The 19 hours of uninterrupted negotiation later, the politicians of the German Grand Coalition Government parties came out to present the multimillion-dollar plan to deal with climate change with which to meet international commitments to reduce greenhouse gases. With the streets of Berlin and the main German cities taken by protesters calling for climate action already, conservatives and social democrats put on the table a plan of 70 measures and 54,000 million euros to be spent from here until 2023, as the vice-chancellor announced in Berlin and finance minister, Olaf Scholz. “There are numerous evidence of the scientific world, and whoever tries to ignore them does not act with justice towards the future,” said the German chancellor, visibly exhausted after the marathon negotiating day. Merkel said that the implementation of this Marshall plan to combat climate change will not entail budgetary indebtedness. Scholz said that in the face of fear of a negative impact on the economy “we are securing jobs.” “We use climate change as an opportunity to modernize our economy and create new and promising jobs,” he said in Berlin. Putting a price on carbon dioxide emissions from the source, that is, charging fuel producers is one of the main points of the program, which will affect transport, agriculture or housing among other sectors.
The plan also includes a decrease in the price of the train and an increase in domestic flights. Housing reform will be encouraged so that they consume less energy and the end of diesel in heating. Merkel played with this package his legacy as “chancellor of the climate”, mention that he obtained after decreeing the closure of the nuclear, launching a mastodC3ntica energy transition and face the climate denialism of Donald Trump. The objective of the new measures is to achieve a reduction of 55% of CO 2 emissions by 2030 (compared to the level of 1990 levels), in line with what was agreed within the European Union, after Germany, the sixth country in the world that spits more CO 2 into the atmosphere, has acknowledged that it will fail to comply with the 40% reduction agreed for 2020. However, environmental organizations have criticized the Government’s plans for considering that they will not achieve the objective of reducing emissions. Tobias Astrup, Greenpeace’s energy expert in Germany, believes that the package only has weak points.
The Government wants to achieve a lot only with subsidies and not with binding measures. These plans will only achieve half of the reductions committed by 2030, b says the expert by telephone. Accelerate the elimination of coal 2030 instead of the planned 2038, that in six years all cars sold are electric or a thorough review of agricultural policy that goes through reducing meat production is for Greenpeace the priorities. This is probably the great political initiative of this legislature, Merkel’s last as chancellor. The plans to refound Europe and the rest of the global challenges have remained little less than in wet paper, in Germany on the brink of recession and lack of political traction. That, from outside doors. At home, the great coalition that the Merkel block conservatives (CDU / CSU) share with the Social Democrats (SPD) falters and threatens bankruptcy, due in part to the deep crisis the minority partner is going through. At the end of the year, in addition, the partners of the great coalition plan to take stock and decide if it is worth moving forward together. Therefore, this climate package is also decisive from a political point of view.
