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Cooling towers of the Lippendorf power plant behind a solar park: The energy transition is proving tough
Photo: Jan Woitas / dpa
Climate protection is a must, and there is broad agreement on this. But how much – and how fast? Opinions differ on this.
This can be seen, for example, in the traffic light coalition, which is arguing about its heating law and is making little progress. The brakemen are likely to feel strengthened by a survey conducted by the opinion research institute Civey for SPIEGEL.
According to the survey, half of Germans want less speed in climate protection, only about a third more speed.
(Read more about the Civey methodology here.)
According to the survey, the majority of supporters of the Greens (92 percent) and the SPD (53 percent) are in favor of a faster pace of climate protection policy. On the other hand, among people who lean towards other parties, the number of those who would like to see less speed in climate protection policy predominates.
The reasons for this are likely to lie in concerns about the financial burden of the planned laws. In an older survey, around half of those surveyed had already stated that they considered climate protection to be less relevant for themselves personally compared to economic issues, for example.
Scholz should show more leadership on the issue of climate
More speed on the subject of climate is therefore not needed – but more leadership at the top of the government in this field is.
According to the survey, around 68 percent of Germans believe that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) should take greater leadership in climate protection in the federal government.
This applies beyond party preferences. Even 44 percent of AfD supporters would like to see more leadership from Scholz on climate protection. Whether they want this for the same reasons as the Green supporters, however, remains to be seen: For some, more leadership in this context may mean pushing the pace – and for others, doing the opposite.
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