Baerbock hails historic German fiscal package as renewable energy milestone
Annalena Baerbock. Photo: BETD
Minister for Foreign Affairs says €500bn deal ‘enshrines climate neutrality in our constitution’
On the day Germany’s parliament voted in favour of a significant €500bn infrastructure fiscal package, the country’s Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs, Annalena Baerbock, hailed the measure as a blueprint for climate neutrality, energy security and freedom.
More than 500 members of the Bundestag pushed through the proposed new laws, which will need to be approved on Friday to become set in Germany’s constitution.
Baerbock has for the past three years delivered the keynote address on the first morning of the annual Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue, but today she was scheduled for an afternoon slot to accommodate her participation in the vote.
Even then, she was delayed and finally took the stage after coming straight from the parliamentary vote.
‘A landmark decision’
“Sorry I was late, but I just participated in, I would say, a historic session of the German parliament,” she told the audience.
“Two thirds of parliamentarians took today what is for us – and maybe also for Europe – a landmark decision. We paved the way to massively invest in Germany’s security, infrastructure, and by that, its freedom.”
She explained how the €500 billion infrastructure package “includes €100 billion for climate neutrality, which will boost investments into infrastructure and especially also to renewables”.
“And by that we are also enshrining climate neutrality by 2045 in our constitution.”
That was greeted with cheers and applause from a packed audience, who Baerbock then told that the package “was long overdue, but now in these times of crisis, we believe it is more important than ever.”
She said the package encapsulated “decisions which are big and bold… because energy policy infrastructure is not an isolated issue anymore. It’s part of a new geopolitical world”.
“Some actors are pushing for a world order that is not based on rules, but based on power. Therefore, we believe that it is crucial to invest in our own security, and we all know investing in renewable energy is part of investing in our security.”
Baerbock said “investments into green energy are investments in global security”, a hard truth she said that was learned following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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“We see that since these three years in Ukraine, energy and infrastructure plants are deliberate targets for air strikes because they are the nerve of a country, and in turn, a freedom nerve of the country.
Fighting climate crisis
“If we invest in on our own energy infrastructure, we become more free and more independent. The more we do in fighting the climate crisis together, the more secure our world will be.”
Baerbock stressed that “the energy transition is not happening everywhere at the same pace, therefore the question is, how we can achieve this global energy transition in a fair and just way?”
The answer, she said, was to “set conditions on the global level that everybody benefits from our energy transition. We do this by unlocking barriers, mobilising finance for all, navigating geopolitical tensions, reforming the international financial system… but also, by getting better at hands-on solutions at a local level.”
Delivering that ambitious list would require international collaboration at all levels, she said, adding that was why “this Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue in these shaky times is more important than ever. This is why we are so happy that you are here from all over the world to bring together our expertise on this pathway, and yes… on this very special day for Germany.”
More from the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue and SET Tech Festival:
WEC’s Wilkinson warns Europe to not develop global ‘blind spot’ because of Trump
How the energy-space nexus is resulting in a data fusion to boost climate resilience
Plus: In case you missed our series about the energy transition stories happening in Berlin, catch them here.
