Climate protectors vs traffic lights: compliance is a thing of the past

Berlin. Possible future traffic light alliances, especially the Greens, are baffling. To climate activists, it is clearly not enough that the supposedly “right” people now want to rule Germany. No, Fridays for the Future and other environmental organizations just keep going: They blow politics on the march.

The Broad Coalition, which is again calling for a climate strike this Friday and announcing further action, protests against the fact that climate protection is being treated like other topics in coalition talks, and possibly It is reduced. You say: Climate protection is not negotiable.

Some may consider it apolitical and hyperbolically inconsistent. But the younger generation has a duty to be tough on their part. If you are in politics today, you have to keep an eye on the next 30 years more than ever.

exploratory paper does not speak clear language

This is the time when it will be decided whether we can still keep man-made global warming under control. This is the time when future generations will decide how they will live.

The research paper by SPD, Greens and FDP speaks no explicit language in this regard. Far-reaching climate safeguards, as announced there, could mean anything – or very little. It is appropriate to draw attention to this.

The situation is quite serious. 197 countries agreed in Paris in 2015 to limit global warming to below two degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era, but to 1.5 degrees if possible.

The temperature is already 1.1 ° C

The United Nations Scientific Union (IPCC) in its World Climate Report last August issued only one caveat: the impact of humans on the climate has already increased temperatures by 1.1 °C. If growth remains the same, the 1.5 degree mark will be reached by 2030. This would then be ten years earlier than forecast in 2018.

In Glasgow, Scotland, a balance sheet is to be drawn up for Paris during another UN climate summit in the first two weeks of November. Scientists already agree: the steps taken so far are too small. Emissions growth is being recorded again in industrialized countries.

Industrialized countries such as Germany are faced with the task of ending coal mining more quickly, as well as rapidly increasing renewable energy capacity after the last nuclear reactors shut down in 2022. All this is accompanied by an increasing demand for electricity and as socially acceptable as possible. And these are just national acts.

Huge Job for the Federal Government

The work that the next federal governments will have to do is enormous. Climate protection activists should also acknowledge this. So it’s a good thing they’re demonstrating not against anything, but for a climate-accelerated phase-out of coal, a massive expansion of renewable energy, and climate-friendly agriculture.

In the future, however, parties – no matter which coalition they are in – need to be clear about one thing: Climate and environmental activists will no longer give up. Your hint is clear: compliance is a thing of the past.

The Greens in particular, some of whom are themselves performing on the streets, are now gaining new experience. Party leader Robert Habeck recognized this soon after the election: From now on, he said, every crisis will be our crisis.

And the climate crisis doesn’t end with his party’s possible entry into government. Quite the contrary: the dramatic fight against climate change with concrete policies is just the beginning.