At an international climate meeting on Tuesday, 14 May, in Berlin, Chancellor Angela Merkel indicated that she was prepared for Germany to join the EU countries that will strive to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 should this objective be achievable. For this reason, she plans to refer it to her cabinet at the end of May.
This good news marked the tenth meeting of the Petersberg Climate Dialogue (13–14 May)—attended by ministers from 35 countries and European Commissioner for Climate Action Miguel Arias Cañete—under the joint chairmanship of Germany and Chile, which will chair COP 25 (2–13 December in Santiago).
This is a turning point, since Germany did not join the coalition of the eight most ambitious countries last week at the informal European summit in Sibiu (see EUROPE 12250/2).
“The discussion should not be about whether we can do it. Instead it should be about how we can do it”, she stated.
Sebastian Mang from Greenpeace European Unit sees this as “a sign that Germany does not want to stand in the way of EU climate action”.
The European Council of 20 and 21 June should return to this issue, but many countries, led by Poland, want to stick to the Paris Agreement, which mentions neither climate neutrality nor the 2050 horizon but rather a balance between anthropogenic emissions and emission removals in the second half of the century. (Original version in French by Aminata Niang)