At the UN Climate Change Conference Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks has called for "competition to find the best climate policy". Clear rules are needed to made it possible to check whether individual countries have offset as much carbon dioxide as pledged, she said.
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Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller urged industry to invest more in climate change mitigation.
In Lima the delegates are working on the draft of a comprehensive international climate agreement, which is to be adopted at the end of 2015 in Paris. The Paris agreement must be legally binding. "States will only be willing to make commitments if they can be certain that other countries are doing the same," explained Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks during the UN conference.
The Green Climate Fund now has ten billion US dollars at its disposal to mitigate climate change in developing countries. Representatives of 32 countries agreed this at the international donor conference in Berlin. Other states have announced that they will be pledging funds at the end of this year.
The agreement, the bones of which are being hammered out in Lima, must move away from the distinction that has hitherto been made between industrialised and developing countries. It is important to have comparable emission reduction targets. And a review system is needed. It must be clear "how we can measure and monitor what". The first drafts of the final document are very promising, said the minister.
If it emerges that the measures pledged are not sufficient to achieve the "two degree" target, the contributions agreed will have to be stepped up over the next few years. There is not to be any sort of international climate court however.
With its European partners, Germany has agreed to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 40 per cent by 2030. "Several years ago we undertook to reduce CO2 emissions by 40 per cent by 2020," said the Environment Minister. "To ensure that we achieve this target, the German government adopted my action programme last week." The programme provides for additional emission reductions.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the efforts of the German government to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases by 40 per cent by 2020 taking 1990 as the benchmark year. He deemed the action programme that has been adopted to achieve this target a signal.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on participating states at the start of the ministerial negotiations to set themselves more ambitious targets to cut emissions of ozone-depleting greenhouse gases. "We must act now, " he said in Lima. "It is vital to tackle climate change if we are to achieve sustainable development. He urged conference participants to deliver a balanced, well structured draft for the climate agreement.
It is also important to find a way of providing the planned 100 billion dollars to support measures to help developing countries adapt to climate change. Germany is to make an additional contribution of 50 million euros.
The UN Adaptation Fund was established under the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol to help developing countries that are particularly vulnerable to the negative impacts of climate change to finance specific projects and programmes designed to help them adapt to climate change.
"Germany accepts its responsibility to support the developing countries, "said Barbara Hendricks. Last year Germany contributed two billion US dollars to international climate funding. And Germany has pledged about one billion US dollars to the Green Climate Fund.
Speaking in Lima, Federal Development Minister Gerd Müller stressed that Germany remains a trail-blazer in the field of climate change mitigation. "Whether or not we achieve the two-per cent target will depend on countries like China and India, the growing emerging economies," he said.
He urged industry to step up its commitment to climate action. Investment is needed in renewable energy and climate-friendly technologies in developing countries. The climate debate is too strongly focused on reducing CO2 emissions, he said. "We must focus more on the ability of forests to bind greenhouse gases," he stressed.
Earlier Gerd Müller signed a forest protection agreement with Norway, Colombia and Ecuador. It provides for the two South American states to receive funding if they commit to protect their forests, and thus to protect the global climate, using their own resources.
The European Union expects the Climate Change Conference to produce a legally binding, universally applicable climate agreement that can then be signed in December 2015.
By 2030 the EU aims to emit at least 40 per cent fewer greenhouse gases. As Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said, "Compared to the rest of the world, the EU has set itself extremely ambitious climate targets." Now the large countries must follow suit. "If they do so, and if the Paris conference is a success, the EU is prepared to go even further," she stressed.
Barbara Hendricks sees signs that the states are willing to do more for climate action, but urged the USA and China to adopt more ambitious reduction targets. "There is still scope for more." Development Minister Gerd Müller deemed the USA’s announcement that it would be reducing CO2 emissions by 26 to 28 per cent of the 2005 level by 2025 far too cautious. The same applied to China’s intention of beginning to cut emissions as of 2030.