decision as an important step.
But many crucial details are still open.
Five years of the Paris Climate Agreement: That is just the beginning
Desperate foreign ministers, courageous scientists and skilled diplomats achieved the impossible half a decade ago: 195 countries pledged to save the planet.
Is the world on track?
Five Years of the Paris Climate Agreement: The Most Urgent Task in the World
Covid-19 and the climate have brought us to a point from which we can no longer return to the old normal of inequality and fragility.
What needs to be done now: three demands on the countries of the world.
A guest contribution by António Guterres, UN Secretary General.
Coal mining: Resettlement of five villages - the ministry kept an explosive report under lock and key
The Ministry of Economic Affairs refused to issue an appraisal that was the basis for the coal phase-out law for around a year.
The public debate was manipulated in this way.
Climate crisis: Why the sea level is rising faster and faster
The sea level is rising.
And not only that: it is increasing faster and faster.
How strongly climate change is driving this effect has now largely been deciphered - thanks in part to modern satellite technology.
Manufacturer's promise: truck industry promises goodbye to diesel by 2040
Europe's truck manufacturers do not want to produce
diesel
trucks in 20 years.
This is what the leading corporations promise - and they are making demands on politics.
Internal study at VW: The electric car endangers far fewer jobs than feared
The electric turnaround will cost Germany many jobs - so think many car managers and trade unionists.
Now a study shows: It can also turn out very differently.
Climate crisis: Higher temperatures and less ice lead to a vicious circle in the Arctic
Heat and fires in Siberia and an extreme sea ice minimum in summer - the climate in the Arctic was extreme in 2020.
Researchers warn of increasingly intensifying effects.
Warmed up
The commitments made by the states at the UN's “Climate Ambition Summit” are not enough to turn the trend
(“Economist”)
Research shows that the states are investing too much money in fossil fuels as part of their Corona recovery programs
(»Guardian«)
Five Myths About the Paris Climate Agreement
(Washington Post)
Published
Does more carbon dioxide in the atmosphere help plants grow?
People who play down man-made climate change like to use the argument that a higher CO2 content in the atmosphere is positive because plants would then grow better.
The phenomenon known as CO2 fertilization initially sounds plausible because the effect is used in agriculture to achieve higher crop yields.
In order to find out whether this works not only in the greenhouse but also on the whole planet and what the limits are, an international team of researchers has used experiments and satellite data to estimate the development of the fertilization effect since the early 1980s.
The results now show that the additional growth tends to weaken, i.e. less and less additional CO2 is taken from the atmosphere by plants.
The reason for this surprisingly clear result is the lack of an additional increase in nutrients and water.
"Recent global decline of CO
2
fertilization effects on vegetation photosynthesis"
Wang et al., 2020
"Science"
glossary
Term of the week: Adaptation - be prepared
Climate change is already underway.
So humans and nature are forced to adjust to the changes.
What is adaptation and how can it work?
The climate term of the week.
Stay confident
Your Kurt Stukenberg
