News Digest Item
23 Jan 2018

German politicians have endorsed “fake climate goal” – Club of Rome co-president

Main Post

In recent years, German politicians endorsed a “fake climate goal” that could not have been met, renowned German environmentalist Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker said in an interview with the Main Post. Von Weizsäcker said “it is good” the parties in exploratory talks to form a new German government – Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the Social Democrats (SPD) – postponed the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990. “At the same time, policymakers decided to ramp up and accelerate their efforts. So, I’m not particularly unhappy about this issue,” the co-president of sustainability organisation Club of Rome said. With respect to the Club of Rome’s popular 1972 study “Limits of Growth”, von Weizsäcker said the warning that the world might run out of mineral resources was “exaggerated”. “There’s more copper, natural gas and other resources in the ground than we are allowed to extract,” he added.

 See the CLEW article German party leaders agree energy policy blueprint for coalition talks for background.

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