“Climate crisis the greatest security problem for all people”

“The climate crisis is currently the biggest security problem for all people on Earth,” said the environmentalist politician. The climate crisis does not stop at borders. Therefore, the answers should not stop at any border”, Annalena Baerbock emphasized.

The goal is that together and at the international level “we can avoid the biggest security risk of this century”.

Baerbock drew attention to the threatening development of climate warming in Africa, but also to the devastating fires of recent weeks in southern Europe as well as to the flood disaster in Ahrtal in Germany last year. “We must strongly intensify joint efforts. Because the past years have been “left behind”.

The minister called a super-great intensification of efforts necessary. Humanity is in a situation, “in which worldwide crises are intertwining with each other”. Among them are the consequences of Russia’s offensive war on food supplies around the world, Baerbock said.

Even if now Germany, due to the limitation of Russian gas supplies, will reactivate the thermal power plants, Baerbock expressed his conviction that the Russian offensive war will encourage a “booster for the expansion of renewable energies”. Because these energy sources “are the best guarantee to be independent from fossil imports and thus also independent from autocratic regimes around the world”.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz warned against a worldwide reactivation of fossil fuels, so that the reaction to the Russian attack on Ukraine does not prompt a return to coal power.

“What must not happen now is a global revival of fossil fuels and especially coal,” Scholz said at the Petersberg Climate Dialogue. “No one can be satisfied that now we are again being asked for an increase in the coal energy quota in response to the threat of gas supply restrictions.” But this is only a time-limited emergency measure. “We need to divest from coal, oil and gas – I would say, and we need to do this at maximum speed,” added Scholz. Despite the war in Ukraine and rising prices, Germany will make no cuts in terms of climate protection.

Even Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, who will host the COP27 World Climate Conference in the fall, called climate warming an extreme threat. Especially for Africa this is a big challenge. The continent needs help because it lacks the financial means to afford the transition to “green technologies” and adaptation to climate change alone.

Representatives from 40 countries are consulting this Monday (18.07) in Berlin, to determine the framework of the COP27 World Climate Conference in early November in Egypt’s tourist resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. This conference should “be a catalyst for worldwide climate protection and a central guide, to steer the world on the path of the 1.5 degree temperature increase quota”, says the German government. Germany and Egypt have organized the two-day consultations in Berlin.

The Petersberg Dialogue was initiated in 2010 by former Chancellor Angela Merkel. In this context, certain countries meet every year to establish the framework for an efficient COP (World Climate Conference). In the period 2011-2021, the Petersberg Dialogue was organized by the Ministry of Environment. With the transition of competences for the environment to the foreign policy for the climate at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, these consultations are now taking place for the first time this year in this department.

Before this meeting, climate researcher Mojib Latif said in an interview that the prospects for developments related to the world climate are gloomy. The goal of limiting the Earth’s warming to a maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to the pre-industrial era can no longer be achieved. “With today’s emissions of gases that cause the greenhouse effect, this quota will be exceeded in ten years”, estimates Latif. We probably won’t even be able to maintain the 2 degree norm. “If we look at what politics is doing around the world today, we could be on the course of 3 degrees.” So the world is reaching the point where it has to admit that: “The time has passed”, the researcher told the media group Mediengruppe Bayern. Warming the Earth by 3 degrees would be a “catastrophe”.

Climate change costs Germany over six billion euros a year. Climate change since the 2000s has caused an average of 6.6 billion euros worth of damage in Germany every year. In total, it is about 145 billion euros. This conclusion is reached in a study published now authorized by the Ministry for the Economy and Climate Protection in Germany.

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