Germany denies achieving climate change goal till 2020

Berlin, January 9: The goal to cut the carbon emission by 2020 may be missed by Germany as the chancellor Angela Merkel and her party has denied achieving the goal in next two years.

To achieve the target of lowering the emissions by 40 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels by about five percentage points is on low chances says the report. Despite a booming renewable sector, Germany still gets 39% of its power from coal. A cross-party commission has been established to create a phase-out plan for the dirty fuel, but it remains a politically charged subject, with utilities and mining unions playing for more time to transition.

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. Outside the meeting space, activists staged a massive rally at a nearby coal pit, drawing attention to what is the most carbon-intensive location in Europe.

“Only 30 percent instead of 40 percent less CO2 is not a little bit off, but a huge miss of the climate goal for 2020,” said Agora director Patrick Graichen.