"Politicians and Industry squander Germany’s leading role in climate protection"

Germany’s politicians and companies are squandering the country’s leading role in climate protection even though the energy transition can benefit the economy, according to a ten-page special report in business daily Handelsblatt by Silke Kersting and Klaus Stratmann. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s resistance to stricter EU car fleet emission limits is “symptomatic for the relegation of an ecologic superstar,” write the authors. “Judged by yesterday's noble ambitions, Germany is on the path to a failed state in climate policy […] even though it is unnecessarily expensive in many areas, the Energiewende shows the enormous economic growth potential slumbering in the battle against climate change.”

Find the article in German (behind paywall) here.

For background on the Energiewende’s effects on the economy, read the dossier German industry embraces Energiewende transformation challenge.