The conservatives in the German parliament reject any increase in Germany’s greenhouse gas reduction targets without also reopening sensitive talks about burden-sharing at the EU level, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported on Saturday (9 May).
Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50-55% by 2030 could place an enormous burden on the German economy, the conservative alliance warns in the briefing note.
And even though it recognizes that more ambitious climate targets open new opportunities, such a decision would only be acceptable in the event of a new burden-sharing agreement within the EU, it adds.
The note comes at a time when the Foreign Ministry is resetting Germany’s top priorities for its EU presidency program due to be officially presented in June.
“We reject an increase in the EU’s climate target for 2030 without a change in burden sharing,” said the authors of the paper, representing the CDU and its Bavarian counterpart, the CSU.
“Our European partners must contribute to achieving the climate target with comparable efforts,” they add, calling on the government not to lose sight of the current emergency situation caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“The health crisis has considerably changed the economic situation of employees and companies in our country and in Europe,” stresses the document, which has not yet been adopted by the parliamentary group.
The aim is to avoid “as far as possible burdens on employees and companies through laws and other regulations,” the conservative MPs say, adding that the European Green Deal must now “be designed in such a way that it does not hinder, but rather supports the management of the coronavirus pandemic”.
Conservative MPs also argue it should be possible to include “climate measures and emission reductions made (by Germany) in third countries” in the country’s climate balance.
In effect, this means that the conservative parliamentary group is putting the brakes on Chancellor Angela Merkel’s climate policy.
In a recent speech at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, the Chancellor threw her support behind European Commission plans for a 50-55% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030.
Read rest at EurActiv
Countries with populations in the billions are creating carbon dioxide in increasing amounts, totally wiping out Western abatement efforts. The European Union is nuts to claim that the self inflicted damage to their prosperity is justified. They want ALL EU members to sacrifice and suffer equally? Give eastern Europeans for credit not jumping on the climate bandwagon. It’s going nowhere.
Carbon dioxide is TOTALLY irrelevant. Period.