Even during the election campaign, the Greens made no secret of the fact that by economic policy they primarily understand climate protection policy.

This spirit now also runs through the coalition agreement of the traffic light parties.

With the active support of taxpayers, the German economy is to become green and set new standards in the hydrogen industry, electromobility and in the recycling of raw materials.

It is only logical that the Greens want to combine economic and climate policy in one ministry.

Her goal has long been to “reconcile” economy and ecology.

A collection of common places

There is no doubt that the restructuring of the economy towards climate-neutral production processes and products is a central task of the next federal government.

But it's not the only one.

How often has it been complained in recent years that Germany has not produced Amazon, Google, or Facebook.

That SAP was the last world-class start-up.

A company that was founded in the 1970s, mind you.

In the course of the corona crisis, the vaccine manufacturer BioNTech was added, whose products are in demand around the world.

But that doesn't change the fact that the innovative strength of the German economy can be expanded.

In contrast to climate policy, the plans of the SPD, Greens and FDP have so far remained vague in this regard.

The corresponding passages in the coalition agreement are a collection of generalities.

There is talk of a new entrepreneurial spirit, of digital awakening and freedom for innovations, but these keywords are rarely filled with content.

How should the German economy grow?

What distinguishes the “comprehensive start-up strategy” from those of previous federal governments also remains open.

Future technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain are briefly touched upon - and indicated that a regulatory framework is necessary.

Data centers are only mentioned in connection with the fact that they are to become climate neutral by 2027.

The question of how the German economy should grow beyond subsidized investments in climate protection is the large blank space in the coalition agreement.

With a few grants for female founders and a KfW state bank promoted to an innovation agency, it will hardly be possible to generate the increase in prosperity that many people in the country are hoping for from the traffic light government.

The fact that the reduction in bureaucracy only takes up one of 177 pages does not bode well for companies' freedom of development.

Even before the Corona crisis, the German economy grew significantly weaker than that of the United States, for example.

Every fourth job depends on exports, in industry it is every second.

New free trade agreements would be correspondingly important.

But the traffic light lays high hurdles for them.

The fact that the annual economic report should in future cover not only economic but also ecological and social dimensions of prosperity may be in keeping with the spirit of the times.

Such changes are not enough to secure Germany's economic future.