Olaf Scholz sees progress in establishing an international alliance for climate protection that he is aiming for.

"We are on the right track and are receiving a lot of encouragement," said the SPD politician of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung (FAS).

Scholz, who wants to form a federal government under his leadership together with the Greens and FDP, said that his plan for a “climate club” met with a positive response at the G20 meeting of the leading industrialized and emerging countries last weekend in Rome.

"The talks in Rome show me that many have understood that it is worth strengthening international cooperation within the framework of a climate club," said Scholz. The American President Joe Biden has made it clear that the United States is again relying on international cooperation. Scholz regards it as a success that the transatlantic agreement announced a week ago to settle the long-standing dispute over steel tariffs contains elements of a climate club. It is "good that the agreement between the EU and the US provides for such a mechanism," he told the FAS

Scholz had presented his climate club plan in the spring.

It goes back to an idea of ​​the American Nobel laureate in economics, William Nordhaus.

This recommends that pioneering countries agree on joint measures for climate protection, such as a minimum CO2 price or comparable requirements.

At the same time, the member states of the Climate Club are supposed to shield their domestic industrial companies from competition from countries with lower climate protection standards through protective tariffs.

Scholz is initially aiming for a climate club between Europe and North America.

But other countries should also be able to participate.

The climate alliance should be "open and cooperative," he emphasized.

Meanwhile, German industry is warning that China must also be involved.

"A climate club for very ambitious industrialized countries is not a panacea," said Siegfried Russwurm, President of the Federation of German Industries (BDI), the FAS measures for climate protection must be "as global as possible," he demanded.

This also includes China.