Anne Will (ARD): Cuddle course between Lindner and Habeck – Unusual unity

Anne Will poses the question in the ARD political talk: One week until the general election – what is the climate worth to us?

Berlin – Catastrophic floods after continuous rainfall, drying up harvests in periods of drought and storms of destructive power: Climate change is now painfully noticeable in Germany as well and could be the topic that will be decisive in the next Sunday’s federal election in 2021. It is accordingly high this time in Anne Will’s political talk show (ARD), when the party leaders from the SPD, CDU, Greens and FDP as well as the journalist Cerstin Gammelin give each other a verbal exchange of blows in the studio.

Unfortunately, all of this is rarely productive in terms of content, especially when all the participants in the discussion – including the moderator – regularly interrupt each other. Some things can hardly be understood acoustically, and following the conversation is always a test of hearing and patience. Cerstin Gammelin from the Süddeutsche Zeitung does not mince his words in between: The election programs of the parties with their office and technocratic approach all did not fit the pressing reality and saw climate protection as a mathematical task, according to the journalist.

Anne Will (ARD): Before the general election, the Greens and the FDP are getting closer

In truth, however, this can only be achieved with a lot of money and numerous changes in the lifestyle of all people. You have to make that transparent and rely much more on social consensus, as well as on a Europe-wide understanding in addition to the German strategy, if you don’t want to fail. The most surprising finding in the general confusion of voices: The Greens and the FDP are closer to each other on significantly more climate protection points than assumed.

With the CDU and SPD there are more likely overlaps, although the roughly sketched paths to the goal are partly different. All parties agree that German politics absolutely must speed up: Planning and approval procedures for the construction of new and modern wind turbines, solar systems or power lines should be purged and should no longer drag on for years if one wants to make progress in terms of climate protection. A lip service that has been heard so often and for many other areas, but which is seldom followed by action.

Robert Habeck conjures up social dynamics with Anne Will (ARD)

For Christian Lindner, a change to a different economic model, which combines prosperity and growth with the protection of the natural basis of life, is right at the top of the agenda. He asks the question: Who, if not Germany, can use scientific progress to show that economic growth and climate protection are not mutually exclusive, but can complement one another? So far, however, mainly private investors who have included climate protection in their company philosophies have been responsible for this.

In order for this to be further promoted, tax increases are the wrong way to go. In addition, according to the FDP leader, one should use the opportunity that Germany will hold the G7 presidency next year – all members would then have to be motivated to pull together and work together in the area of climate policy.

Robert Habeck, meanwhile, is campaigning for measures to be adopted that will ultimately achieve specific CO2 reduction targets. This also requires investments by the public sector in order to pave the economy as well as private individuals on a secure path to climate neutrality. He also emphasizes once again the position of the Greens to shut down as many coal-fired power plants as possible as quickly as possible, since these are the main causes of CO2 emissions and thus global warming.

E-fuel and hydrogen solutions, which the FDP and CDU are always happy to try to bring salvation to life, could only be produced with an immense amount of energy and therefore only in small quantities, which is why they are used in the chemical industry or in heavy drives, but not in everyday use could become. However, the performance of other new and cleaner technologies will increase rapidly and unleash undreamt-of social dynamics and economic forces.

Anne Will (ARD): Volker Bouffier pays tribute to the CDU’s services

Volker Bouffier keeps a low profile on Anne Will (ARD) for the first twenty minutes, but then starts. Above all, it is important to him not to diminish the old climate protection achievements of his party. He explains that in Germany CO2 emissions have been reduced by 42 percent over the past thirty years, while economic power has risen by almost fifty percent at the same time. The credo of the CDU is to sustainably reduce climate-damaging emissions and at the same time to preserve jobs and prosperity – otherwise large countries such as Russia, China or India, which are indispensable for climate change, would not even embark on the same path.

You will also not be successful if the voters were ignored and “did not come along”. Faster planning and approval procedures are indispensable in order to get electricity generated by wind energy efficiently from north to south. In response to Will’s question as to why these had not been accelerated long ago under the CDU leadership, he refers – we already know – to different federal and state competencies.

Saskia Esken has little to say about Anne Will (ARD)

Saskia Esken hardly has a say in all of this. She has to suffer from the long explanations and some in-between slips of her male colleagues. She rarely manages to make herself heard and receives by far the shortest speaking time of the show – which is also not innocent of the presenter, who asks her only a few questions and intervenes much too late, towards the end of the show.

With Volker Bouffier, of all people, who persistently calls her “Frau Eskens” and finally takes over the conversation, the SPD chairman is more often on the same climate line: She too is of the opinion that the population has created even more acceptance for the coal phase-out must be. With the keyword “accelerated procedure” one should start citizen participation earlier and parallelize planning procedures, to which more digitization could contribute a lot. And: should set goals not be achieved, can and must be refined.

Anne Will (ARD): Much remains unsaid about the climate

Much remains vague, unsaid or inaudible in this issue of Anne Will (ARD). If this can be carried over to the future climate policy of the parties, the angry response of the younger generation could be just as devastating as their possible future. (Peter Hoch)

While the party leaders discussed at Anne Will (ARD), Annalena Baerbock (Greens), Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Armin Laschet (CDU) exchanged blows in the Triell (Sat 1).