If you want to make a difference in politics, you have to set an example. And there is a lot to move. The fight against the climate crisis is undoubtedly at the top of the urgency list. A topic that the elected black-red federal government pushed forwards rather slowly until the end, to put it cautiously. With a red-green-yellow alliance, that should change, at least that is what the coalition negotiators of the SPD, Greens and FDP promise.
A ministry for climate protection is already considered a done deal, although the coalition talks have not really started yet. Even FDP leader Christian Lindner can warm up to the new department. So a sign that things are finally moving forward in terms of climate rescue in Germany?
A good dose of skepticism is appropriate when the FDP, which is not particularly environmentally friendly, presents itself as a climate protection party. The suspicion is that Lindner, whose party unified significantly fewer votes in the last election than the SPD and the Greens, wants to secure one of the important posts in the future federal government: The fact that the FDP man would like to become finance minister is not a fact Secret. In return, he could then let the Greens take precedence in the climate ministry – a transparent maneuver in the haggling over the posts in the future federal government.
It is already clear that a strong new ministry is undesirable
It is also certain that politicians will have to make important and tough decisions in the next few years so that Germany becomes climate-neutral as quickly as possible. It may sound promising at first glance if a specially created ministry takes care of it. What is completely ignored is the crucial question of whether a climate protection ministry is even necessary or perhaps even harmful.
Details that have become known from the exploratory talks, at least, do not bode well. A strong climate ministry with veto rights, as the Greens wanted, does not seem to be enforceable. The often requested speed limit? From the table at pressure from the FDP. Tough CO₂ regulations for business to achieve climate targets? Also undesirable. This shows that instead of a super ministry, a toothless tiger, modeled on the environment ministry, could emerge here.
It is also unclear which task the new ministry should take on. Climate protection is not a new topic, it has long been the responsibility of the Ministry of the Environment – and it belongs there too. The protection of the climate, the environment, water, biodiversity and soil, all of this is inextricably linked. And nobody can blame the ministry for not being committed to its issues. Only: All too often, other ministries have wiped its demands off the table, no matter how important and urgent they were.
There are enough sad examples from energy policy, such as the expansion of renewable energies or agriculture. The pesticide glyphosate is still approved in the EU because the Union-led Ministry of Agriculture rejected a veto from the SPD-led environmental department. The situation is similar with the still unsolved problem of nitrate-polluted groundwater.
The solution already exists: the Ministry of the Environment just needs to be strengthened
What Germany definitely does not need is another powerless ministry that is being wiped out in the power struggle between more powerful departments such as finance, economy and agriculture. Setting up a new ministry also takes a lot of time. Time that is scarce in the fight against the climate crisis. The simplest and best solution already exists, and it is in front of everyone: The existing Ministry of the Environment is given more budget as well as veto and default rights for the other departments.
Above all else, Germany needs a climate government: a chancellor and a cabinet that resolutely define guidelines that are then quickly implemented in the individual departments. A new ministry is not enough. Climate protection must be a top priority, otherwise the enormous challenge cannot be mastered.