Dear readers,
For a relentless balance sheet and a promise of improvement in climate policy, a lot of breath is needed, the journalists present notice that immediately.
"I have to acclimate myself first," said Peter Altmaier when he stepped in front of the press in summer 2020 and gasped.
He is late, rushed - in two senses.
"We have disappointed many people to whom climate protection is important," says the CDU politician.
A lot of time was wasted on half-hearted climate protection that only announced goals, but not how they should be achieved, he told SPIEGEL.
Together with the 10-point plan that Altmaier presented on that day, one briefly has the impression that the CDU has finally learned the lessons from the hot summers and many months of climate strike: When fighting the climate crisis, implementation now counts and no longer Sunday speech.
Four months later, the party is in the final spurt of its internal election campaign.
The task is to find a new chairman who will presumably also run as candidate for chancellor.
Three men have been vying for the delegates' favor for months and have had plenty of time to compete for the best ideas.
At the weekend there will finally be a vote.
So where do Armin Laschet, Norbert Röttgen and Friedrich Merz stand in terms of their most recent comments on the climate?
Where are they, the specific offers to the “many people to whom climate protection is important” and who were “disappointed” by the party, as Altmaier put it?
Friedrich Merz: the critic
Friedrich Merz, the loudest of the three candidates, is not easy to locate.
In an online discussion at the end of last week, Merz said that we now have to "significantly increase" efforts to protect the climate.
In his new book he has devoted a separate chapter to ecology, in which the sentence is: "Climate protection remains one of, if not the central political task of our time." And in 2019 he had already criticized the Chancellor for being too timid in climate policy.
“Ms. Merkel said that politics consists of what is possible and I seriously disagree.
You have to make something possible in politics and want to make something possible, «says Merz.
He recently said in SPIEGEL: “In the 2019 European election year, the CDU lost its authority to interpret the climate issue.
Two dry summers and a young activist from Sweden were enough to upset the CDU.
The result was the worst election result in a European elections since the first direct election 40 years ago. «The lessons he wants to draw from this for practical policy remain approximate.
In any case, Merz has high hopes for new technologies that are not defined in more detail or that are not yet marketable.
When asked how the climate crisis could be resolved, he said in a SPIEGEL interview a good year ago, "We can only meet the challenges of climate change with the most modern and newest technology." Perhaps, "we will see technological ones in the coming years." Developments that offer completely new opportunities «.
The only example he mentioned here was the development of new types of nuclear reactors - which is more like a bet on the future than a coherent energy transition strategy for the next few years.
Merz is more pointed when it comes to what he rejects: "We can show a better way to the goal than that of the steadily increasing regulation, the restriction of our freedom, the prohibitions, the tutelage, the governess-like instruction of the German people." He also contradicts " specifically to everyone who says that we have to do the same with the climate as we did with Corona, "said Merz in the online debate last week, aiming at" massive restrictions on freedom and the economy, "he would prefer" market-based instruments such as the pricing of CO₂ «.
Merz makes few concrete statements in the details.
Which forms of regulation are necessary, which ones go too far?
In which steps and by when should the CO2 price rise and which other instruments are necessary?
What's next with renewable energies?
The CDU Economic Council is already clearer: In September, its General Secretary criticized that the planned increase in the EU climate target to 55 or more was "a lack of political instinct" and that "additional burdens with a view to the Corona recession are poison for the economy" .
The vice-president of the association: Friedrich Merz.
Conclusion: With his criticism, Merz is right on many points, but how the mistakes of the past can be avoided in the future he has not yet spelled out convincingly.
Criticizing bans, alleged over-regulation and emphasizing market-based approaches alone is not a climate protection strategy.
Armin Laschet: the skeptic
Armin Laschet argues very similarly.
The Prime Minister of the coal state of North Rhine-Westphalia was again noticed in the online round on Friday as a suspect when it came to more climate protection.
He warned against "excessive" measures that threatened to ruin the industry and against electricity that was too expensive.
"If the steel industry moves to China and produces the steel there, the world climate is not served."
Laschet makes use of the much-told (and often refuted) story of climate protection as a competitive disadvantage.
As CDU chairman, he does not register a design claim to create the conditions for a prosperous but climate-compatible industry.
On the contrary, for him a steelworks in Duisburg is even a »contribution to the global climate«. He chose a similar formulation some time ago for the new construction of the Datteln IV coal-fired power plant, and that too: a contribution to CO2 reduction.
In January Laschet and Jens Spahn presented a ten-topic impulse paper as part of his candidacy.
Climate only appears once in the upper points - in the phrase “Good climate for entrepreneurship and innovation”.
How a CDU chairman or even Chancellor Armin Laschet wants to concretely tackle the climate crisis, the reader does not learn.
In bullet lines it says: »Sustainability is thought and made holistically«, »Invigorate competition for energy innovations« or »Make Germany a real laboratory for innovative forms of mobility: air taxis, autonomous driving.«
Conclusion: So far there is nothing to suggest that a chairman Armin Laschet will become a driver in climate protection.
His view is too narrowed on the risks of transformation and on what is supposedly not possible.
That is not enough for a chancellor in the decade that is decisive in terms of climate policy.
Norbert Röttgen: the advertiser
If there is anyone among the applicants who has made climate protection a key issue in the election campaign, then it is Norbert Röttgen.
Although he often remains vague in the details of the implementation, at least it gives the topic a higher priority outwardly.
Like Altmaier, Röttgen was once Environment Minister.
Incidentally, that doesn't have to mean anything, especially since during this term of office, 2010, of all things, he said the legendary sentence in retrospect: "Coal has its permanent place for decades".
A year earlier, still fresh in office, he even spoke out in favor of building new coal-fired power plants.
Röttgen also accuses the Chancellor and his party as a whole of neglecting climate policy, claiming that it has been "too severely neglected" for a long time.
"Only if we regain credibility for the CDU in terms of climate policy will we be competitive in the middle," said Röttgen.
A diagnosis on which he seems to be pretty much in agreement with Friedrich Merz.
The online discussion on Friday showed that Laschet and Röttgen in particular are looking at the constraints of the climate crisis from two different angles.
Laschet's starting point for the right measure in climate policy is the status quo: How much climate protection can we do so that the "burden" on the economy is still bearable.
Röttgen, on the other hand, seems to be looking at the practical implications from what is necessary: »If we always say that we can only do so much climate protection so that the company does not switch to China before our legislation, then that is still the opposite in our minds that the climate and climate protection is the threat to industry, «he said on Friday in response to Laschet.
If it goes on like this, "we will not stop climate change and we will undermine the future of industry and the economy."
Röttgen is also committed to freeing the complex from the classic departmental layout - a step in the right direction, as the climate crisis has long ceased to be an issue only for the Environment Minister.
"Why is the German foreign minister not at the table in the climate cabinet to this day, even though it is clear to everyone that climate change is a global problem?" He asked recently in SPIEGEL.
"In addition, we are a heavyweight internationally in terms of trade policy - a fact that we can and should throw even more heavily into the balance when it comes to climate issues."
Together with the new Biden administration, Germany should therefore formulate a joint transatlantic climate foreign policy.
“All our national efforts are useless if they are not reflected in the global trend in CO₂ emissions.
As a strong Western quartet, we would have a real chance of taking climate protection to where greenhouse gas emissions do not decrease but increase: to the emerging countries that rely on cheap but dirty energy to fight poverty and underdevelopment.
Nobody else will take on this existentially important leadership role. "
Conclusion: Röttgen is consistently applying his image as a modern innovator, which he tried to build up during the election campaign, to the climate crisis.
So far, freed from the burden of an office, a lot can be demanded.
After all, one takes away from him that he sees the topic more holistically and not just as one of many, especially in contrast to Merz and Laschet.
However, the candidates for the CDU chairmanship agree on many essential points: No new taxes, the black zero must remain the goal and only purely market-based methods can be used to save the planet.
The programmatic differences, conflicting ideas and courageous, new proposals for solving the climate crisis have to be looked for almost with a magnifying glass.
Altmaier, you have to give him that, had a lot more in his luggage last summer: annual reduction targets for CO2 reduction from 2022, a fixed share of the gross domestic product that should be reserved for climate protection in the future, climate-neutral public institutions until 2035, the transparent ones Measurement of climate progress at authorities, companies and organizations, which is publicly available and so on.
But at the weekend the CDU delegates only decide on their new chairman - and not yet the voters about the next chancellor.
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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The topics of the week
Nord Stream 2: Green boss Baerbock attacks camouflage foundation for pipeline construction in
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania has established an environmental foundation that is also
supposed to protect
the further construction of the controversial Baltic
Sea pipeline
against US attacks.
The Greens find this "completely unacceptable".
Schwesig's “Climate Foundation”: Bad for the climate, good for Gazprom
Manuela Schwesig, Prime Minister of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, is setting up a new “Climate Foundation” - to support a large-scale fossil fuel project.
It's like a vegetarian association running slaughterhouses.
Alleged lock-in effect of 2.1 degrees: The danger of alarmist climate
headlines Dramatically exaggerated reports on research results can trigger resignation.
A recent example made headlines again - the method was not very meaningful.
Climate forecasts: 2021 will be cooler - but cool enough?
Meteorologists predict a short break in the current hot season.
The reason for this is the “La Niña” weather phenomenon.
But more is needed for a breakthrough in the fight against global warming.
Philosopher on moralism: can SUV drivers be called climate sinners if they like to fly?
Christian Neuhäuser deals with questions of everyday ethics.
Here he talks about whether moralism has increased and whether it really comes mostly from the left.
Satellite
data
: 43 million hectares of tropical rainforest destroyed
Images from space show the extent of the destruction: Huge areas of rainforest have been destroyed worldwide in recent years - primarily through slash and burn.
This harbors two dangers.
Conference with Merkel: CSU calls for increased climate protection during the corona pandemic
At a closed meeting with the Chancellor, the CSU refrains from major confrontations.
However, the national group is calling for greater action against climate change - parallel to the pandemic.
Interview with the leader of the Green Group: Mr. Hofreiter, will you miss Angela Merkel?
In the polls, the Greens are far behind the Union.
Anton Hofreiter still believes in an "open race" for the Chancellery.
Here the parliamentary group leader speaks about socially just climate protection and possible coalitions.
Renaturation of the opencast mines: Federal Environment Agency awards sensitive study to coal company
The Federal Environment Agency commissions a subsidiary of the coal operator Leag to conduct a study on opencast mines.
This is to determine the consequences of the coal phase-out in Lusatia for the water balance.
Critics suspect foul play.
Climate summit “One Planet Summit”: France wants to finance billions of trees in the Sahara
At the “One Planet Summit” in Paris, heads of government from all over the world want to present projects for more climate and environmental protection.
It should be the beginning of important summits this year.
Feed-in management: regulated green electricity systems cost consumers up to 1.3 billion euros.
Germany's power grids are sometimes so overloaded that wind and solar systems have to be curtailed.
According to SPIEGEL information, the costs for network management increased in 2020.
Warmed up
Scientists warn of a "terrible future" because the consequences of the ecological crises are still underestimated
("CNN")
Two Trump administration officials apparently published several position papers on behalf of the White House expressing doubts about the principles of climate science - and were fired
("The Hill")
Although the fund company Blackrock had promised to align its investment strategy in a climate-compatible manner, the company still holds shares in coal companies worth 85 billion US dollars.
This is shown by new figures
("The Guardian")
2020 was a year of negative climate records in Europe
(»Politico«)
Published
Mussels in danger
Whether washed up on the beach or cooked on the table: mussels are probably one of the most famous shellfish in Europe.
They play an important role both ecologically and economically - but climate change is affecting them too.
It is known that ocean acidification causes problems for marine animals with calcareous shells, but how exactly can vary greatly from species to species.
American researchers therefore compared the shells of California mussels from the 1950s with those of today.
In doing so, they found that the proportion of the lime variant aragonite, probably best known in the form of mother-of-pearl, has decreased.
However, since the aragonitic part protects well against physical stress, the decrease means a higher risk of the animals from predators or waves.
Shell mineralogy of a foundational marine species, Mytilus californianus, over half a century in a changing ocean
Bullard et al., 2021 PNAS
glossary
Term of the week: Ocean acidification - the bad little brother of global warming.
Man-made climate change is also making the oceans more acidic.
With devastating effects on the ecosystem.
Everything about ocean acidification.
Stay confident
Your Kurt Stukenberg
