“Merkel’s Green Hypocrisy”

The resolute stance of German Chancellor Angela Merkel in advocating climate protection on the international stage could be seen as being at odds with her energy and climate policy at home, Silke Kersting writes in Handelsblatt Global. “Not much is left of the climate chancellor of 10 years ago,” Jan Kowalzig, of Oxfam Germany, told the newspaper. Half of Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions reduction was not thanks to ambitious policy, but rather deindustrialisation in eastern Germany following the breakdown of the former GDR’s industry, Kowalzig explained. Germany also does not make any tangible progress with respect to a timetable for exiting coal-fired power production, puts the interests of its auto industry over a vehicle emissions reform on the EU level, and is likely to miss its own 2020 emissions reduction goal, Kersting writes.

Read the article in English here.

See the CLEW factsheet The story of "Climate Chancellor" Angela Merkel for more information.