Article by Foreign Minister Steinmeier and Environment Minister Gabriel in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

Published September 29, 2008

Either John McCain or Barack Obama could win the US elections. Whoever it is, international climate policy stands to gain. Both candidates have included clear statements on climate policy in their election platforms, both want a political shift on the national and international stage. We would like to extend an offer of cooperation to the winner, whoever that may be, to work together to advance climate protection and an energy policy adapted to the future. 

Who, if not us? Together with the United States, we could assume a leading role in the field of international climate protection, achieve technological breakthroughs and negotiate a successful successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol. Only if we cooperate closely across the Atlantic will we be able to persuade up-and-coming economies such as China, India, Brazil, but also Russia, of the merits of a sustainable and climate-friendly model of growth. Only then will we be able to bring the international negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009 to a successful conclusion. And only then will we have a realistic chance of containing the negative consequences of climate change, such as natural disasters, water shortages and coastal flooding. 

For this reason climate policy must be a central plank of a "New Transatlantic Agenda" in which we set ourselves essential tasks to be tackled jointly in the spirit of a forward-looking foreign policy. For this reason we would like to build a "transatlantic climate bridge", step by step. 

Back in April 2007, at the foreign ministers' initiative, German, European and American CEOs, financial practitioners and clean technology experts met in Washington and drew up recommendations for the EU-US Summit held that year during the German EU Council Presidency. Their recommendations included enhanced coordination and cooperation between Berlin, Brussels and Washington on research programmes for clean technologies. 

We have taken decisive steps towards an emissions trading system spanning the Atlantic over the past twelve months. The regional trading systems that are currently being established in the United States and which form the basis for a potential national emissions trading scheme, are co-founders of ICAP, the International Carbon Action Partnership. ICAP was launched one year ago in Lisbon as the result of a German initiative. It now enjoys the support not only of Governor Schwarzenegger of California and the EU Commission, but also of New Zealand and Australia, the first Pacific states to sign up. A global emissions trading system is thus gradually coming into sight. 

But we must strengthen our cooperation on climate issues yet further. We therefore want to win the support of decision-makers at all levels on the other side of the Atlantic, even before the US presidential elections are held. It is a question of climate protection and the sensible use of resources. But it is also a question of opportunities for German businesses and products in the USA. 

We will inaugurate the transatlantic climate bridge at a joint event in Berlin on 30 September. Politicians, businesspeople, researchers and academics from both sides of the Atlantic have been invited to attend. The goal is to agree on the next steps for climate cooperation with new, joint projects and a "marketplace of ideas". Following this launch, we will take the idea of a climate bridge on the road in the USA. Our roadshow will bring German climate and energy policy to the American public. We will highlight successful examples of cooperation, facilitate further contacts between transatlantic bridge-builders and pave the way for new projects. 

The market for green technologies is expanding rapidly, above all in the United States. We lead the field in wind, solar and efficient technologies, and have created many new, secure jobs in Germany. Even today, German companies in the solar sector are among the market leaders on the US west coast. German wind power specialists also head their field, and German solutions are prize-winners in the US competition for low-energy buildings. We hope to use the transatlantic climate bridge to enhance and draw more attention to our world-class achievements. 

Climate policy in the USA is about to strike out for pastures green. In this it has our full support. Climate policy is preparation for the future, in the transatlantic relationship as elsewhere. If we want this relationship to remain of central relevance in the future, it will have to focus on the issues essential to the survival of our planet. We are ready to take this step.

Conference: A New Era in Transatlantic Climate and Energy Cooperation