Inside, Siemens boss Joe Kaeser is struggling for sovereignty in the climate debate, outside hundreds of protesters sing against carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases. The general meeting of the Siemens group in Munich’s Olympiahalle today was dominated by the question of whether the group could accept orders for climate-damaging projects.
It is now about more than the delivery of a train signal system worth 18 million euros for the huge coal mining project of the Adani Group in Australia, where the dispute sparked.
Kaeser called “almost grotesque” that Siemens had become a “target of numerous environmental activists” because of this “unfortunate project in Australia”. After all, Siemens is “only involved in the second derivation” and the delivery for the mine is “irrelevant”. Several hundred climate activists viewed this differently in front of and at the Annual General Meeting and described Siemens on posters as “fire accelerators for climate criminals”.
“Agree on the diagnosis”
Climate change and the Adani mandate also played a decisive role in the speeches made at the Annual General Meeting. Varsha Yajman of the Australian “Fridays for Future” pendant said that it was a “shame” that Siemens had signed the contract with Adani while Australia was on fire. Helena Marschall from “Fridays for Future” Germany accused Siemens of “dishonest staging as a climate group” and warned Kaeser: “You will lose your customers – at least the future ones.”
Kaeser replied Marshal with the words: “We agree on the diagnosis. But so far, only we have started therapy. ”However, the Siemens boss was increasingly frustrated in the climate debate. “You cannot win on such issues because the claim that many have on the other hand is a legitimate one,” said the manager. However, he accused his critics of pursuing a “business model activism”.
However, some investors accuse Kaeser of fueling the conflict over the Adani project with contradicting messages. This is how Vera Diehl from Union Investment called communication around Adani a “disaster”. Daniela Bergdolt of the German Association for the Protection of Securities said that Kaeser had unnecessarily “messed up” in dealing with the Adani order. But she emphasized that he also did a lot of things correctly and very well.
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