THE PR arm of Germany’s environment ministry has had a busy autumn. Over the past two weeks, colourful posters advertising the government’s global initiatives against climate change have gone up all over the country. In Bonn, where thousands of delegates gathered this week for the COP23 round of international climate-change talks, journalists are being encouraged to tour the area’s green projects. Barbara Hendricks, the environment minister, opened proceedings by pledging additional funds to help developing countries adjust to global warming. The world is supposed to see a pioneering green nation “ready for the future”, as the poster campaign has it.
But look more closely, and that is only half-true. In October the government was forced to concede that Germany will probably break its commitment to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions (to 40% below the 1990 level by 2020) by a wide margin: without drastic adjustments, emissions are predicted to fall by only 32%.
The main reason for...Continue reading
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