By The G20 countries are making slow progress on climate protection, with Germany lagging behind in mobility and energy transition. This is the result of a study by scientists and environmentalists who have been publishing the so-called “Brown-to-Green” report since 2015. The researchers compare the data of the G20 nations, responsible for 80 percent of worldwide greenhouse gases, using 80 indicators, such as decarbonization, climate policy, and the climate-relevant effects of financial policy.
The researchers’ findings are sobering. Germany is even among the 15 states where greenhouse gas emissions increased again in 2017. The researchers mainly attribute this to energy production and the transport sector. Still, 82 percent of the energy comes from fossil sources, coal, oil, and gas. The globally targeted decarbonization by 2050 will be far off this trend. The study also reveals that subsidies for fossil fuels doubled from 2007 to 2015.
Climate Protection Plan 2050 insufficient, implementation lacking
The scientists consider the voluntarily declared climate goals insufficient concerning the necessary 1.5-degree target for somewhat stable climate conditions. The authors also criticize that many commitments are not being met. This also applies to Germany, where the Climate Protection Plan 2050 does not correlate with the Paris Climate Goals, as the environmental organization Germanwatch criticizes, according to a report by Spiegel Online. And the plan is not being implemented. The transport sector emits seven percent more CO2 than five years ago; overall, Germany’s CO2 emissions are currently even above the 2009 level.
Contributing factors include the half-hearted coal phase-out, even though the performance of renewables is decent with a current 34 percent share (G20 average 24 percent). However, this is based on the early years of renewable energy expansion. “The expansion of wind energy is collapsing – with no prospect of improvement,” explained Niklas Höhne from the NewClimate Institute. The intention to build climate-neutral buildings in the future is commendable. Unlike the UK and France, Germany has not yet set targets for ending coal-fired power generation and combustion engines.
What does this mean?
These are not the conditions for meeting climate goals. The researchers’ findings are shocking but not surprising. The former leader of the energy transition with the former “Climate Chancellor” at the helm continues to fail to distinguish itself and remains mired in the “small-scale” mode of the Grand Coalition, hampered by numerous vested interest lobby groups. Just one example: When the government of Bavaria, seemingly residing on another planet, with its absurd 10H rule, brings wind power expansion in the state to a near standstill due to the threat of “landscape disfigurement,” while simultaneously opposing above-ground power lines, one is indeed reminded of a new episode of “The Merry Pranksters” or the bon mot of satirist Gerhard Polt: “We don’t make electricity with light, we still make light with electricity!”
And the eternal wrangling around diesel and the removal of the legacy waste carelessly produced by politics and industry doesn’t take us a millimeter further in climate terms. It only holds things up and ties up energies that could and should be deployed more purposefully elsewhere. Meanwhile, CO2 emissions in transport continue to rise while the consequences of climate change – low water levels in the Rhine, floods in Italy, wildfires in California – become increasingly dramatic. Germany now needs nothing less than a major initiative that tightly integrates the transport transition with the energy transition: no zero-emission cars without eco-electricity. That would be a three-year plan for a chancellor who has nothing more to become – but only a legacy to leave behind. She needs to earn the title of “Climate Chancellor” once again.
