Merkel’s Chancellery Chief Altmaier: “We don’t know” if Germany will meet its 2020 climate targets

The chief of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chancellery, Peter Altmaier, has said that while Germany is intent on meeting its 2020 emissions-reduction goals, it was not clear it would succeed. “We don’t know if we’ll make it,” Altmaier said at the debate forum“Sustainability and climate protection: What roadmap do the parties have?”, organised by NGOs Climate-Alliance Germany, VENRO and Deutscher Naturschutzring in Berlin. Germany’s 2020 goal is to cut emissions by 40 percent compared to 1990 levels. But since 2009, when emissions were extraordinarily low due to the financial crisis’s effect on the economy, Germany’s CO2 balance has remained largely stagnant. “We’ve had enormous economic growth during this period while keeping emissions stable,” Altmaier said. He stressed that international climate diplomacy had come to a crucial point, describing the G20 consensus on curbing CO2 levels as “very fragile”. He warned that the Paris Agreement had to be kept at all costs, particularly after the Trump administration’s announcement to pull the US out of the international deal. Altmaier rebuffed US calls to renegotiate the accord, saying “we’ve already negotiated for 10 years.”

For background, see the CLEW dossier The energy transition and climate change and the CLEW factsheet Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions and climate targets.