Habeck and Lemke: Two who have to rethink

Economics Minister Habeck and Environment Minister Lemke want to push through more climate protection in the government. The war in Ukraine could jeopardize the ambitious climate goals – or could it?

100 days can change a lot. “It was a special day,” said Robert Habeck at the beginning of December, on the day of his inauguration. “Joy and worry are the wrong vocabulary,” he said about his state of mind. But he couldn’t resist a brief smile of satisfaction.

In the meantime, the last bit of joy seems to have left Habeck. He looks gloomily at the cameras, as if the weight of the world were on his shoulders. With dark circles under his eyes, he talks about scenarios that once sounded ludicrous: “We can’t go to war with Russia. We can’t risk a third world war,” Habeck said on ZDF on the day of the Russian attack on Ukraine.

Plan for more wind turbines

From start-up mode to work mode to crisis mode, it was a very short journey for many in government. Especially for the climate and economics minister. In January, Habeck presented his plan for more wind turbines and solar systems with a large cardboard panel and graphics. Becoming faster in climate protection, much faster, he wants to make that the focus of his years in government. In the meantime, in crisis mode, he says sentences like: “There are no taboos on thinking.” And means, for example, that coal-fired power plants could run longer.

This horror scenario for climate protection also seems to be conceivable now that the war in Ukraine has started, because gas from Russia is supposed to end as quickly as possible. Until recently, the Greens had also been on the gas.

The lesser evil

“We say that we will need gas as a transitional technology in the short term,” said Steffi Lemke in January. The Green Federal Environment Minister saw gas as the lesser evil compared to coal – which is also true if you only look at CO2 emissions.

With the new world situation, it could be that the green ministers now have to rethink. Because at the same time get rid of everything that is fossil, made of coal, oil and gas – and immediately switch to charging and heating with energy from the wind and sun – that will not work. And nuclear power is not an alternative from a green point of view anyway.

Controversy over taxonomy

“I think it’s really wrong to label nuclear power as sustainable,” Lemke said in January. The EU Commission did it anyway. The dispute over the taxonomy – the classification of investments in gas and nuclear as sustainable – was a first bitter pill that Habeck and Lemke had to swallow. The Russian war of aggression and its consequences could set back climate protection even further. Or else: maybe help him to achieve a breakthrough.

Because the war connects the climate policy with the security policy debate. “The sun and the wind do not belong to anyone,” Habeck likes to say. The real way to independence in terms of energy policy is to phase out all fossil fuels. “Freedom energies” is what even FDP leader Christian Lindner now calls electricity from renewable sources. Germany’s political freedom will be defended by the next wind turbine, so to speak – an argument of this kind should increase the pressure on the German state governments, which have so far blocked the expansion.

“I didn’t become a minister in order to do nothing for as many years as possible and not risk anything,” Habeck said in January. There is a great risk that climate protection will also be destroyed as a result of the war. But there is also an opportunity for climate protection in this crisis. The decisions of the next 100 days could determine how this ends in the end.