Germany sees pioneer role on global warming
GERMANY: October 19, 2000
BERLIN - Germany announced new measures yesterday to
ensure it becomes one of the few industrial nations to fulfil
promised cuts in the "greenhouse gases" blamed for global
warming, and urged the rest of the world to follow.
"We shall make sure Germany maintains its top position
on climate protection," Environment Minister Juergen Trittin
said, forecasting that Germany would meet its pledge of cutting
emissions 21 percent from 1990 levels by 2010.
Trittin urged governments meeting at a United Nations
environment conference in the Hague next month to ensure they
kept promises contained in the 1997 Kyoto Protocol to cut
emissions of greenhouse gases, notably carbon dioxide.
"I think we must try to arrive at a binding protocol in the Hague
which will lead to actual reductions in carbon dioxide
emissions," said Trittin, a member of the environmentalist Greens
party in the centre-left coalition government.
A study released on Tuesday showed that the 15-nation European
Union as a whole would fall far short of promises made in
Kyoto to cut emissions of carbon dioxide, the most important of
six major planet-warming gases.
Always more "green" than many of its neighbours, Germany has
boosted its ecological credentials further since the 1998
election victory of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's coalition of
Social Democrats and Greens.
It has begun to shut down its nuclear plants - albeit
far more slowly than many Greens want - and has slapped unpopular
new levies on polluting fuels in a bid to wean the world's
third-largest economy off its dependence on oil.
NEW ENVIRONMENTAL MEASURES
Measures passed by Schroeder's cabinet yesterday included support
for new forms of energy and energy-saving cars, a
nationwide building insulation plan and the setting of voluntary
targets for businesses to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Part of the cash for the programme came from 15 billion marks
($6.6 billion) that Berlin is ploughing back into the
economy after a windfall from the recent auction of
new-generation UMTS mobile telephone licences.
A German-Dutch study released on Tuesday forecast that
the EU's CO2 emissions will increase by 7-8 percent of 1990
levels by 2010, compared to the eight percent reduction the EU
agreed to in the binding 1997 U.N. Kyoto Protocol on climate
change.
The new measures announced by Berlin received modest approval
from ecology lobbyists, who noted that other countries
looked on Germany to set a lead on ecological measures.
"It's vital that Germany pursues its role as a pioneer on energy
policy," said Oliver Rapf, climate change expert at the
Frankfurt office of the World Wide Fund For Nature.
He criticised Schroeder for not having committed his government
to prolonging the "eco-tax" programme after it ends in
2003, saying this sent "absolutely the wrong signal".
Despite huge protests from truckers, farmers and taxi drivers
recently, Schroeder has insisted he will pursue a further rise
in the eco-tax levies next year.
Other ecologist groups attack Berlin for its continued huge state
subsidies to the coal industry - worth some $3 billion this year
- which they say prop up an outdated and environmentally damaging
form of fuel.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
Vincenzo FERRARA
ENEA - Global and Mediterranean Environment Division
ITALY's Focal Point of the IPCC
Tel.: +3906.3048.3608; +3932.9831.3189
Fax: +3906.3048.6695
E-mail: ferrara@mail.casaccia.enea.it
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