Glasgow “is not enough”: BDI: “The big hit was not successful”

Glasgow “not enough”
BDI: “The big hit was not a success”

German industry agrees: After the World Climate Conference in Glasgow, significantly more efforts by the international community for climate protection are required. The Federation of German Industry complains about too many particular interests. There is praise for the rapprochement between the USA and China.

The Federation of German Industries (BDI) is dissatisfied with the results of the world climate summit. “The industry regrets that at the World Climate Conference in Glasgow the urgently needed big leap for climate protection did not succeed”, declared BDI President Siegfried Russwurm.

In the fight against continuing global warming, stronger international cooperation and binding climate protection targets for practically all countries are indispensable. “What was achieved in Glasgow is not enough for that,” emphasized Russwurm.

The differences between the states are still very large and will remain so for the foreseeable future. “It is dangerous and harms the climate if the differences in ambition for climate protection exist or even increase,” criticized the BDI boss. “This shifts the emissions to countries with less stringent climate protection measures and unilaterally burdens companies that, for example in the EU, already have to cope with large financial burdens.”

Cautious optimism

A small step forward is that many more states have spoken out in favor of market mechanisms for climate protection than before. Now the ground must be prepared for cost-efficient instruments such as international emissions trading to make a global contribution to reducing CO2.

The announced resumption of cooperation between the USA and China on climate protection is to be assessed positively. The increasing number of climate protection initiatives by state and non-state actors would also give cause for optimism.

“Good examples are the initiatives to protect forests, reduce methane levels and phase out coal in South Africa,” said Russwurm. It remains questionable whether the industrialized countries will keep the financial commitments they made to developing and emerging countries more than ten years ago. Starting in 2020, the latter are to be supported with 100 billion dollars annually in climate protection.

VDMA: “bottom line positive”

“Positively restrained, despite the weakened compromise in trading with emission reductions and the watered down formulation for the coal phase-out”, the automotive association VDMA assessed the result. Countries with so far too low ambitions would have to increase their efforts for the current decade in 2022, otherwise the 1.5 degree target that is in focus cannot be achieved.

There was praise from the association for the agreement to reduce methane emissions by 30 percent by 2030. “Here, one of the biggest climate problems is being tackled in a very binding manner and a big step is being taken for climate protection.” It is important that the EU and the USA have started a process for green steel and aluminum in order to harmonize standards and enable free trade.

The VDMA described the joint paper of the USA and China as “important constructive milestones” as well as “the higher and more binding financial support of the industrialized countries for the developing and emerging countries that have been particularly hard hit by climate change”. Here the industrialized countries would have to “deliver”. The previous record is “shameful”.

On the other hand, the association is critical of the technically narrow-minded agreement on the “combustion engine exit” for cars. Instead of specifying “zero emissions”, “carbon-neutral” would have been better. Because the climate balance is decisive, not the exhaust.

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