The designated Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) is planning a reconstruction of the Foreign Office: She brings information from the Süddeutsche Zeitung the responsibilities for international climate policy, which previously belonged to the Federal Environment Ministry. Thus, the foreign climate policy in the traffic light government receives a higher priority than before. At the same time, in view of the importance and scope of the topic, this also means an upgrading of the Foreign Office, which had lost its importance compared to the Chancellery in recent years.
Baerbock will also be Germany’s chief negotiator at the UN climate conferences, which deal with the implementation of the 2015 Paris climate agreement. The next such meeting is planned for November 2022 in the Egyptian seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. The last time Great Britain hosted a conference of the Parties in Glasgow in November; the federal government was represented there by Jochen Flasbarth, State Secretary in the Ministry of the Environment.
The new federal government has once again explicitly reiterated the goal of limiting the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees, as provided for in the agreement of currently 193 member states, and wants to align its entire policy with this goal. “Achieving the climate protection goals in Paris is our top priority,” says the coalition agreement. To achieve this, global emissions would have to fall 45 percent below the 2010 level by 2030.
How much additional money the Federal Foreign Office will receive remains to be clarified
The international climate partnerships are also to be transferred from the Federal Environment Ministry to the Federal Foreign Office. The German embassies abroad are to receive additional instruments to strengthen cooperation with partner countries in this area. Foreign climate policy is also to be more closely linked with other diplomatic activities in order to make better use of opportunities to influence climate policy issues.
In France, responsibility for foreign climate policy has been with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs for a number of years; In 2015, the then head of department Laurent Fabius played a key role in negotiating the climate agreement. The US was represented by Secretary of State John Kerry, who now acts as US President Joe Biden’s special envoy for the climate.
It will be the greatest structural change for the Federal Foreign Office since the then head Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) introduced Department S for crisis prevention, stabilization, peacebuilding and humanitarian aid in 2014. The coalition partners still have to clarify in detail how much additional money and staff the Federal Foreign Office will receive for the new tasks. It is clear, however, according to reports, that the previously responsible department from the Federal Environment Ministry, which is to lead the Green Steffi Lemke in the future, will be affiliated to Baerbock’s house.