Status: 10/01/2021 5:54 p.m.
The Expo 2020 in Dubai started one year late. The show is expecting 25 million visitors from all over the world – but the focus is on sustainability.
Burning heat drives sweat out of your pores in the early morning – air conditioning systems provide a remedy. Before visiting Expo Dubai 2020, most of the visitors to the world exhibition will use the aircraft. Then it is often by car over wide streets along the magnificent concreted facades of the Gulf metropolis – and sustainability is one of the main themes of Expo 2020.
“You have to start,” says Dietmar Schmitz, General Commissioner of the German Pavilion, also with sustainability – and Dubai still has a long way to go. It is not that there is still a lot to be done in Germany when it comes to the careful use of resources, the generation of renewable energies or the saving of greenhouse gases. But in direct comparison, Dubai, which has become rich with the oil from neighboring Abu Dhabi, does a little worse than Germany.
What Germany is showing at the world exhibition in Dubai
Volker Schwenck, ARD Berlin, October 1, 2021 4:51 p.m.
Room for ideas
Ideas can be seen in the German pavilion – models and illustrations of complex systems, some of which are already tangible, such as the electric aircraft from the German aviation company Lilium. The use of kites for energy generation is presented in a playful way – a mobile and more efficient solution than previous technologies for the production of wind power.
German know-how in renewable energies, new ideas for resource-saving agriculture and modern visions of emission-efficient building constructions are likely to be in demand worldwide in the future, Pavillon boss Schmitz is convinced.
And even if not every exhibit or product that can be seen in the German pavilion has a real chance of going into series production – it is definitely an investment in the future.
Cost increases that raise questions
Speaking of investment. At 58 million euros, the German pavilion was eight million euros more expensive than planned – due to the one-year postponement of the world exhibition in the corona pandemic. A second pavilion, also from Germany, suffered the same fate: that of Baden-Württemberg.
In fact, the southern federal state is the only region that is represented with its own pavilion at the world exhibition – 190 countries and the so-called Ländle. The considerable increases in costs for the construction of the state pavilion from around three to a good 15 million euros have sparked committees of inquiry and debates in the south-western state.
According to the will of the director of the Baden-Württemberg House, this should end with the opening: Now you have the budget under control and such an expo is a great marketing event in which “the innovations that are shown here also include certain businesses in the Trigger follow-up “.
Was more expensive than planned: the German pavilion at Expo 2020.
Image: Volker Schwenck / SWR
Millions of visitors are expected
After all, 25 million visits are expected from interested parties from all over the world, including government officials and companies. The Expo Dubai is open.
And one more thing for potential visitors: nobody can get in without a vaccination or a PCR test. So that the world exhibition does not become a new world pandemic hearth.
Lots of wood and an airy look: this is how the Australian pavilion tries to attract visitors.
Image: AFP