Dispute in the CDU/CSU over climate protection
In the US, the term “climate change” has become taboo. President Trump declared climate change to be “the greatest hoax in history” before the UN, and the Department of Energy in Washington has instructed employees in the renewable energy department to avoid using the term “climate change.”
An email stated: “Please ensure that every member of your team knows that this is the latest list of words to avoid – and avoid any terms that you know are not consistent with the views and priorities of the administration.” Climate change is to be made taboo. The problem is to be solved by denying it.
But there are also efforts in Germany to downplay climate change. The German chancellor recently said: “We only contribute two percent to global CO2 emissions. So CO2 reduction does not depend on Germany at all.” The fact that we are one of the largest economies and have well above-average CO2 emissions per capita was not mentioned.
The leader of the European People’s Party, Manfred Weber (CSU), has been arguing for months that the EU’s decision to phase out combustion engines in car production by 2035 should be overturned. This is causing great uncertainty among German car manufacturers, which of course pleases their Chinese competitors. And Federal Minister for Economic Affairs Katherina Reiche is advocating a reversal of the energy transition and wants to slow down the expansion of renewables. CSU Secretary General Martin Huber warns that Germany must not become a “climate-neutral, green economic ruin.”
Fortunately, there are also reasonable dissenting voices among the conservatives who have recognized that climate protection is part of the DNA of conservative parties if “preserving creation” is to be taken seriously. CDU/CSU deputy faction leader Andreas Jung rejected all demands from his party colleagues to slow down climate protection. In its own election program as well as in the coalition agreement with the SPD, the Union has committed itself to climate neutrality by 2045.
Jung: “So the goal is set. But we will only achieve it if we absolutely combine climate protection, economic strength, and social balance.”
The Climate Union of the CDU and CSU has over 1,000 members. It also reminds its party of the internationally binding 1.5-degree target of the Paris Climate Agreement. The Climate Union also criticizes Katherina Reiche’s goal of building 30 to 40 new large gas-fired power plants. Pumped storage and energy from biomass are the better alternatives for times when neither the sun is shining nor the wind is blowing.
The conservative climate activists in the Union have science on their side. Climate protection is not a matter of faith, but a matter of survival for humanity. All arguments in favor of rapid climate protection are both economically and ecologically relevant. The Fraunhofer Institute ISE has calculated that the production of renewable energy is far cheaper than the old fossil fuel and nuclear energy production.
In Germany alone, renewable energies saved a lot of money in 2024: “The average stock market price in 2024 was 7.95 cents per kilowatt hour. Without renewable energies, the price of electricity would have been about 1.5 cents more expensive.” As US President Bill Clinton said in the last century, “It’s the economy, stupid.”
The procurement costs for solar and wind power are less than half as expensive as the procurement costs for coal or nuclear power. And they are becoming cheaper every year, while the prices of old energies are becoming more and more expensive. However, grid fees, taxes, and levies ensure that these low prices are not yet reaching end consumers.
Renewable energies are booming worldwide, mainly for economic reasons. We are on the verge of a “solar world revolution” and the dawn of a new era for humanity. More important than money and economic growth is our health, which depends on good air, clean water, healthy soil, and tolerable temperatures.
Source
Franz Alt 2025 | Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator
