BEE Federal Association of Renewable Energy e.V. (opm) – Germany must become a pioneer in climate protection again
On the occasion of today’s presentation of the third part of the world climate report, the Federal Association for Renewable Energy (BEE) is calling on the federal government to once again become a pioneer in national and international climate protection policy. “The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urgently points out that adapting to climate change is not enough. We have to take active action against warming if we want to prevent more storms, droughts and further sea level rise and thus a lot of human suffering,” says BEE deputy managing director Harald Uphoff.
The BEE supports the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its recommendation to further expand renewable energies. The alternatives mentioned by the IPCC, nuclear power and the capture of carbon dioxide in coal-fired power plants, are, however, an aberration. “Nuclear power is life-threatening and extremely expensive, and carbon capture is inefficient and only delays the transition from coal to clean and sustainable energy,” says Uphoff.
Germany must expand renewable energies much faster than currently planned by Federal Economics Minister Sigmar Gabriel if the federal government wants to achieve its own climate target of 40 percent greenhouse gas savings by 2020. In a study for the BEE, the renowned energy researcher Dr. Joachim Nitsch (formerly the German Aerospace Center, DLR, and lead author of the Federal Environment Ministry’s “leading scenarios”) calculates that Germany will only save 29 to 32 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2020 – depending on how quickly the coal-fired power plants are installed be switched off. The current policy will also clearly miss the long-term climate protection goals for 2030 and 2050. The deficits that are looming until 2025 can hardly be made up in the years between 2025 and 2050, even if climate protection policy becomes significantly more ambitious, according to the study.
At least Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks recognized the problem with her announcement that she would start an immediate climate protection program, says Uphoff. “But then there has to be more than the advice to heat less and wear a sweater.” What is now required is a comprehensive strategy for the areas of electricity, energy efficiency, renewable heat and mobility.
Source: April 14, 2014, www.bee-ev.de
The original company reports published on this page are not processed by greenValue. Responsibility for content and press law lies exclusively with the reporting company. Any liability arising from the use or non-use of this information is excluded; we assume no responsibility for the content of external links.
Further news and current green investment offers, including solar funds, wind funds, green building funds, profit participation rights, bonds and private placements, can be found at, www.greenvalue.de.