“we don’t do that”

Will the world file a goal of 1.5 degrees in Egypt? German Foreign Minister warns of going backwards.

At the global climate conference in Egypt, German Foreign Minister Annalena Berbock openly threatened that the EU would also accept the failure of the UN meeting if necessary. We will not agree to any proposals that destroy the 1.5 target. The politician from the Green Party said on Saturday in Sharm El-Sheikh that no proposals that would question the freedoms of future generations would be approved.

However, proposals have circulated that no country needs to increase its climate protection ambitions in the next ten years. And she stressed that “then the 1.5 degree target will die here at this conference. And the European Union will not agree to that.”

In 2015, countries agreed in Paris to limit the temperature rise to 1.5 degrees compared to the pre-industrial period. The world has now warmed by 1.1°C, and Germany even more so. According to scientific warnings, exceeding the 1.5 degree mark significantly increases the risk of triggering so-called overturning elements in the climate system and thus uncontrollable chain reactions.

Burbock warned that global warming and its consequences, such as frequent droughts, storms and floods, are already pushing many of the most vulnerable countries to the brink of collapse – and they must be helped. She said you are not in Egypt just to “produce paper”. “We’re here to keep the 1.5-degree target alive.” The conference in Egypt should take a big step forward. “If others here want to bury the 1.5-degree trajectory, we say clearly: We will not agree to that.”