On course to miss 2020 climate targets, Germany opts to scrap them

Forbes ^ | August 8, 2017 | by Dave Keating

[Oldeconomybuyer]

In November, as delegates from all over the world gathered in the former German capital of Bonn for the annual UN climate summit, their hosts were feeling a bit embarrassed.

Germany likes to champion itself as a climate leader. But when delivering her headline speech to the summit, Chancellor Angela Merkel was unable to make any new climate commitments. That’s because she was locked in difficult coalition negotiations with the free-market liberals and the environmentalist Greens.

Germany is still 40 percent reliant on coal, a reality Merkel acknowledged in her speech. Because of strong economic growth and Merkel’s decision to phase out nuclear power, Germany is set to miss Merkel’s target of lowering carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

During the UN summit, activists were hoping to put pressure on the government to take urgent action in order to meet the target. But instead, it emerged today that the government is set to scrap it.

Merkel’s talks with the Liberals and Greens collapsed shortly after the Bonn summit, and her CDU party is now trying to form a coalition with the other main party, the center-left SPD. According to sources familiar with the situation, negotiators from both sides have reached a tentative agreement to scrap the 2020 target, postponing it for later - probably the early 2020s.

[Oldeconomybuyer]

[Enchante]

Rofl, the idiots scrapped their nuclear power. Nice job, Merkel....

[Interesting Times]

Climate targets aren’t nearly as much fun without billions in largesse from Uncle Sap.

[raiderboy]

What were the measurable targets supported with empirical data.?

[Jim W N]

LIE:

TRUTH:

[rrrod]

LOL.....euroscum.

[TigersEye]

Prominent Scientists Declare Climate Claims Ahead of UN Summit 'Irrational' * 'Based On Nonsense' * 'Leading us down a false path' November 19, 2015

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[Lurkinanloomin]

I’m freezing, I want everybody to breathe harder!

[beergarden]

These idiots should go back to having windmills at each house. A damn lost cause. I expect a mosque at every intersection there like Starbucks here..

[DoughtyOne]

f o l l o w i n g . T R U M P ‘ S . l e a d

Bwa ha ha ha

[SteveinSATX]

What the hell is a “free-market liberal”? That’s some serious spinning I’ve ever heard

[xzins]

Solar sucks when the sun don’t shine (winter)

[stevem]

Germany is set to miss Merkel’s target of lowering carbon dioxide emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Brilliant reporting...

...by how much? Are they at 35%, 30%, 0%? Is there more CO2 going up now than in 1990 i.e. target missed by more than 100%?

[libertylover]

activists were hoping to put pressure on the government to take urgent action in order to meet the target. But instead, it emerged today that the government is set to scrap it.

Oh, that is so rich.

[KarlInOhio]

In most places in the world “liberal” has retained a meaning dealing with freedom, as opposed to FDR’s liberalism definition of “not quite as authoritarian as Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini. Almost, but not quite”.

[hinckley buzzard]

Truly, all ridicule aside, her rulings defy rational explanation. One cannot avoid acknowledging the hypothesis that she seeks the dissolution of the German nation as a culturally intact entity.

[hinckley buzzard]

Yes, That was inexplicable. The power was replaced not by wind or sun. But by new lignite plants. Lignite is a poor cousin of coal, very dirty/ but abundant in Europe.