Ros Atkins exposes inconsistency in Germany's climate record
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The Greens will take charge of the foreign ministry under the coalition deal agreed this week with the Social Democrats and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) party. The party has been critical of Ms Merkel’s stance on China as well as her dealings with the climate crisis. Back in October, German Green party member Lisa Badum told Express.co.uk she disapproved of Ms Merkel’s target to phase out coal by 2038.
Ms Badum said: “I think it’s too late, we have to do this much earlier. The Green’s have a target of 2030 which is a big difference.
“And the climate goals of the EU don’t even allow members to have a large amount of coal after 2030 in the mix, so from the European level what she decided isn’t even possible.”
EU regulation states that all Europe’s coal plants must close before 2030 in order to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement from 2015.
Now, the Green party’s position in Government may spell better news for climate protection.
The new coalition parties have committed to phasing out coal by 2030, eight years earlier than Ms Merkel’s target.
The parties have also set a target for Germany to use two percent of their territory for wind power, and for 80 percent of electricity to be sourced from renewable energy.
They are also planning to get at least 15 million electric cars up and running on Germany’s roads.
A core part of the coalition deal was to make Germany carbon natural by 2045.
Ms Baerbock, who will be the new foreign minister, has described the climate crisis as the biggest challenge of our time.
She said: “We can transform our economy so it becomes climate neutral. We have an agreement where climate neutrality is a common denominator.”
She has also slammed Angela Merkel for being “too soft” on her foreign policy with China.
Ms Baerbock says Ms Merkel failed to speak out strongly enough on its human rights abuses including the treatment of Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang province and the crushing of democracy in Hong Kong, according the Financial Times.
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Noah Barkin from Rhodium Group, a consultancy, said: “The language on China is the strongest ever to appear in a German coalition agreement.
“The readiness to touch on China’s red lines, including Taiwan, Xinjiang and Hong Kong shows how much the German debate has evolved in recent years.
“There is a lot of nervousness among Chinese diplomats around Merkel’s departure and the entry of the Greens into the government .
“They know that if the new government adopts a harder line, Europe will follow.”
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