Global challenge

The Christian Democrat underlined the need for ambitious targets if the world is to have a chance of slowing global warming. But the task of cutting emissions should not merely be viewed as a costly exercise.

Instead, Norbert Roettgen says that industry should recognize the huge economic potential of developing green technologies. Copenhagen is, according to the new environment minister, the most important economic conference of our age. German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk spoke with the minister.

Deutschlandfunk: What has to come out of the talks for you to be able to describe them as a success?

Norbert Roettgen: Something has to come from them. Failure is not an option. What is imperative is that we need to agree that global warming has to be limited to two degrees between now and 2050. That goal will allow us to be relatively certain that the dramatic results of climate change will not occur. And we need to take certain measures to achieve that.

That means we have to cut global CO2 emissions by 50 percent. Industrialized countries have to do far more. They will have to achieve more or lesss a net zero carbon footprint. Financial pledges to developing countries are part of that. That costs money, but not doing anything would be much, much more expensive. We all have to be part of this treaty, every country. Not like Kyoto, which wasn't ratified by the United States.

China and the US have to be part of this because they are responsible for 40 percent of CO2 emissions. And the die have to be cast on all these matters now in Copenhagen in December. And within six months, we have to formulate these concrete decisions in a legally binding treaty, which also contains a supervisory mechanism for the instruments, goals and measures.

To what extent are concrete figures for achieving a reduction of greenhouse gases by 2020 important? The European Union has certain ideas, the US has different ones and some countries don't want to make any commitments at all in this respect.

These figures are important because we know that ecosystems do not respond quickly. The goal has to be achieved by 2050, but you cannot achieve that if you start ten years prior to that. That is why we have to start now and we have to take interim measurements between now and 2050. And 2020 is a deadline by which we have to have achieved the first goals.

The German government has committed itself to cutting CO2 by 40 percent independently of the actions of other countries. The European Union is saying it will definitely cut 20 percent - if the others budge, it will increase this to 30 percent.

The United States has not gotten this far, but it has changed direction. Up to now, the US had been producing more and more emissions. Now they have committed themselves to reducing them. Admittedly, their cuts are not yet as large as Europeans and the international community deem necessary, or as much as the Europeans are already doing.

But you also have to recognize that the United States is ten years behind. In George W. Bush's administration, this subject did not play any role, to put it mildly. The US has now started moving in this direction and they say that they will have reached this goal by 2050. They say they will speed up. But they will have to get things moving a bit.

Industry is traditionally not very enthusiastic when Germany takes a lead in environmental protection. Up to now, you were seen as having the interests of industry at heart. At one point in the past you wanted to become the head of the Federation of German Industries. How can you now embark on a collision course with industry and how far will you go?

This is not about conflict, but about the shared recognition of politics and business in Germany that climate protection, when viewed from an economic point of view, is, at heart, about economic modernization and vital technological innovation.

We have a growing global market in environmental services and environmental products. We are a world leader with a 16-percent share of the market in environmental technologies. We will only retain this position if we recognize that it is the market of the future and the leading innovation of the 21st century.

We will only secure our prosperity and remain the world''s number one exporter if we offer the most cutting-edge products in modern markets and not the markets of the past. And that is why an economic competition for growth markets, for technological supremacy, is already taking place and is developing a stronger and stronger dynamic.

That is why I have said in the past and I will say again that Copenhagen is the most important economic conference of our age. It is about achieving equal competition conditions and it is about new markets, new technologies and our role in these markets.

Interview: Georg Ehring (jg)
Editor: Louisa Schaefer