According to Economics Minister Robert Habeck, the global climate goals can only be achieved with China. The containment of global warming currently seems to be overshadowed by other issues, said the Green politician on Sunday in the southern Chinese city of Hangzhou, the last stop on his Asia trip. “But without China, it would not be possible to meet the climate goals globally.”
That is why it is important to strengthen cooperation with the People’s Republic in this area. In the discussions he had, it was explained to him that China was building coal-fired power plants primarily for reasons of energy security. China therefore needed a safe alternative to coal. China did not need to be lectured that CO₂ emissions were bad for the climate. That was understood. “We have to find an alternative to achieve the same level of security with fewer coal-fired power plants.”
Habeck’s trip was supposed to focus on current issues of economic, energy and climate policy. The main topic, however, was the EU’s planned tariffs on imported Chinese electric cars, which are due to come into effect at the beginning of July.
On Saturday it was announced that China and the European Union want to start consultations on the matter. The talks will be led by Chinese Trade Minister Wang Wentao and EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis, the Ministry of Trade in Beijing announced. This is a good first step, but is far from a breakthrough, said Habeck on Sunday.
The EU countries must seek to join forces in order to compete with China. In both South Korea and China, the term “competition, in its harshest sense” has repeatedly caught up with him, said the Vice Chancellor. “I believe we must face up to this competition. Germany also uses the word “competition”. So negligence, laziness, inertia, and arrogance are not alternatives,” stressed Habeck. However, he warned against extremes, saying that cooperation is also necessary. Cooperation means not seeing the other as an opponent or even an enemy, but developing understanding for one another and strengthening one another.
The world is nevertheless preparing for competition, warned Habeck. “My view is that the big nations with which we as Europeans have to compete actually have a very precise plan of where they want to be in 10, 20, 30 years and also provide the means, from financial resources to a robust foreign and foreign trade policy, to implement this plan.” At the same time, he warned: “And Europe does not have this plan sufficiently.”
A new era must begin for Europe and the countries there, in which we become aware of this competition and draw conclusions, said Habeck. “In other words, the European level is being built up as a global political actor, and against this background the debates that we then have in Germany and Europe – as important as they are – must sometimes be seen in a certain relation to the significance of what is actually happening here geopolitically.” He was asked about his view on the debate about the preparation of the German federal budget for the coming year.
“But such trips do have one added value, at least in that you can learn the perspective of other countries and, in the best case, provide impetus to achieve a policy of cooperation. I hope and I think that this trip was able to make a small contribution to this,” Habeck concluded.