In the oil state of Dubai, of all places, the climate conference is supposed to negotiate progress in the fight against global warming. In his speech, Chancellor Scholz calls for an exit from fossil fuels.
Before the plenary session of the World Climate Conference in Dubai, Chancellor Olaf Scholz called for a global phase-out of coal, oil and gas. “We must now all show the firm determination to get out of fossil fuels – first and foremost coal. We can set sail for this at this climate conference,” said the SPD politician in his speech on Saturday.
Scholz also said that it is still possible to reduce climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions this decade to such an extent that the 1.5 degree target agreed in Paris in 2015 is met. “But science tells us very clearly: We have to hurry up – despite all the geopolitical tensions,” he said, referring to the wars in the Gaza Strip and Ukraine, which are also a big topic at the climate conference.
Scholz: “The technologies are there”
Climate change remains “the great, global challenge of our time,” emphasized Scholz. But there are already all the necessary means to meet this challenge. “The technologies are there: wind power, photovoltaics, electric drives, green hydrogen.” Germany is pressing ahead with these developments. “As a successful industrial country, we want to live and work climate-neutrally by 2045,” he said.
Scholz appeals to the almost 200 countries that will be meeting in Dubai until mid-December to get involved in the energy transition. “Let’s make the expansion of renewable energies the number one energy policy priority – worldwide!” He specifically proposed an agreement on two binding goals that are already agreed upon in the industrialized countries of the G20: on the one hand, tripling the expansion of renewable energies and, on the other hand, doubling energy efficiency – both by 2030.
Criticism from the climate expert: “Exciting can be done differently”
The climate expert from the development organization Oxfam, Jan Kowalzig, said of the speech, which was given in German, that it was “rhetorically flawless, but there is another way to be rousing.” This is no way to inspire a climate conference. And unfortunately the federal government’s policy does not match the requested phase-out of fossil energies: the federal government is working against the Paris Agreement by building new fossil fuel infrastructure for the import of liquid gas and, at the same time, is undermining the Climate Protection Act. “The Chancellor wisely kept this quiet.”
Source: Stern
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