We Want To Do Everything We Can Now To Combat Climate Crisis – German Chancellor

Posted by Eric Ojo Europe, Latest Headlines Sunday, July 17th, 2022

(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has reaffirmed the commitment and resolve of his administration to tackle climate change frontally in spite of the present energy crisis confronting the country.

Scholz said the climate goals of Germany will be pursued unflinchingly and achieve the desired result despite energy crisis resulting from the Ukraine war.

He gave the assurance in his weekly video message released on Saturday.

“The fact that we now have to temporarily use some power plants that we have already taken out of operation because of Russia’s brutal attack on Ukraine is bitter. But it is only for a very short time.

“We are just getting started now, and we want to do everything we can now to combat the climate crisis”, he said.

He said steps would be taken to ensure that the expansion of renewable energies finally made headway.

“Wind power on the high seas, on land, solar energy, biomass: We need all of this to produce electricity and to be able to produce hydrogen so that we have an industrial future without CO2 emissions. By 2045 we want to achieve that”, he added.

The chancellor further stated that after the first laws were put in place, more should follow this year.

“Germany is one of the most successful industrialized countries, and nowadays that means we also have a lot of CO2 emissions. That’s why we have to make a special effort, and we are making an effort”, he stressed.

The goal, according to him, is to be one of the first countries to be CO2 neutral and at the same time globally competitive.

Scholz noted that in order to save gas in the face of the confrontation with Russia as an energy supplier, power plants that run on coal and oil and are currently on the grid reserve are to be allowed to return to the electricity market temporarily until the end of the German winter.

Meanwhile, the annual Petersberg Climate Dialogue is scheduled to take place on Monday and Tuesday. The chancellor, among others, is expected to speak there on Monday. The meeting is also intended to prepare for the World Climate Conference in Egypt in November.

The Petersberg Climate Dialogue is a series of negotiations to prepare the yearly UN Climate Change Conferences in spring or summer time between the COP conferences. The appointed next COP-president with his delegation usually is the co-host of PCD.

The first meeting was initiated after the nearly completely failed negotiations at the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen (COP15), by German politician and chancellor Angela Merkel to improve communication with leaders and between the environmental ministers.

It was held April 2–4, 2010 in Hotel Petersberg on the hill named “Petersberg” near the German city of Bonn, the seat of UNFCCC. In subsequent years the conference took place in Berlin.