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The Week in Germany: Business and Technology

March 16, 2007

German Industry Group BDI Engages in Climate Debate, Founds Initiative “Business for Climate Protection”

Germany’s largest industry association, the BDI, has said that German businesses will do their part to protect the climate and achieve the CO2 reduction goals set by the European Council last week.

Calling the 27-member union’s accord to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 20 percent below 1990 levels “ambitious”, BDI-chief Jürgen Thumann promised that “industry will put its expertise and technology to work to fulfill these targets.”

In the run-up to the spring summit at which EU leaders forged the agreement, Thumann had said that such targets should not be mandatory, saying that Germany is already doing most of the heavy lifting in reducing emissions. “You have to understand that Germany alone has accounted for 75 percent of the reductions in greenhouse gas emissions prescribed by the Kyoto-Protocol for Europe by 2012, and now they are piling on even more,” Thumann said in an interview with the Frankfurter Rundschau.

Instead, he said that voluntary commitments by industry have proven effective, referring to a commitment on the part of German industry to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 35 percent by 2012.

After EU leaders approved the mandatory cuts, Thumann repeated his plea to ensure that the burden is distributed equally across member nations and called for a “joint technology offensive” within the frame work of a new transatlantic economic partnership. “The goal must be to get all the big emitters on board, i.e. the USA, China, and India in addition to Europe.”

As the BDI works to influence the details that will be hammered out over the coming months, it has founded an initiative it says will offer support to policy makers in combating climate change. Titled “Business for Climate Change”, the initiative brings together companies including energy concerns and industrial giants like BASF and Siemens that have undertaken to submit proposals for a post 2012 climate regime.

According to a BDI statement, the initiative is founded on the principles that it is possible to decouple economic growth from primary energy consumption, and that climate saving technologies will be an engine for jobs and growth. The members agreed that “economic growth and sustainable climate protection go hand in hand […]. The widespread use of climate-friendly products and services will open up great potential to German companies to expand and provide employment in Germany.”

For his part, Thumann has joined the tide of European leaders who are working to establish environmental credentials by going green at home. “We only use energy-saving bulbs at home,” said the businessman who turned his parents’ metal parts business into a global operation with 2,300 employees before taking over as president of the BDI in 2005.

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