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ENVIRONMENT & CLIMATE
TOPIC
INNOVATIVE FORCE BEHIND CLIMATE COOPERATION
Internationally, Germany has played a piv-
pioneer with regard to carbon dioxide tar-
otal role in putting climate protection on
gets; it has pledged to lower emissions by
the map. The Federal Government was an
2030 by at least 40 percent compared with
innovative force as long ago as the negotions
1990. The main tool is the EU emission trad-
leading up to the 1997 Kyoto Protocol. In the
ing scheme, which regulates the emission of
treaty, the industrial nations committed to
carbon dioxide by around 11,000 major in-
reducing their greenhouse gas emissions by
dustrial corporations and power plant oper-
2012 by an average of 5.2 percent in compari-
ators. It will be reformed with a view to
son with the 1990 baseline. Germany actu-
making it more effective. Germany is also
ally did much more than that, as it succeed-
actively advancing climate cooperation
ed in lowering emissions by 21 percent by
with other countries, for example as regards
2012. Germany also plays an active part in
issues such as tropical forest protection and
the negotiations for a follow-up treaty to the
energy efficien cy.
Kyoto Protocol set to come into force in
2020. The goal: a binding climate agreement
The “Transatlantic Climate Bridge” repre-
with clear rules for limiting greenhouse gas
sents a particular form of cooperation with
emissions. It will involve emerging markets
the USA and Canada. Germany’s pioneering
and the Global South also committing to
role in climate research is supported by work
climate protection measures, and will make
at universities and institutes such as the
certain there is a considerable increase in
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Re-
funds for climate adaptation and technol-
search and the Wuppertal Institute for Cli-
ogy transfer. In the Global North, the EU is a
mate, Environment and Energy.
MILESTONES
1976
1987
1991
The then German Ministry of
Research resolves to build a
100-metre-high large wind power
plant (Growian) in north Germany.
However, the first experiment
with wind power fails and
Growian is torn down in 1988.
At Kaiser Wilhelm Koog on the
west coast of Schleswig - Holstein,
the first German windfarm goes
turnkey. Since then, 32 wind
turbines have been transforming
North Sea wind into electrical
power.
The Electricity Feed-In Act regulates the obligation for power
utilities to purchase electrical
energy from regenerative transformation processes and sets
fixed tariffs for the remuneration
thereof.