- Title: Germany to take additional climate protection measures if needed - Merkel
- Date: 20th September 2019
- Summary: BERLIN, GERMANY (SEPTEMBER 20, 2019) (REUTERS) MERKEL AND FEDERAL MINISTERS ARRIVING FOR NEWS CONFERENCE VARIOUS OF FEDERAL MINISTERS WHO PARTICIPATED IN CLIMATE CABINET IN AUDIENCE (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL SAYING: "We have undertaken to reduce our CO2 emissions 40% for the year 2020, and we must say with great probability that we will unfortunately not fulfil this goal, which we undertook in 2007. That is occupying me, and many others. What does this mean in regard to the new goals we are undertaking by 2030 for a 55% reduction of climate-harming gasses? I understand those that say, 'Why should I believe that you'll manage it the next time?" NEWS CONFERENCE VICE CHANCELLOR AND FINANCE MINISTER OLAF SCHOLZ SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL SAYING: "The mechanism that we agreed upon today is very important for (reaching our goals). Namely, that the climate cabinet does not end its work now. Rather it continues to exist, so to say as a climate committee cabinet, and we will consistently, year by year, have corresponding tasks to fulfil, to assess and to see if we reach the goals or not, supported by a council of experts. Then we will promptly decide what must happen, what needs to be readjusted, what new things we have to take up, what we have to do better. This mechanism is as good as a guarantee to reach the goals step by step." CAMERAMEN MERKEL AND MINISTERS MEDIA (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL SAYING: "If something impresses me as a natural scientist, it's when Greta Thunberg says, 'Unite behind the science'. It is not that we are doing something ideological here, rather we are doing something for which there is massive evidence, that we act against it, and if this evidence, this scientific opinion would be ignored and we say, 'We'll come out of it somehow' that is not acting in a way that's fair for the future and that's what guided us." PHOTOGRAPHER VARIOUS OF DEFENCE MINISTER ANNEGRET KRAMP-KARRENBAUER SPEAKING (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL SAYING: "We would like that we move a step closer towards the initial situation, what that means is that we will let our support programme take effect, before we fully get into the (carbon) pricing. That is the classic difference between science, where you know that you should've gotten in higher, and the issue of how do I take people along and how can I bring the technological change a step further." CSU PARTY LEADER MARKUS SOEDER AND CSU FLOOR LEADER ALEXANDER DOBRINDT SEATED (SOUNDBITE) (German) GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL SAYING: "We remain committed to the 'black zero' (policy of no fiscal deficits), I don't find the expression so nice - we want to have a balanced household. That has something to do with being positioned if some unexpected incident happens, what we all hope it doesn't. We want to show sustainability, that is also a kind of generational equity. It was important for us to get that balance, not totally simple, we are now sitting on a new large focus. But that is a unanimous opinion that not just the (Christian Democratic) Union understands if I understand correctly, but also the coalition." MEDIA MERKEL AND MINISTERS LEAVING
- Embargoed: 4th October 2019 15:09
- Keywords: climate protection carbon price climate change German federal government Merkel Greta Thunberg
- Location: BERLIN, GERMANY
- City: BERLIN, GERMANY
- Country: Germany
- Topics: Environment,Climate Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA002AXGN807
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Germany will review progress towards reaching its climate goals each year until 2030 and take additional measures if needed, Chancellor Angel Merkel said on Friday (September 20) after the government presented a package of new measures to curb carbon emissions.
The new measures include a domestic carbon price and the possibility of more stringent measures in future.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives and her Social Democrat partners agreed a carbon price for energy used in buildings and transport in line with the existing European Union emissions trading scheme, in which certificates traded at 26.30/tonne on Friday.
That price, lower than the 40 euro price many climate economists had been advocating, means pressure on German companies to cut emissions will be lower than many expected.
The scheme will contain provisions allowing the government to take corrective measures if targets on emissions cuts risk being missed.
The deal, billed as one setting the direction of Europe's largest economy over the coming decades, was being finalised as protesters massed at thousands of locations around the world to demand swifter action to curb climate change.
Several thousand protesters, inspired by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg's Fridays for Future movement, rallied at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate as the negotiations were underway.
The outcome appears to be a compromise between the conservatives' desire for an emissions trading scheme that supports innovation in Germany's corporations and the SPD's desire for a carbon tax which would support those hardest hit by the costs of the transition away from carbon.
Merkel said that her government would stick to its balanced budget goal of not taking on new debt after the government agreed a climate protection package worth 50 billion euros ($55.2 billion) through to 2023.
Finance Minister Olaf Scholz said the climate package would bring additional revenues through a carbon price system for transportation and heating in buildings as well as other measures such as higher road tolls for trucks.
(Production: Holger Koerner, Barbara Woolsey) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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