(Bloomberg) — Even with one of the world’s most powerful green politicians in charge, Germany is failing on almost all its climate targets.
Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck — who’s responsible for energy and climate issues — has seen nearly every effort to reduce emissions this year fall prey to economic concerns or voter frustrations. The ruling coalition he forms part of is approaching its halftime mark having pledged hundreds of billions of euros to protect the environment, but it’s still badly behind on pledges to sink greenhouse gas pollutants.
Habeck himself has had to acknowledge that a goal to slash them by two thirds until 2030 compared to 1990 levels is likely to be missed by a significant amount — equivalent to about half of the UK’s emissions last year.
While the coalition — the first to include the Greens in almost two decades — has managed to push through policies that will bring the country closer to its aim, it has also faced substantial setbacks, including a diluted ban on fossil-fuel heating systems and intensified use of coal. Its slow progress jars with Germany’s efforts to convince China and other fossil-hungry countries to do more to protect the planet.
“With every softening, every constraint, the goal becomes even more unlikely to reach than it already was,” said Detlef Fischer, head of Bavaria’s energy and water industry association.
While energy and climate continue to be seen by voters as among Germany’s most important issues to address, public approval for the ruling parties has plummeted since the election in 2021. Meanwhile, the far-right, climate-skeptic AfD has gained popularity in recent state level elections, and other topics like migration have risen in importance for voters.
Energy
Germany accounts for a quarter of the European Union’s energy-related carbon-dioxide pollution, and about as much as its next largest emitters — Italy and Poland — produce together. That’s largely because of Germany’s manufacturing sector, which is heavily reliant on fossil fuels.
Simone Peter, head of the German Renewable Energy Federation, says the current coalition has done more to promote cleaner alternatives than any previous government. Wind and solar power output nearly doubled in the last 10 years, with particular gains in photovoltaics in the last two.
Still, energy continues to make up the largest share of the country’s emissions. Germany only plans to stop burning coal by 2038 — far later than most European peers, as efforts to move that date forward are currently stalling — and will intensify its use in power generation for a second winter to avoid shortages.
Ramping up cleaner alternatives — such as more wind and solar capacity, as well as new hydrogen-ready gas power plants — requires time and investments that some companies are currently unwilling to make, particularly amid higher borrowing costs. What is also “urgently needed” is an infrastructure that can properly transport and store this electricity, industry group DIHK said.
As a result, Germany’s goal to get 80% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2030, up from 48% last year, is “totally unrealistic”, says Graham Weale, an energy economist at the Ruhr-University Bochum.
Poland, by comparison, has not yet formally supported the EU’s pledge to be carbon neutral by 2050, but recorded the bloc’s largest emissions drop in 2022 as it cut coal use and became its fastest growing solar market.
Housing
Buildings in Germany account for a much smaller share of emissions than manufacturers, but many of them are old and poorly insulated, and about 75% of households are heated with gas or oil.
Habeck earlier this year proposed banning new fossil-fuel-reliant heating systems from 2024, a move which could have made a significant contribution to cutting emissions in the sector. But after months of public outcry over the costs associated with such a step, the measure had to be watered down, and is set to eradicate only about three quarters of the harmful emissions it initially targeted.
Clean-energy goals for municipal heating networks have also been rolled back, from an initial aim of 50% by 2030 to a more recent target of 30%. The coalition also shelved plans for tougher efficiency standards for new buildings amid a crisis in the construction sector and a housing shortage.
In contrast, the EU’s second biggest polluter Italy is on track to meet its 2030 targets — mainly thanks to a scheme that boosted the energy efficiency of buildings, according to the International Energy Agency.
Transport
While the government has at least presented strategies for the energy and housing sectors, the transport sector remains a key laggard. After a pandemic-related dip, road emissions have started creeping up again over the last two years.
The government did introduce a cheap nation-wide public transport ticket earlier this year to incentivize the switch from private vehicles. But recent estimates from the Association of German Transport Companies suggest it has only replaced about 5% of car journeys, and the group has argued that more needs to be done to expand public transport offerings in smaller towns and rural areas.
Many Germans continue to rely on combustion engine cars. But to reach the country’s climate targets, the stock of such vehicles needs to be reduced from 2025 at the latest, a step that currently seems “unlikely”, the German Council of Experts on Climate Change wrote in a report last November. It voiced concerns that old cars will continue to be used even if new electric vehicles are purchased.
Germany was also behind a push earlier this year to alter an EU-wide ban on sales of combustion engine cars post-2035. It lobbied for an exception for cars running on e-fuels, a usage which experts say is not energy-efficient.
At the same time, it’s not only individual policies that are likely to weigh on progress. Germany has also changed its overall strategy for reducing emissions, focusing on economy-wide goals rather than sectors. The new approach will make it easier for the dirtiest industries to get away with minimal changes so long as progress is made elsewhere, a step which was welcomed by the car industry at the time.
“As a rich, developed country with a historic responsibility, Germany still does too little,” said Hanna Fekete, co-founder of the New Climate Institute.
–With assistance from Maciej Martewicz and Alberto Brambilla.
The New Democrats have declared a federal byelection victory in their Winnipeg stronghold riding of Elmwood—Transcona.
The NDP candidate Leila Dance told supporters in a tearful speech that even though the final results weren’t in, she expected she would see them in Ottawa.
With several polls still to be counted, Conservative candidate Colin Reynolds conceded defeat and told his volunteers that they should be proud of what the Conservatives accomplished in the campaign.
Political watchers had a keen eye on the results to see if the Tories could sway traditionally NDP voters on issues related to labour and affordability.
Meanwhile in the byelection race in the Montreal riding of LaSalle—Émard—Verdun the NDP, Liberals and Bloc Québécois remained locked in an extremely tight three-way race as the results trickled in slowly.
The Liberal stronghold riding had a record 91 names on the ballot, and the results aren’t expected until the early hours of the morning.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
VANCOUVER – An incumbent BC United legislative member has reversed her decision not to seek re-election and has announced she’ll run as an Independent in the riding of West Vancouver-Capilano in the upcoming British Columbia election.
Karin Kirkpatrick has been a vocal critic of BC United Leader Kevin Falcon’s decision last month to suspend the party’s campaign and throw support behind the B.C. Conservatives under John Rustad.
Kirkpatrick announced her retirement this year, but said Monday that her decision to re-enter the race comes as a direct result of Falcon’s actions, which would force middle-of-the-road voters to “swing to the left” to the NDP or to move further right to the Conservatives.
“I did hear from a lot of constituents and a lot of people who were emailing me from across B.C. … that they didn’t have anybody to vote for,” she said. “And so, I looked even at myself, and I looked at my riding, and I said, ‘Well, I no longer have anybody to vote for in my own riding.’ It was clearly an issue of this missing middle for the more moderate voter.”
She said voters who reached out “don’t want to vote for an NDP government but felt deeply uncomfortable” supporting the provincial Conservatives, citing Rustad’s tolerance of what she calls “extreme views and conspiracy theorists.”
Kirkpatrick joins four other incumbent Opposition MLAs running as Independents, including Peace River South’s Mike Bernier, Peace River North’s Dan Davies, Prince George-Cariboo’s Coralee Oakes and Tom Shypitka in Kootenay-Rockies.
“To be honest, we talk just about every day,” Kirkpatrick said about her fellow BC United incumbents now running as Independents. “We’re all feeling the same way. We all need to kind of hold each other up and make sure we’re doing the right thing.”
She added that a number of first-time candidates formerly on the BC United ticket are contacting the group of incumbents running for election, and the group is working together “as good moderates who respect each other and lift each other up.”
But Kirkpatrick said it’s also too early to talk about the future of BC United or the possibility of forming a new party.
“The first thing we need to do is to get these Independent MLAs elected into the legislature,” she said, noting a strong group could play a power-broker role if a minority government is elected. “Once we’re there then we’re all going to come together and we’re going to figure out, is there something left in BC United, BC Liberals that we can resurrect, or do we need to start a new party that’s in the centre?”
She said there’s a big gap left in the political spectrum in the province.
“So, we just have to do it in a mindful way, to make sure it’s representing the broadest base of people in B.C.”
Among the supporters at Kirkpatrick’s announcement Monday was former longtime MLA Ralph Sultan, who held West Vancouver-Capilano for almost two decades before retiring in 2020.
The Metro Vancouver riding has been a stronghold for the BC Liberals — the former BC United — since its formation in 1991, with more than half of the votes going to the centre-right party in every contest.
However, Kirkpatrick’s winning margin of 53.6 per cent to the NDP’s 30.1 per cent and the Green’s 15.4 per cent in the 2020 election shows a rising trend for left-leaning voters in the district.
Mike McDonald, chief strategy officer with Kirk and Co. Consulting, and a former campaign director for the BC Liberals and chief of staff under former Premier Christy Clark, said Independent candidates historically face an uphill battle and the biggest impact may be splitting votes in areas where the NDP could emerge victorious.
“It really comes down to, if the NDP are in a position to get 33 per cent of the vote, they might have a chance of winning,” McDonald said of the impact of an Independent vote-split with the Conservatives in certain ridings.
He said B.C. history shows it’s very hard for an Independent to win an election and has been done only a handful of times.
“So, the odds do not favour Independents winning the seats unless there is a very unique combination of circumstances, and more likely that they play a role as a spoiler, frankly.”
The B.C. Conservatives list West Vancouver School District Trustee Lynne Block as its candidate in West Vancouver-Capilano, while the BC NDP is represented by health care professional Sara Eftekhar.
Kirkpatrick said she is confident that her re-entry to the race will not result in a vote split that allows the NDP to win the seat because the party has always had a poor showing in the riding.
“So, even if there is competition between myself and the Conservative candidate, it is highly unlikely that anything would swing over to the NDP here. And I believe that I have the ability to actually attract those NDP voters to me, as well as the Conservatives and Liberals who are feeling just lost right now.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken heads to Egypt on Tuesday for his 10th trip to the Middle East since the war in Gaza began nearly a year ago, this one aimed partly at refining a proposal to present to Israel and Hamas for a cease-fire deal and release of hostages.
Unlike in recent mediating missions, America’s top diplomat this time is traveling without optimistic projections from the Biden administration of an expected breakthrough in the troubled negotiations.
Also unlike the earlier missions, Blinken has no public plans to go to Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on this trip. The Israeli leader’s fiery public statements — like his declaration that Israel would accept only “total victory” when Blinken was in the region in June — and some other unbudgeable demands have complicated earlier diplomacy.
Blinken is going to Egypt for talks Wednesday with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty and others, in a trip billed as focused both on American-Egyptian relations and Gaza consultations with Egypt.
The tamped-down public approach follows months in which President Joe Biden and his officials publicly talked up an agreement to end the war in Gaza as being just within reach, hoping to build pressure on Netanyahu’s far-right government and Hamas to seal a deal.
The Biden administration now says it is working with fellow mediators Egypt and Qatar to come up with a revised final proposal to try to at least get Israel and Hamas into a six-week cease-fire that would free some of the hostages held by Hamas in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. Americans believe public attention on details of the talks now would only hurt that effort.
American, Qatari and Egyptian officials still are consulting “about what that proposal will contain, and …. we’re trying to see that it’s a proposal that can get the parties to an ultimate agreement,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Monday.
The State Department pointed to Egypt’s important role in Gaza peace efforts in announcing last week that the Biden administration planned to give the country its full $1.3 billion in military aid, overriding congressional requirements that the U.S. hold back some of the funding if Egypt fails to show adequate progress on human rights. Blinken told Congress that Egypt has made progress on human rights, including in freeing political prisoners.
Blinken’s trip comes amid the risk of a full-on new front in the Middle East, with Israel threatening increasing military action against the Hezbollah militant organization in Lebanon. Biden envoy Amos Hochstein was in Israel on Monday to try to calm tensions after a stop in Lebanon.
Hezbollah has one of the strongest militaries in the Middle East, and like Hamas and smaller groups in Syria and Iraq it is allied with Iran.
Hezbollah and Israel have exchanged strikes across Israel’s northern border with Lebanon since the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas started the war in Gaza. Hezbollah says it will ease those strikes — which have uprooted tens of thousands of civilians on both sides of the border — only when there’s a cease-fire in Gaza.
Hochstein told Netanyahu and other Israeli officials that intensifying the conflict with Hezbollah would not help get Israelis back in their homes, according to a U.S. official. The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the private talks, said Hochstein stressed to Netanyahu that he risked sparking a broad and protracted regional conflict if he moved forward with a full-scale war in Lebanon.
Hochstein also underscored to Israeli officials that the Biden administration remained committed to finding a diplomatic solution to the tensions on Israel’s northern border in conjunction with a Gaza deal or on its own, the official said.
Netanyahu told Hochstein that it would “not be possible to return our residents without a fundamental change in the security situation in the north.” The prime minister said Israel “appreciates and respects” U.S. support but “will do what is necessary to maintain its security and return the residents of the north to their homes safely.”
Israel Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, meanwhile, warned in his meeting with Hochstein that “the only way left to ensure the return of Israel’s northern communities to their homes will be via military action,” his office said.
In Gaza, the U.S. says Israel and Hamas have agreed to a deal in principle and that the biggest obstacles now include a disagreement on details of the hostage and prisoner swap and control over a buffer zone on the border between Gaza and Egypt. Netanyahu has demanded in recent weeks that the Israeli military be allowed to keep a presence in the Philadelphi corridor. Egypt and Hamas have rejected that demand.
The Hamas-led attacks in southern Israel on Oct. 7 killed about 1,200 people. Militants also abducted 250 people and are still holding around 100 hostages. About a third of the remaining hostages are believed to be dead.
Israel’s offensive in Gaza has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians, said Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and militants in its count. The war has caused widespread destruction, displaced a majority of Gaza’s people and created a humanitarian crisis.
Netanyahu says he is working to bring home the hostages. His critics accuse him of slow-rolling a deal because it could bring down his hardline coalition government, which includes members opposed to a truce with the Palestinians.
Asked earlier this month if Netanyahu was doing enough for a cease-fire deal, Biden said, simply, “no.” But he added that he still believed a deal was close.
___
Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report.
