European of the week
Robert Habeck, German energy transition champion
Audio 03:30
German Economy and Climate Minister Robert Habeck delivers a speech during a session of the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament, in Berlin on March 17, 2022. © AFP/Tobias Schwarz
By: Daniel Vallot Follow
4 mins
He had to make his ministry the center of the fight against global warming.
But last February, the war in Ukraine changed the situation... Robert Habeck, German Vice-Chancellor in charge of the Economy and the Climate, had to hastily find alternatives to Russian gas while asking his fellow citizens to reduce their energy consumption.
Despite this double challenge, in just a few months he has become Germany's most popular minister, largely eclipsing Socialist Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
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The news had the effect of a thunderclap in Germany, one of the European countries most dependent on Russian gas.
This Friday, June 17, Russia announces that it will reduce
its gas deliveries to Germany
by 40% … Robert Habeck immediately denounces, behind the technical reasons put forward by Russia, a purely political reason.
“
We should have no illusions, we are in a showdown between the Western allies and Russia
,
”
asserts the German Minister of Economy and Climate Change.
“The decision to cut gas supplies, Putin takes it arbitrarily, that's how dictators and despots act.
»
At 52, the former novelist, who entered politics late, has become Germany's most popular minister.
Appointed last December at the head of a super ministry for the Economy and the Climate, Robert Habeck totally eclipses
the social-democratic chancellor Olaf Scholz
.
"
He
keeps his 'cool' side alive by having his picture taken, sitting on the ground, working on his computer on a station platform, or jumping on a table in front of workers at a refinery in the east of Germany,
says Paul Maurice, of the Study Committee for Franco-German Relations at IFRI (French Institute for International Relations).
It also has a relaxed image, far from the traditional suit and tie.
»
Added to this relaxed image is a keen sense of compromise and political realism that appeals to German voters.
“
He
comes from a family that was originally conservative and belongs to him rather to the wing that is called realistic among the Greens, that is to say that we sometimes consider in France as the right-wing wing of the Greens, the one who is ready to govern and who, moreover, led him to become a minister.
»
80% renewable energy in 2032
Appointed to lead the battle for energy transition, Robert Habeck sees his plans turned upside down by the war in Ukraine.
In two months, he reduced the share of Russian gas consumed by Germany from 50 to 35%.
To do this, he goes to Qatar and the United States to order liquid gas there, and launches the construction of new gas infrastructures on the German coasts.
Rather difficult decisions to accept for the German Greens.
" Nevertheless
, we have to go and ask for fossil fuels again in the Middle East, it's not at all something that makes ecological sense
," sighs the Franco-German MEP Anna Deparnay-Grünenberg
.
O
n certain boreholes and certain old structures that we were going to close and that we will have to restart in certain protected areas, for example along the German coast.
And it's true that it hurts all of us very much at heart...
"
But, paradoxically, the war in Ukraine will comfort German ecologists… by demonstrating the absolute necessity of emancipating oneself from fossil fuels.
“
Before, we were almost the only ones to say that moving towards a 100% renewable world was not only an ecological issue, but also a security issue
,” emphasizes Anna Deparnay-Grünenberg.
With the war in Ukraine and of course the sanctions, which we supported, it was necessary to review all the decisions regarding energy supply and therefore we really demonstrated that the economic, ecological and security issues were intrinsically linked.
»
Robert Habeck and the German ecologists have not given up on the energy transition – very far from it.
And to do without nuclear power, still taboo across the Rhine, they are betting on wind turbines which will have to cover 2% of the territory by 2032, and ensure 80% of electricity production by the same date.
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