Dear reader,
that there is a gap between poor and rich people in our society, which is getting wider and wider is a well-known and often used image.
In our SPIEGEL cover story this week, we describe another pair of scissors, one that is less common, but whose blades are rapidly diverging from each other.
It's the climate scissors.
It shows the growing discrepancy between escalating climate reality and the dwindling efforts of politicians to do something about it, which was recently observed in Germany and Europe in particular as a result of the war in Ukraine.
In the climate policy apathy on the old continent, news of a new beginning burst from the USA this week.
The government has actually managed to get the largest climate package in American history through Parliament.
For a good year and a half, Joe Biden's Democrats had primarily wrestled with themselves about the legislation.
Joe Manchin, West Virginia's democratic but very conservative representative in the US Senate, blocked any agreement for months.
With Democrats holding a razor-thin majority in the Senate, Manchin, who himself had made millions in the coal business, held a de facto veto position.
He used this so extensively in his party's climate plans that observers had recently hardly expected a breakthrough before the important midterm elections.
Really a »historic« success?
Surprisingly, an agreement emerged last week, and Manchin relented through further concessions such as drilling licenses in parts of Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico.
The way was clear for the “Inflation Reduction Act”, which includes expenditure for more climate protection in the amount of 369 billion dollars.
Although the package has shrunk significantly over the months of negotiations, it includes around four times the money that Biden's predecessor, Barack Obama, put into his hands in 2009 to promote renewable energy and other climate protection technologies.
President Biden praised his own success as "historic", praise also came from former US Vice President and climate activist Al Gore.
Measured against what the USA, historically by far the largest CO2 sinner, has done to slow down global warming and considering what is politically feasible in a deeply divided two-party system, the passing of the law is a great success for climate protection.
If you look at the numbers from the perspective of what is actually necessary, you come to different conclusions.
In April last year, Biden pledged to reduce his country's emissions by 50 to 52 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels.
"However, the measures in the new law alone will not be enough to achieve this goal," Susanne Dröge, an expert on international climate policy at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) told me on the phone.
Analyzes by Princeton University and the Rhodium Group think tank come to a similar conclusion.
"What has now been passed will lead to around 40 to 41 percent fewer CO2 emissions within the next ten years compared to 2005. So Biden would have to do a lot more."
The United States can now act differently in climate diplomacy
In addition, the government is expressly allowing ten years for all projects to take effect, but there are actually only eight years left for the target of 2030, according to the expert.
"The fact that the government will somehow still somehow achieve the missing around ten percent reduction in emissions is now above all a hope." This means, among other things, programs that the states set up or presidential decrees with which Biden, for example, through the national environmental authority EPA, stricter climate protection could operate.
This instrument, most recently also used by ex-President Obama, has lost much of its original sharpness since the US Supreme Court significantly honed the powers of the EPA in early July.
“At least the Americans now have another lever in climate diplomacy to encourage other countries to do climate protection: they have shown that they themselves are making a concrete contribution to reducing emissions.
In recent years, the US has been practically empty-handed in urging other countries to take action.
In the end, that was a major problem for the credibility of the USA in the field," says Dröge.
If you like, we 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 issue of our time. You can subscribe to the newsletter here.
The topics of the week
Drought, major fires, floods, avalanches: arrived in the catastrophe
Europe groans in the new hot period.
But the federal government is suspending the fight for the climate because of war and inflation.
Will it ever get better – or much worse?
Skippers struggle with low Rhine levels: prognosis?
Cargo ships falling further
can hardly transport coal or diesel on the Rhine.
The levels are especially low early this year.
What does that have to do with climate change – and what helps against it.
German researcher on the climate catastrophe: "We are heading for much higher values"
This year, Europe will also feel how dramatic the consequences of global warming will be.
The physicist Niklas Höhne speaks here about the fatal mistakes of German politics.
US Senate approves historic environmental package: Joe Biden's master plan against the climate catastrophe Stop
emissions, energy boom, electric cars: After a marathon debate, the US Senate approved the most comprehensive climate law in history.
It's a triumph for Joe Biden - and gives hope to the world.
Drying up rivers: »We are only at the beginning of what we will see in terms of extremes«
Europe's rivers are suffering from a massive lack of water this summer.
The water ecologist Klement Tockner says what that means for people and nature - and where the biggest problems are in Germany.
Subsidies in transport: The expensive free mentality of the company car company
Finance Minister Lindner rejects a follow-up offer for the 9-euro ticket - something like that is an expression of a free culture.
However, this is more evident in the company car privilege, which the FDP man defends.
Markus Söder and renewable energies: sun king or imposter?
If Markus Söder has his way, Bavaria is a shining example in the energy transition.
In almost all statistics, he sees the Free State nationwide ahead.
His numbers in the fact check.
stay confident
Yours, Kurt Stukenberg
