The German Chancellor also advocated dialogue with global warming sceptics.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday said each and every country needs to contribute to bring down global warming as it is now a question of survival of the entire planet.
Attending the 50th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Ms. Merkel said the world has indeed become a better place in the last 50 years.
The Cold War is over, Germany is united and at the same time the world has become a multi-polar world, the 65-year-old German leader said.
“All this wouldn’t have been possible without cooperation between countries. We still have new problems almost every year. Now environmental problems are there and we need to work towards making a sustainable world,” she said while attending the Davos summit of WEF for the 12th time.
“We want to achieve those sustainable development goals. We still have a lot on our plate. The question is of survival of the entire planet. We need to bring global warming down to below 1.5 degrees. Global community has to act together. Each and every country has to make a contribution. There are transformative processes that we need to go through,” she emphasised.
Ms. Merkel, Chancellor of Germany for 15 years, has always been known as a strong supporter of multi-lateralism. Germany is one of the most robust European economies and is ranked 7th on the WEF Global Competitiveness Index.
Ms. Merkel also advocated dialogue with global warming sceptics.
“We have a group of people who don’t think climate change is so urgent. As a democracy, we have to take those people along with us,” she said.
Whenever facts and emotions are in play, one can always develop an anti-fact narrative, she warned, urging people to talk together and bridge any divide.
“That’s what we have to reconcile – facts and emotions,” Ms. Merkel said.
The question of whether we will attain the Paris goals on climate change may well be one of survival for the whole planet, she said.
“We are under pressure and this is a decade of action,” she said.
There has to be an enormous transformation in the whole way we do business, developing whole new value chains, she added.
The Chancellor further said Germany’s energy mix was being completely overhauled to move away from coal and nuclear and in favour of renewables. Green hydrogen will also play a big role in the future of energy mix, she said. Ms. Merkel also said there were serious conflicts in society to overcome.
Article Credit: thehindu.