Climate Conference: Doubts Emerge Over Germany's Leadership

[unhappycamper]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/un-climate-conference-doubts-emerge-over-germany-s-leadership-a-934495.html



Renewable energy experts worry that support will fade for climate-related policies in Berlin with the inauguration of the planned new grand coalition government. The UN climate conference and NGOs are responding with pressure on Germany to send a signal that the country is still a leader.

Climate Conference: Doubts Emerge Over Germany's Leadership
By Joel Stonington
November 19, 2013 – 06:09 PM

As the high-level segment of the United Nations conference on climate change gets under way on Tuesday in Warsaw, it's an open question as to whether Germany can continue to be a leader on the issue. There is increasing concern among renewable energy industry groups and environmental organizations that the planned new grand coalition government will scale back the speed and funding of the promised switch to renewables, known as the Energiewende.

On Tuesday, a group of 85 organizations sent a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel and the top negotiators for both her conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the center-left Social Democrats' (SPD) urging German support for a European-wide target of a 55 percent reduction in emissions by 2030. They also encouraged domestic support for a climate act that would give investors the ability to plan for the long term.

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Germany's role as a leader has already taken a hit during this conference. The country's emissions rose 1.8 percent last year despite headway in building renewable energy and a focus on the Energiewende. In the European Union as a whole, emissions were down 1.3 percent, according to the Center for International Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo.

What's more, Germany's new coalition government has already agreed in negotiations to drastically cut the country's offshore wind target for the next 15 years. It's the kind of change that worries investors and sends a signal that renewables are risky. One major energy firm, DONG Energy, would not have invested in a number of offshore wind farms with the new, lower levels of support, according to BusinessGreen.