Germany's Merkel wants green recovery from coronavirus crisis
"Morrison’s Colossal Bullshit "UN climate talks: what's on the agenda in Madrid and what it means for Australia""
This is good news from Germany and great to see so many companies stepping forward on the climate question.
Michael Nienaber, Markus Wacket
April 29, 2020 / 12:04 AM / Updated 3 minutes ago
BERLIN (Reuters) - Governments should focus on climate protection when considering fiscal stimulus packages to support an economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday.
FILE PHOTO: German Chancellor Angela Merkel gives a media statement after a video conference of EU leaders on the spread of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Berlin, Germany, April 23, 2020. Michel Kappeler/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
Her comments are the clearest sign yet that Merkel wants to combine the task of helping companies recover from the pandemic with the challenge of setting more incentives for reducing carbon emissions.
Speaking at a virtual climate summit known as the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, Merkel said she expected difficult discussions about how to design post-crisis stimulus measures and about which business sectors need more help than others.
“It will be all the more important that if we set up economic stimulus programmes, we must always keep a close eye on climate protection,” Merkel said, adding the focus should be laid on supporting modern technologies and renewable energies.
U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the conference there could be an opportunity for the world in the “dark times” of the coronavirus crisis.
“The restart can lead to a healthier and more resilient world for everyone,” he said.
Merkel said governments should pull in private-sector money through international financial markets to finance the costly shift towards a more climate-friendly economy.
Proposals discussed by senior members of Merkel’s ruling coalition for a post-coronavirus stimulus package include a higher cash incentive for buying electric cars.
Merkel also welcomed the more ambitious goal set by the European Commission, the European Union’s executive, of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.
A “STEP FORWARD”
Christoph Bals from Germanwatch, an environment protection group, said it was an important step forward for Merkel to put her weight behind the EU climate target.
“She now has the task, as the future EU Council president, to actually link the corona stimulus programmes with the climate targets in such a way that at least a 55-percent EU target for 2030 can also be formally adopted this year,” Bals said.
Germany will hold the EU presidency in the second half of this year.
The EU agreed last week to build a trillion-euro recovery fund to revive economies ravaged by the pandemic and has already signed off on state aid worth 1.8 trillion euros ($1.95 trillion).
So far, the European Commission has not attached “green” conditions when approving aid from national budgets, as the health crisis takes priority.
But Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has said the trillion euro package, being drafted for review around mid-May, would boost her Green Deal plan to cut EU net emissions to zero by 2050.
Germany: 68 companies call on Govt. to ensure COVID-19 recovery measures are in line with Paris Agreement
Ahead of this week's digital Petersberg Climate Dialogue, an annual ministerial summit organised by the German government in preparation for the UN climate conference, both top German politicians and an alliance of 68 large German and international companies, separately urged the German Government to ensure COVID-19 economic stimulus packages are climate-friendly.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has also said that climate is on the agenda for the German EU Council presidency in the second half of 2020. Indeed, calls for a green recovery and the European Green Deal to be placed at the heart of the EU’s post COVID-19 recovery plan have been growing in recent weeks, for more information on the Green Recovery Alliance see here.
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Article 27 April 2020
For crisis management and a sustainable future: Making our economy more resilient with a climate stimulus programme
Author: Stiftung 2°
It is now essential to support the economy with short-term measures to help it on its way out of the corona crisis... The planned medium and longer-term economic aid measures must not only provide an economic stimulus, but also contribute to our common goal: a resilient economy and society that achieves climate neutrality through a high level of innovation and competitiveness.
We, businesses from all sectors of the German economy, therefore, call upon the Federal Government:
1. Closely link economic policy measures aimed at overcoming the corona and climate crises and systematically ensure that all relevant stimulus and investment programmes are climate-friendly...
2. Build on climate policy successes and consistently continue to design and implement climate policy measures...
3. Preserve and increase the competitiveness of the German and European economies by resolutely crafting an ambitious and constructive Green Deal and develop it as a European innovation and growth strategy that also contributes to the mastering of the impacts of the corona crisis...
4. Work to ensure that all countries present ambitious climate commitments in line with the objectives of the Paris Agreement by the next UN Climate Change Conference at the latest...
China Mounts Aggressive Defense to Calls for Coronavirus Compensation
"Morrison’s Colossal Bullshit"
Morrison's support of Trump at times borders on the sycophantic.
Beijing has adopted a “no-holds barred” diplomatic push to quash criticism of its handling of the outbreak and to fend off efforts, including by President Trump, to hold it financially accountable.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang during a daily briefing at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Beijing last month. Andy Wong/Associated Press
By Damien Cave and Amy Qin
April 28, 2020
China is pushing back against the growing chorus of voices around the world calling for the country to pay compensation for the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan.
Politicians in the United States are “lying through their teeth,” a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, said at a news briefing on Tuesday.
The spokesman’s comments came one day after President Trump suggested that the United States would seek “substantial” compensation for Beijing’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
Richard McGregor, a China analyst with the Lowy Institute in Sydney, said the dispute reflects China’s refusal to accept criticism at a time when its rival, the United States, seems weak and continues to struggle with the virus, political division and mass unemployment.
“Beijing is mounting an all-hands-on-deck, no-holds-barred, global diplomatic effort to stem any move anywhere to censure it over its handling of the initial coronavirus outbreak in Wuhan,” Mr. McGregor said.
He stressed that the Chinese government sees this as a pivotal moment “to make a generational advance in their global position at the expense of Washington.”
At a news briefing on Monday, Mr. Trump put forth the idea that China could have prevented the coronavirus from spreading beyond its borders. “We believe it could have been stopped at the source,” he said, without offering an explanation of the steps the country could have taken.
He added that the administration was conducting “serious investigations” into the origins of the pandemic and that “there are a lot of ways you can hold them accountable,” referring to China. “We are not happy with China.”
The Chinese government fired right back.
“We advise American politicians to reflect on their own problems and try their best to control the epidemic as soon as possible, instead of continuing to play tricks to deflect blame,” Mr. Geng said on Tuesday.
China is also defending itself in Australia. China’s ambassador to Australia warned on Monday that the government’s call for an independent international inquiry into the origins of the pandemic could lead to a Chinese consumer boycott of Australian products and services.
For a country that relies heavily on China — a third of its exports go there — the conflict could carry serious consequences. It reflects a sharp acceleration in tensions, which were simmering before the pandemic over the Chinese government’s attempts to influence Australian politics ... https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/28/world/australia/china-spying-wang-liqiang-nick-zhao.html .. through donations and pressure.
The current war of words appears to have begun on April 17, when Australia’s minister for home affairs, Peter Dutton, demanded greater transparency from China on the origins of the coronavirus.
The Chinese Embassy accused him of parroting American propaganda, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison — who has worked hard to stay close to Mr. Trump — continued to press for more accountability in line with White House demands.
“We are not happy with China,” President Trump said on Monday at a coronavirus news briefing. Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
Mr. Morrison spoke to Mr. Trump on April 21, and announced a day later that he supported an overhaul of the World Health Organization, including the recruitment of investigators akin to “weapons inspectors” to determine the source of major disease outbreaks.
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In the United States, the State of Missouri filed a lawsuit alleging that Chinese officials were to blame for the pandemic. Mr. Geng, the foreign ministry spokesman, called the suit “very absurd” and said it “has no factual and legal basis at all.”
In France earlier this month, the Chinese ambassador was summoned by the foreign ministry to discuss an article posted on the embassy’s website that claimed Western countries were letting older people die in nursing homes. That had led French lawmakers to complain Beijing was spreading misinformation.
That same week, Britain’s foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, said, “There absolutely needs to be a very, very deep dive after-the-event review of the lessons, including on the outbreak of the virus.”
The Chinese diplomats and government-approved voices who are speaking out with boldness may simply be falling in line with the more aggressive efforts by President Xi Jinping to rewrite China’s history with the virus, emphasizing its successful containment, according to Mr. McGregor.
But they are showing no signs of backing down. Even as editorials in the Australian media argued that China has shown its true colors, as an unreliable, authoritarian partner, on Tuesday night, China’s response intensified.
“Australia is always messing around,” Hu Xijin, the editor of Global Times, a nationalist tabloid controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, wrote in a social media post. “I feel it is a bit like chewing gum stuck to the soles of China’s shoes. Sometimes you have to find a stone to scrape it off.”
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