{"id":137585,"date":"2025-02-18T09:15:46","date_gmt":"2025-02-18T07:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/fi\/news\/german-election-climate-and-environment-take-a-back-seat\/"},"modified":"2025-02-18T09:15:46","modified_gmt":"2025-02-18T07:15:46","slug":"german-election-climate-and-environment-take-a-back-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/news\/german-election-climate-and-environment-take-a-back-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"German election: Climate and environment take a back seat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mp_wrapper\">\n  <div class=\"mepr-unauthorized-message\">\n    <p>You are unauthorized to view this page.<\/p>\n  <\/div>\n  <div class=\"mepr-login-form-wrap\">\n            \n<div class=\"mp_wrapper mp_login_form\">\n                  <!-- mp-login-form-start -->     <form name=\"mepr_loginform\" id=\"mepr_loginform\" class=\"mepr-form\" action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\" method=\"post\" data-trp-original-action=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/\">\n            <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_username\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n                              <label for=\"user_login\">Username<\/label>\n        <\/div>\n        <input type=\"text\" name=\"log\" id=\"user_login\" value=\"\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-form-row mepr_password\">\n        <div class=\"mp-form-label\">\n          <label for=\"user_pass\">Password<\/label>\n          <div class=\"mp-hide-pw\">\n            <input type=\"password\" name=\"pwd\" id=\"user_pass\" value=\"\" \/>\n            <button type=\"button\" class=\"button mp-hide-pw hide-if-no-js\" data-toggle=\"0\" aria-label=\"Show password\">\n              <span class=\"dashicons dashicons-visibility\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/span>\n            <\/button>\n          <\/div>\n        <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n            <div>\n        <label><input name=\"rememberme\" type=\"checkbox\" id=\"rememberme\" value=\"forever\" \/> Remember Me<\/label>\n      <\/div>\n      <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n      <div class=\"submit\">\n        <input type=\"submit\" name=\"wp-submit\" id=\"wp-submit\" class=\"button-primary mepr-share-button\" value=\"Log In\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"redirect_to\" value=\"\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137585\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_process_login_form\" value=\"true\" \/>\n        <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"mepr_is_login_page\" value=\"false\" \/>\n      <\/div>\n    <input type=\"hidden\" name=\"trp-form-language\" value=\"en\"\/><\/form>\n    <div class=\"mp-spacer\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n    <div class=\"mepr-login-actions\">\n        <a\n          href=\"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/login-2\/?action=forgot_password\"\n          title=\"Click here to reset your password\"\n        >\n          Forgot Password        <\/a>\n    <\/div>\n\n      \n    <!-- mp-login-form-end --> \n  <\/div>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"smart_content_wrapper\">\n<p>Germany has expanded wind and solar energy but failed to cut back on fossil fuel use in the transport sector. Environmental issues did not feature prominently the election campaign \u2014 unlike the last time around. When the coalition government comprising the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), Greens and neoliberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) emerged after the last German federal election in the fall of 2021, incoming Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) did not object to being called the &#8221;Climate Chancellor.&#8221; That was no surprise: the climate crisis had been a top issue during the election campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The new government made the fight against climate change a task for the economy ministry and appointed Vice-Chancellor Robert Habeck from the Greens as its head. Three and a half years later, campaign speeches barely mention climate protection. The dominant issues are how to curb irregular immigration and how to boost Germany&#8217;s sluggish economy.<\/p>\n<p>The head of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz \u2014 who, according to the polls, is most likely to become the next German chancellor \u2014 has often said that Germany&#8217;s approximately 29,000 electricity-generating wind turbines are a thorn in his side. In November 2024, Merz told public broadcaster ZDF, &#8221;I even believe that if we do things right, we can one day dismantle the wind turbines again \u2014 because they are ugly.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The CDU\/CSU bloc believes in nuclear fusion as an energy source, although technological development in this field has stagnated for decades. Last year, electricity generation from renewable sources such as solar and wind accounted for around 56% of German energy production. Merz, however, also wants to revive nuclear power plants, the last of which went offline in 2023. The country&#8217;s goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 65% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels, is not part of the CDU\/CSU&#8217;s plans.<\/p>\n<p>&#8221;The fact that the escalating climate crisis is not among the parties&#8217; top three issues in this election campaign is incomprehensible and irresponsible,&#8221; Martin Kaiser, a climate expert with the environmental organization Greenpeace, told DW. &#8221;Because right now, we need a consistent and socially-oriented climate policy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Recently, the environmental group World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) was appalled when German Chancellor Scholz expressed approval of importing oil and liquefied gas from the US in an interview with the German newspaper Handelsblatt Scholz, arguing that increasing imports would lower energy prices. However, Heike Vesper, one of the managing directors of WWF Germany, said, &#8221;More oil and gas on the world market would only mean one thing: fueling the climate crisis. The consequences would be damage costing billions \u2014 and an unstable economy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Climate protection remains one of the Greens&#8217; central concerns. &#8221;I find it negligent that the other parties are now arguing against climate protection,&#8221; Environment Minister Steffi Lemke of the Greens told DW. &#8221;We know that we need climate protection and adaptation to climate change.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/german-election-climate-and-environment-take-a-back-seat\/a-71643886\">Read more&gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source: <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.dw.com\/en\/german-election-climate-and-environment-take-a-back-seat\/a-71643886\">DW<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>The post <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\/vau-viikkokatsaus\/german-election-climate-and-environment-take-a-back-seat\/\">German election: Climate and environment take a back seat<\/a> appeared first on <a rel=\"noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/vastuullisuusuutiset.fi\/fi\">Vastuullisuusuutiset.fi<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[1641,1038,606,607,608],"class_list":["post-137585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-election","tag-germany","tag-vau_viikkokatsaus","tag-vauen","tag-vaufien"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tietopankki.crnet.fi\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}