Berlin (AFP)
The parties of the fragile government coalition Angela Merkel Friday struggled to grant their violins on a comprehensive climate strategy after a full night of negotiations and a global strike on the subject.
After months of bitter talks between Angela Merkel's conservatives and their social-democratic partner, a compromise was to be announced in the night.
The challenge is to take steps to encourage Germans to reduce pollutant emissions, and allow the country, now lagging behind, to meet its targets for reducing pollutant emissions.
But Friday morning, after nearly 16 hours of marathon negotiations at the highest level at the Chancery, no white smoke was noticeable.
"In football too, there are sometimes extra time, and that's when decisive goals are often scored," said the vice-president of the conservative parliamentary group Andreas Jung.
This compromise must in principle to be adopted Friday mid-day in the Council of Ministers, the very day of a global strike action for climate protection.
- Pressure of opinion -
The mobilization should be particularly well followed in Germany, where environmentalists have the wind in their sails and chain electoral success.
In Frankfurt, demonstrators have already blocked traffic in the city center, causing a monster traffic jam and car horn concerts, according to local police. In Berlin, the main event will begin at 10:00 GMT at the iconic Brandenburg Gate.
According to the draft agreement under discussion, investments of "a three-figure amount in billions of euros", or at least 100 billion euros, are planned for by 2030.
But the negotiations still stumbled over the details of the measures. And in particular on a model of CO2 emission pricing, where gasoline, diesel, heating gas or fuel oil could be integrated into a national certificate market and see their price rise, of about 11 cents for example for the liter of diesel.
Central issue: where to set the slider to both have a price high enough to entice consumers to opt for the least polluting solutions, but at the same time not to provoke an outcry of opinion, to the example of the movement of yellow vests in France?
This is discussed in the price floor and ceiling discussions in this market.
In concrete terms, the government's strategy also includes a range of measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in energy, construction, agriculture, industry and transportation.
These range from promoting public transport and trains, to increasing the price of air travel in Germany, to various subsidies for the development of electric cars or for efficient and clean personal heating.
At the same time, it is a question of putting a boost on the development of clean energy (solar, wind or biomass), whose share in the production of electricity in the country must rise to 65% in 2030 against 40% currently.
- Fragile Government -
The pressure on the Merkel government is great: it must meet the expectations of the mobilization initiated by the young FutureforFridays, a movement created by the Swedish muse Greta Thunberg. And an agreement seems essential to the survival of the coalition itself, very fragile since its difficult constitution last year.
Social Democratic Minister of Finance Olaf Scholz directly linked the continuation of the coalition, very unpopular in Germany, to the development of a "major climate project".
Germany has decided earlier this year to abandon coal by 2038, but it still has to program the closure of its mines and power plants. A site all the more delicate that it must parallel to complete by 2022 its exit from nuclear power, decided in 2011 after the disaster of Fukushima.
And its powerful automotive industry has long favored gasoline or diesel vehicles before taking the turn of the electric.
As a result, the country which had committed to reducing CO2 emissions by 40% compared to 1990, will have reached only one third. In 2030, it aims for a reduction of 55%.
© 2019 AFP