Climate podcast indicator: do the parties underestimate the Germans? – yardstick

The current election campaign tactics of the Union, SPD and FDP in the climate crisis is to pretend that, by and large, everything can stay as it is. After painful experiences such as the CO2 price debate and the subsequent petrol price debate, the Greens have also switched to the course of “talking as little as possible about concrete change”. It shows the opinion of the Citizens’ Council Climate, which has just been presented, that the people in this country are quite ready for change. With one important prerequisite: you have to be well informed and feel heard.

Mareike Menneckemeyer was one of 160 citizens’ councilors who worked out recommendations on climate protection for politics in numerous meetings from April to June. In the podcast, the 37-year-old mother speaks about controversial debates, what brought the discussants together and what that means for the social debate in general. She also talks about amazing meetings with party politicians, her most important recommendations to politics and what is going on through the Citizens’ Council changed in her own life.

The citizen’s report contains many, far-reaching recommendations, including a speed limit on motorways, country roads and in cities, a mandatory climate light for food, the phase-out of coal as early as 2030, a rapid expansion of wind energy to two percent of the country’s area, the CO2 price as a control instrument and an end car subsidies – to name a few.

The citizens’ councils voted on the individual recommendations, and the report states with how many votes they were accepted.

Ortwin Renn, director of the Institute for Transformative Sustainability Research in Potsdam and chairman of the scientific board of trustees of the citizens ‘council therefore considers the climate to be an ideal topic for a citizens’ council, he explains in the podcast. Among other things, because it shows “whatever possible restrictions citizens are willing to do” when they know about the consequences of their actions.

Citizens’ councils and organizers now hope that their recommendations will play a role in the upcoming coalition negotiations. The same applies to the recommendation of the three big think tanks Agora Energiewende, Climate neutrality foundation and Agora traffic turnaround.

Because Germany is dramatically missing its own goals in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, they have one for the new government 100-day immediate climate protection program developed. Much of it coincides with the proposals of the Citizens’ Council. Susanne Ehlerding from Tagesspiegel Background energy and climate In the podcast, points out a particularly interesting point for the industry and classifies how the Greens, SPD and CDU feel about it.

If you have any questions for the indicator, suggestions or criticism, please write to [email protected] – we look forward to hearing from you.

You can also subscribe to the indicator here at Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

You can also hear further episodes of the indicator here:

Episode 12 with polar explorer Markus Rex

Episode 11 with energy expert Patrick Graichen

Episode 10 with the forest expert Ulrich Schraml

Episode 9 with the meteorologist and climate researcher Mojib Latif

You can find all the indicator episodes here.

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