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German coalition climate talks enter overtime

Germany's highly anticipated future climate strategy remained uncertain on Friday morning as government coalition talks that lasted throughout the night were still ongoing. Negotiations between Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and the Social Democrats over a major action package to bring the country back on track for 2030 climate targets went into overtime, with CO鈧� pricing for transport and buildings still a major sticking point, according to media reports. Fridays for Future climate protesters were gearing up for major demonstrations in Berlin and across the country, as the global "climate strike" got underway in Australia.

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German government faces 11th hour talks over climate action

Germany's governing parties are heading into the final talks over what finance minister Olaf Scholz has said must be a "big and convincing step for climate action." But CO鈧� pricing and a proposed major framework climate law remain sticking points, a draft "Climate Action Programme 2030" suggests. Meanwhile, doubts among analysts and commentators grow about whether Chancellor Angela Merkel's government will succeed in ending what has so far been its "piecemeal approach" to the climate challenge. Coinciding with the "Global Climate Strike," the country's climate cabinet is set to agree on the package on Friday.

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Germany must deliver "technologically convincing" climate action 鈥� finance minister Scholz

Germany's response to climate change "must be so attractive and technologically convincing that other countries want to emulate us," writes finance minister and vice chancellor Olaf Scholz the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Scholz called power grid expansion "the most important task" for the country, which according to him also needs "a decade of railway development" to make Germans use more trains than cars, an expansion of charging stations for electric cars, energy efficient modernisation of buildings and investment in hydrogen research.

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Fridays for Future calls on German climate cabinet to deliver carbon-neutrality by 2035

The student climate protest movement Fridays for Future says Germany must reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2035, and has called on the government's climate cabinet to take the necessary steps. At a press conference two days before the decisive cabinet meeting coinciding with the international "climate strike" demonstrations on 20 September, the movement also said that Germany must exit coal by 2030 instead of 2038 as currently envisaged, and source all its electricity from renewables by 2035.

At the press conference attended by most of the country's major broadcast and print media, Fridays for Future representative Pauline Br眉nger said "the climate cabinet must take responsibility, and instead of presenting a patchwork of ineffective individual measures, present a concept that focuses on the major sources of CO2." Fridays for Future also demanded that the government end fossil fuel subsidies, switch off a quarter of the country鈥檚 coal power plants, and tax emissions by the end of this year. Climate economist Ottmar Edenhofer, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), said at the press conference that CO2 emissions should cost 130 euros per tonne initially, and eventually 180 euros per tonne. "Otherwise we have no chance" to achieve the necessary impact, he added.

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Energy and climate policy decisions "overdue" - BDI

Decisions on German energy and climate policy are "overdue," , president of the influential industry association BDI. The Federation of German Industries calls for incentives for investments in climate friendly innovation instead of technology bans. "Political mismanagement remains the greatest implementation risk for climate action," says Kempf.

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Germany's farmers say bioenergy must play role in climate package听

Germany's Farmer's Association (DBV) "stabilising and expanding" the role of bioenergy in climate policy. The association identified three measures to better include bioenergy in energy policy, namely increasing auctioned volumes after 2022, introducing carbon pricing in the heating sector and a higher emissions reduction quota in the transport sector. Sandra Rostek, head of the bioenergy industry's Berlin office, said these three measures are "decisive for the industry to have an economic perspective."

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Environmental NGOs say government should be ambitious to stay credible

Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) said the climate cabinet decision on 20 September would be a test for the government. "Without measures that ensure achieving the 2030 climate target, the cabinet doesn't even have to show up in front of a camera," said BUND head Hubert Weiger. "The climate is at a tipping point. Large parts of society won't accept any longer that climate targets are missed and the future of every one of us is put at risk," Weiger said. BUND called for a rapid expansion of wind and solar power capacity and a parallel shutdown of coal plants, starting in 2020. Weiger added that measures in the transport sector should be decided against transport minister Andreas Scheuer if necessary and said favouring a carbon trading system for transport and buildings over a carbon tax would amount to "postponing climate action again."

Jan Kowalzig, climate policy consultant at NGO Oxfam, the conclusions of the climate cabinet would decide whether the German government is able to show up at the UN climate summit "with its head high or down low." Kowalzig warned against introducing a series of separate and detailed measures and instead called for a comprehensive climate action law with emissions reduction goals for all sectors and "effective" carbon pricing. "The aim has to be to make Germany climate-neutral well before 2050."

NGO Germanwatch a CO2 price in the transport and heating sectors could not bear the brunt in emissions reduction and warned against using the price as a "fig leaf" to slack off on other aspects. "If you pretend that a CO2 price could close a large part in the climate action gap in transport and heating, this renders the whole climate package non-credible," said Germanwatch head Christoph Bals. He said the government should include the price in a broader set of measures that also spell out rigorous end dates for polluting technologies, such as oil heating or combustion engines.

Environmental Action Germany (DUH) that the idea of a circular economy has so far been lacking in the government's climate policy plans, arguing that binding targets for avoiding and recycling waste could save millions of tonnes of CO2 emissions every year without creating any additional costs. "The circular economy and climate action belong together," said DUH's Barbara Metz.

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Merkel expects "very powerful protests" on 20 September

German chancellor Angela Merkel said "we will see very powerful protests" on 20 September 鈥� the day of the Global Climate Strike, which coincides with a crucial meeting of her climate cabinet. In a laudatory speech for Germany's former environment minister Klaus T枚pfer in Bonn, Merkel added: "One has to be sad to say - and I say this quite frankly - that it was only the youth that jolted us back into action. That's good. That is not only the right of young people, but it does us all good."

Merkel also said she sees regulatory law as necessary to deal with environmental issues. "Today, some say we must not use regulatory law. I, however, believe that we will not succeed without regulatory law," Merkel said. The exit from CFCs (chlorofluorocarbons), or the worldwide ban of ivory trade are examples of where "regulatory legislative measures have led to something good," she said.

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Work will only just begin on 20 September 鈥� SPD deputy parl鈥檛 head

Expectations are high for the crucial climate cabinet meeting on 20 September, but the day will not end Germany's debate about how to reach its climate targets, said Matthias Miersch, deputy head of the Social Democrats' parliamentary group in the Bundestag. "I warn against saying that the climate is saved or lost after 20 September. The work will only just begin," Miersch told journalists in Berlin. Legislation would then have to be worked out and debated and decided by parliament.

"The coal exit law, the climate action legislation, the reforms concerning renewables expansion 鈥� these must be decided by the Bundestag by the end of 2019," said Miersch, who is not part of the party leadership meeting on 19 September or the climate cabinet session the following day.

The Social Democrat sees renewables expansion as the most difficult matter of contention in the current grand coalition talks. "I make no secret of the fact that we're still in discussion on many points in this regard, such as minimum distance rules for wind turbines or the cap for solar PV expansion." Miersch criticised the conservatives鈥� proposal to introduce a national carbon emissions trading system for the transport and buildings sectors.

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Climate action law must close German "ambition gap" 鈥� SRU

A German climate action law should contribute to closing both Germany's implementation gap and "a gap in climate ambition," recommends the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) days before the government's climate cabinet meets to make key climate action decisions. The expert advisory panel to the government focusing on environmental protection stresses that Germany's climate targets do not make a sufficient contribution to meeting the targets set out in the Paris Agreement. Particularly the transport, buildings and agriculture sectors call for more effective measures, says the SRU. The panel recommends that a climate action law strengthen climate policy institutionally through scientific progress reviews and the implementation of additional measures if shortfalls are identified. The country's climate targets should be gradually adapted to "the level of ambition scientifically necessary for the Paris Climate Agreement," reads the letter.

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Thousands of climate protesters target Frankfurt auto show

Tens of thousands of protesters descended on the International Motor Show (IAA) in Frankfurt on Saturday demanding more ambitious climate action and an overhaul of transport policy, Deutsche Welle reports. Demonstrators called for an end to the combustion engine听and a comprehensive overhaul听of transport policy that听prioritises听zero and low-emission听modes of transport, such as walking, bicycles, buses and trains. The estimated number of demonstrators ranged between 18,000 and 25,000, with more than 10,000 on bicycles. Protesters accused the car industry of not moving fast enough towards emission-free transport and called for more to be done to stop sales of sport utility vehicles (SUVs), which are considered especially harmful to the environment. Demonstrators displayed banners calling for a 鈥淰erkehrswende," or "transport transition,鈥� in reference to Germany's planned 鈥淓nergiewende," or transition to renewable sources of energy.
On Sunday, several hundred demonstrators blocked two entrances to the IAA, barring visitors from accessing the fair, , which cited climate activist group Sand im Getriebe (Sand in the Gears). An IAA spokesman confirmed the protesters鈥� actions but added that it was 鈥渁ll peaceful,鈥� and that the streams of visitors were diverted.