Economics Minister Robert Habeck celebrates that his climate goals are within reach. And he deliberately ignores the fact that this is the result of an economy that he and the government have strangled.
Children, time flies, events happen rapidly, and the columnist only writes once a week – a dilemma! But let’s just turn the problem into a privilege and rewind the political process a week, like it used to be on a video cassette, when everything was slower anyway. And then think about the whole thing again in peace, pause, enjoy.
We see an economics minister and vice chancellor in the swing of his luck. On that Friday, Robert Habeck stormed the podium in his ministry with demonstrative agility like only US President Joe Biden ever did, and in the following five minutes he almost burst out of his shirt in view of the message he had to announce:
Germany almost met its climate targets in 2023 and will do so for the first time in 2024 – and as if that wasn’t enough good news, Habeck dares to continue this success story until 2030. For those who are a bit slow-witted, he has a large display board with three colorful bars on it that show how people have moved from the deep red area to the subtle green area since the Greens have been able to develop their beneficial effect in a government. Painting by numbers with the minister: “This is the result of political work,” says Habeck, and of course he means: green political work after the stone-gray work before.
(Quelle: Reinaldo Coddou H.)
To person
Christoph Schwennicke is head of politics and member of the editor-in-chief of t-online. He has been accompanying, observing and analyzing political events in Berlin for almost 30 years, previously in Bonn. For the “Süddeutsche Zeitung”, the “Spiegel” and the political magazine “Cicero”, of which he was editor-in-chief and publisher for many years. At t-online he writes his column “Objection!” every Thursday.
I fully support Habeck’s last sentence. This is the result of his work. Nobody can dispute this paternity with him. If an energy policy pursued by the Greens leads to the German world championship in electricity prices and brings the industry, especially the energy-intensive industry (which is strong in Germany), to its knees, then CO2 emissions will fall – even if A simultaneous move away from Russian gas and nuclear power has brought dirty coal-fired power plants back to smoking life.
Nobody comes out of the crease that badly
No other economy in Europe is coming out of the crisis as badly as Germany; less growth means less energy consumption. Our colleagues don’t have to look at the numbers now, said Habeck as he commented on the three bars on the path to happiness.
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But it doesn’t do any harm either: The figures show that the largest decline in CO2 emissions can be attributed to a shrunken economy: because less demand also has an impact on the CO2 balance of electricity generation (minus 20 percent) and in industry itself (minus 7 percent).
So far, so conclusive. But a reason for celebration? In Habeck’s logic, a car owner could just as easily do a dance of joy and sing: Hurray! Finally! I’ve been waiting for this for years. Since I hardly drive anymore, my car uses significantly less fuel! Or like the controller at a large publishing house that an experienced colleague once warned me about. He is only satisfied and considers his mission to have been successfully completed when the last cost center on two legs in the editorial department has been saved.
He was granted the joy
We really want to give Habeck his joy. If you look at it from half a distance, he has little reason for it. There’s always that annoying Lindner from the FDP who says the opposite before Habeck has finished his thoughtful words. And you can’t rely on whether Annalena Baerbock has already completely buried her ambitions to run for chancellor for a second time.
Therefore: celebrate festivals as they come. But always keep an eye on the door sign at the bottom of the office entrance: “Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection” is written there. Economy even comes first. Naturally, the climate cannot send Habeck thank-you letters. However, the relevant NGOs and the Federal Environment Agency do it on behalf of the global climate. The President of the UBA, Dirk Messner, was there for himself at Habeck’s celebration and applauded.
