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pc_emissionen120.jpgPress release, Bonn, December 21, 2009

EUROSOLAR president Dr Hermann Scheer comments on the global summit on climate change in Copenhagen

The world’s climate is not a matter of one single government and not of the world organisation, but must be of national concern to every country!

What happened in Copenhagen was not truly surprising but pre-programmed. No use now singling out and blaming, in retrospect, governments – the United States or China – for the unsuccessful outcome. The underlying cause of the collective failure is the wrong premise in the climate negotiations of this 15th global summit during the past 15 years by now.

The futile attempt to find consensus among all the governments involved to come to a globally uniform policy has prevented action at such world conferences from the very beginning. The basic conditions of developed, threshold and developing countries and nations are very different, not to mention their geographic, social and cultural characteristics. Economic interest entanglements are also affecting the climate issue.

Therefore the global summit on climate change in Copenhagen had to close in the same shameful and miserable way as the world food conference in Rome ended a month earlier and all comparable UN conferences ended during the past years.

To protect against climate change entirely new production methods and fundamental structural changes in the economy are required. The inappropriate attempt to control CO2 emissions worldwide by allocating emissions rights will remain to no avail.

The climate talks at the world summits have been and are based on the wrong premise to this day: That premise is that new production methods brought about by the move to clean renewable energy will be an economic burden. Endless bargaining sessions about burden sharing will inevitably ensue from this conceptual error. At best it can result in a low level consensus, which can only fall short of the expectations and requirements. The right approach would be to see fundamental change in the energy base as an opportunity. Every single country has to seize that opportunity in the way suited to its specific national economic conditions.

Those, who recognise that opportunity have neither to wait for an agreement delivered by the feeble world organisation nor are they dependent on dilatory UN decisions. The world is in need of creative trailblazers and brave pioneers, who motivate and inspire others – as Germany has done by introducing the Renewable Energy Sources Act.
 
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