At their digital party congress, the Greens settled their controversy about the target of limiting global warming. An application that apparently came about after discussions between the party leadership and critics is more clearly committed to the 1.5 degree target. The corresponding chapter in the new basic program is to be decided on Saturday afternoon. Party leader Robert Habeck affirmed the Greens’ claim to power in his speech: “For the first time, a third party is seriously fighting for the leadership of this country.”
“The central basis of our policy is the Paris Climate Agreement and the report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on the 1.5 degree limit,” says the motion. “It is therefore necessary to get on the 1.5 degree path.” Immediate and substantial action in the next few years is crucial.
Previously, representatives of the environmental movement had appealed to the Greens to commit to the 1.5 degree target more clearly than initially planned. In the original draft of the basic program, reference was only made to the Paris Climate Agreement, according to which global heating should be limited to well below two degrees, if possible to 1.5 degrees.
The environmental activist Luisa Neubauer from “Fridays for Future” welcomed the new text variant. “The Greens have taken an important step today under pressure from broad social alliances,” she tweeted.
In addition to climate policy, the also controversial topic of direct democracy was on the agenda on Saturday. Habeck spoke out against referendums at the federal level in advance. “The Brexit was triggered by a referendum, Europe’s constitution was prevented by it,” he told the newspapers of the Funke media group. “The question is what problem a nationwide referendum will solve.”
“One problem is that many people are not heard enough – in parliament, for example, there are hardly any MPs with a middle school diploma or basically no one with a first school leaving certificate,” said Habeck. To answer this, there is “a better model, the citizens’ councils”. Citizens would be selected by lot. Representative citizens’ councils could then submit proposals on specific questions to parliaments.
In his speech at the party congress, Habeck justified his claim to leadership by stating that the Greens “had to face the challenges of the new era” and that the current government was in a “permanent repair mode”. Habeck stressed that his party “works for society as a whole”.
The fight for the leadership of the country is “a high claim, a bold, perhaps cheeky one,” said Habeck in his speech, which the digitally connected over 800 delegates followed at home. In the cosmos of the Greens, power was “often a yuck term,” said Habeck. “But power comes from doing.”
In his speech he denounced failures in dealing with the corona crisis and made comparisons with climate policy: “If we let the climate crisis escalate, like the corona crisis, then we as a political generation have failed.” It is still said that climate protection endangers economic success. “There will only be economic success and prosperity in the future with and through climate protection,” said Habeck.
Greens parliamentary group leader Anton Hofreiter said at the digital party congress: “We want to take responsibility for this country as a leading force.” He added: “The path to ecological modernity requires consistency and readiness for conflict.” But it’s also about taking everyone with you.
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