Climate foreign policy is “door opener” for new strategic partnerships – German foreign min

A strong climate foreign policy of the German government can be a “door opener” for new strategic partnerships because climate change already is an “acute existential question” for many countries, foreign minister Johann Wadephul said in Berlin.

“In a world where we want to attract new partners, defend our geopolitical positions and diversify our trade relations, it would simply be a strategic disadvantage for our diplomacy if we had nothing to offer on the climate issue,” the politician from the conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) said at an event ahead of the UN climate change conference COP30, which takes place from 10 to 21 November in Brazil.  

German businesses offer leading solutions not only in renewable energy technologies like electrolysers, but also in circular economy applications, water management, and sustainable forest and agriculture. “When I say on my travels, ‘We have something to offer in Germany,’ then for me that is the best use of ‘Made in Germany’ there is,” Wadephul said. Clean technologies already accounted for eight percent of German exports and represented a “gigantic” and growing market, he argued.

The previous German government had adopted a climate foreign policy strategy designed to coordinate all government departments to promote a socially just and economically viable global transition to climate neutrality. The current German leadership decided to continue climate diplomacy, while seeking to give it a “more pragmatic and goal-oriented” focus, said Wadephul.