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At their summit meeting in Elmau, Upper Bavaria, Olaf Scholz and his counterparts were able to read in large letters on the north face of the Waxenstein what the ecological organization Greenpeace thinks of the climate protection plans of the seven leading industrial nations (G7). “G7: Stop using fossil fuels now!”, the activists projected onto the mountain massif using a high-intensity projector. In other words, what you politicians have planned so far will never, ever be enough to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees.
Now, Jennifer Morgan is not a G-7 head of government, but “only” state secretary and special representative for international climate policy at the Federal Foreign Office. So what some eco-activists project onto mountain faces wouldn’t have to bother them – if it weren’t for the interesting fact that Morgan had personally led those activists a few months ago: before she moved to the federal government less than four months ago, the native US-American Executive Director of Greenpeace International.
So how does it feel to suddenly be on the side of those you once demonstrated against? You yourself, Morgan said on Wednesday at the sustainability summit Süddeutsche Zeitung, sees herself today as an “activist in diplomatic garb”. In order to make progress in climate protection, you need both: diplomats who commit the international community to common goals and people who took to the streets for their convictions. “We can’t do anything without social pressure,” emphasized the political scientist, who now also has German citizenship.
Morgan knows that politicians should actually do more
The longer the SZ conversation with her lasted, the clearer it became that the 56-year-old had accepted her new role as the federal government’s top climate diplomat, but had not completely shed her old impatience. She defended Scholz against the accusation that the G-7 summit under the German presidency made little progress in the fight against global warming. The Chancellor “implemented what was possible within this framework,” she said. At the same time, however, she admitted: “There is a big gap between what science says is necessary and what has come out.”
That is exactly what former comrades-in-arms said this week – just much more undiplomatic: Scholz did not manage to “initiate a turning point for climate protection,” said the managing director of Greenpeace Germany, Martin Kaiser. The German environmental aid even spoke of an “immeasurable climate-political damage” that Scholz had caused. “During the election campaign, we were promised a climate chancellor. The result was the fossil chancellor,” the organization said.
One of the activists’ main criticisms is Scholz’s decision to financially support Senegal in developing new gas fields off the west coast of Africa. In this way, Germany’s dependency on Russian gas supplies is to be further reduced. From the point of view of environmental aid, however, the chancellor and his G-7 colleagues have set in motion a global “race for LNG exports, new gas production and public funds” that is undermining the planned phase-out of coal, oil and gas.
Eating differently can help save the world
Morgan was also concerned that individual countries and corporations could use the current supply bottlenecks to reverse the energy transition. In view of the Russian attack on Ukraine, unfortunately, one cannot avoid allowing at least temporary exceptions that one does not really want. In principle, however, the resolutions of the World Climate Conference in Glasgow in 2021, according to which no more public money should flow into the development of new oil and gas fields, remain in place.
Morgan also committed to continuing the climate dialogue with political opponents such as China. According to the State Secretary, Germany’s national security also depends on whether the People’s Republic succeeds in the energy transition. But the citizens, companies and social groups in the Federal Republic must also get more involved – for example by people limiting their meat and milk consumption or switching to organic products. How would it be, asked Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s adviser, if the restaurants in Germany took the lead and initiated a kind of competition for the best vegetarian and vegan dishes? The chef as a climate protector – this idea should also appeal to Morgan’s ex-colleagues from Greenpeace.