Social justice is key climate battleground ten years after Paris Agreement – German env min

Ten years after the landmark Paris Climate Agreement was decided, the social dimension of climate policy must play a greater role in government plans to curb emissions, Germany’s environment and climate minister, Carsten Schneider, has said. “Climate change has become a divisive issue around the world,” he warned, arguing that populist parties in many countries were eager to exploit the topic and to sow discord and obstruct effective policymaking.

“The social question is therefore decisive,” the Social Democrat (SPD) politician said at the annual conference of energy industry association BDEW in Berlin. Germany would honour its commitment to the Paris Agreement that it agreed to in 2015, he added. At the upcoming UN climate change conference in Brazil, the country therefore will endorse an EU NDC (nationally determined contribution, which contains a 2035 emissions reduction target) that is in line with the agreement’s goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C.

“Germany must be climate neutral by 2045. This is what guides our actions,” he said. However, he also cautioned that compensation and support mechanisms are an integral part of successful climate policy.

The latest expert report on Germany’s emissions reduction progress found that while the country has made great strides in some sectors it lags behind in others, particularly in transport and heating. The introduction of the European Union’s expanded emissions trading system (ETS2) in 2027 will address these sectors by introducing a carbon price. However, Schneider warned that price rises in this context could lead to a drop in acceptance by many citizens.

“We will assist the hardest-hit households in shouldering the CO2 price,” the minister said. State support is needed to make price increases under the market-based ETS2 more predictable for citizens and to remove hurdles preventing low-income households from adopting cleaner technologies. A person’s credit rating should not determine whether they can obtain a bank loan to invest in clean technology, which is why the state must close these funding gaps, Schneider argued. “Without these people, there will be no democratic legitimation for climate policy,” the minister warned.