Dear Mrs. Annalena Baerbock, Foreign Minister (annalena.baerbock@bundestag.de)

 

My name is Katherine Cote de Kalscheuer. I am the Country Manager for Germany for Climate Scorecard, a non-profit organization that monitors the climate policies and programs of leading greenhouse gas-emitting countries.

Based on a review of Germany’s policies, we believe that much can be done to increase our country’s climate ambition, achieve the global goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 65% by 2030 and become carbon neutral by 2045. Therefore, we suggest you adopt the following goals and announce them at COP 28.

# 1  Germany makes all possible commitments to reach its lawfully established goals:  As of 2022, Germany pledged to achieve a target reduction of 65%  by 2030 compared to 1999. We suggest that you announce the following steps to achieve them at COP28. The strengthening of the “Deutschland Ticket” for public transport in rail and buses across the country, to impulse its usage by more and more citizens, with an established workable financing system, together with the investment in strengthening the rail network, especially for east-west connections. The introduction of a “Tempolimit” speed limit to at least some of the highways. The advancement of The German Energy Law, including the Building Energy Act, which not only mandates more environmentally friendly technologies for heating and electricity with at least 65% green energy sources starting Jan. 1, 2024 but also that municipalities devise an environmentally friendly heating master plan by 2028 leading to structured planning at a community level, in order for it to be more cost-efficient for the end user.

# 2  Germany Announces complete elimination of all possible Fossil Fuels subventions at all levels and instead exchange them to support the growth and development of cleaner energy technologies:  The German Environment Agency (Umwelt Bundesamt) measured subventions that would be a detriment to the environment in 2018 to be 65 b€ without including those awarded by each of the local regions and communities. According to a study from the IEA and the OECD, subventions to fossil fuels increased importantly in Europe in 2021. It’s imperative that the use, production and handling of fossil fuels stop being publicly financed to the detriment of the own established goals. 

I hope you will incorporate these suggestions in your presentation at COP28, and I look forward to hearing back from you.

Sincerely,

Katherine Cote de Kalscheuer

Climate Scorecard – Germany’s Country Manager