Commentary on Alternative Energy Lobbying: Is It Really About the Climate?

DIt was foreseeable that emissions of greenhouse gases would increase again after the economy slumped due to the pandemic. Likewise, that the climate goals of the EU (not to mention those of the world) would be endangered again. In the words of the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen: In the years between 1990 and 2020 emissions have been reduced by more than 30 percent; Efforts would now have to be redoubled to be able to achieve what the EU has set itself in just eight years.

Working towards this is worthy of all honor. But how is that supposed to work: by means of a permanent recession? Only with the massive expansion of wind power, solar roofs and the import of hydrogen?

Germany’s unrealistic response

That is the somewhat unrealistic response of German climate protection policy. Word has gotten around in the EU that this can only be half the answer. Everywhere other, additional paths are taken. The keywords for this are: storage of carbon dioxide; nuclear power in old and new forms; Innovations based not only on hydrogen or battery cells.

Germany is not the engine, but the full brake. One reason for this is that climate protection in this country is confused with lobbying for renewable energies. It goes so far, see the nuclear debate, that one has to ask whether a large fraction of German climate protectionists really care about the climate. Or something completely different: wanting to be right.