Dear readers,
After the Trump administration's four years of climate abstinence, the world has not waited for the United States to take the lead in saving the planet.
How much America was missing, however, was impressively demonstrated this week.
At a two-day summit organized by Joe Biden, the new man made a breakthrough in the White House.
40 heads of state and government from all over the world had come and instead of Sunday speeches brought real announcements with them, which many UN diplomats have been waiting for months, as my colleague Susanne Götze reports:
The US wants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030 compared to 2005;
Canada is raising its targets for 2030 from 30 to 40 to 45 percent compared to 2005;
China has announced a reduction in its coal consumption from 2025;
Japan announced that it would reduce its emissions by 46 percent by 2030/2031 compared to 2013, compared to only 26 percent so far;
Brazil has agreed to end illegal logging of the Amazon by 2030 and cut its emissions by 50 percent over the next decade.
Even in the run-up to the summit, Great Britain had entered the race with the announcement of 78 percent savings by 2035.
Biden's summit set a considerable dynamic in motion: everyone suddenly wanted to be there again after climate diplomacy had been thwarted by the corona pandemic since the last "real" UN climate conference in December 2019.
And experts are also pleasantly surprised: "The US's new climate target is more ambitious than we had hoped," comments Niklas Höhne, climate expert from the NewClimate Institute.
He was impressed by the new US president's plans.
But that was not all this week: hopeful signals are also coming from the EU.
After months of negotiations, Brussels adopts the first European climate law.
It stipulates that the European Union must become climate neutral by 2050.
And now there is also a binding climate target for 2030: at least 55 percent fewer emissions than in 1990.
Of course, this is less than the EU Parliament would have liked, which has caused critical comments.
According to experts, the resolutions are also incompatible with the 1.5 degree limit from the Paris Agreement.
After all: in comparison with the new target of the USA, which calculates its emission reductions on the basis of the values from 2005 and not 1990, Europe does quite well.
For the USA, Europe and the rest of the world, despite the euphoria about steps in the right direction, the following also applies: work is only beginning now, the goals are there, but implementation is still pending.
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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US President Joe Biden at the virtual Climate Summit: More ambitious goals than hoped for
Photo: AL DRAGO / POOL / EPA
The topics of the week
Meeting of 40 heads of state and government: Biden's great climate coup
The USA is back as a climate champion: At his summit with world political celebrities, US President Biden achieved more than the UN in a year.
But how stable are the commitments?
European Green Deal: Climate protection in the EU is now law
After months of negotiations, Brussels passes the first European climate law.
This should lead the 27 states to climate neutrality.
A rocky road with many unknowns, warn critics.
Climate crisis: The new confusion about the 1.5 degree target
An Australian panel of experts declares the 1.5 degree target of the climate agreement for Paris to have failed.
The limit can no longer be kept.
But the facts are more differentiated.
"The art of green loving": lucky that Corona saves us the vacation
Since my girlfriend and I can no longer travel because of the pandemic, we have saved ourselves a lot of arguments about alleged climate sins.
What a relief!
Crisis state Mali: How climate change promotes terror and violence
Mali has been at war for years.
A report by the research institute Sipri has now examined the role that climate change plays in this.
Danish project worth billions in the North Sea: this island is supposed to solve Germany's energy problem.
Offshore wind turbines produce gigantic amounts of electricity.
But how does he get ashore?
Denmark has found a way from which all of Europe could benefit.
New expert council of the federal government presents report: Germany passed the climate test - but not on its own
Germany achieved almost all of its 2020 targets - by chance.
In fact, the Federal Republic is doing rather mediocre, says Hans-Martin Henning, head of the Expert Council on Climate Issues.
Published
Climate champion in Central Africa
When it comes to the disappearance of the rainforest and the resulting consequences for the global climate and biodiversity, the public focus is almost entirely on the Amazon basin. How things stand with the world's second largest contiguous rainforest area is less known. Central African forests store even more carbon per hectare than the Amazon rainforest. That is why ecologists working with Maxime Réjou-Méchain from the University of Montpellier have now also carried out an inventory of the tropical forest with the help of local timber companies. In doing so, they were not only able to determine ten different forest types, but also the respective threat from climate change and increasing human use. Above all, this should help to identify particularly endangered regions, such as the coastal forests of Gabon,to protect faster and more effectively.
"Unveiling African rainforest composition and vulnerability to global change"
Réjou-Méchain et al., 2021 Nature
Stay confident
Your Kurt Stukenberg