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The Week in Germany: Current Affairs July 6, 2007 National Energy Summit: Merkel Affirms CO2 Cuts but Says the World Must Join In Chancellor Angela Merkel warned Tuesday that a German offer to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 40 per cent remained conditional on most of the world joining in. Speaking after consultations in Berlin with chiefs of German energy companies and consumer leaders at the National Energy Summit, she said that climate change had been unambiguously proved by science, and Germany must act on emissions. "Obviously Germany will make its contribution to achieving the targets," she said. She emphasized that the basic target was to cut CO2 emissions by 20 per cent by 2020. Only if other nations joined in would Germany expand the cut to 30 or 40 percent, and she could not promise that before negotiations were finished. Merkel said she expected annual climate-change talks with industry from 2010 onwards to review the feasibility of the targets. The energy summit in Berlin was the third and last of a series of meetings on how Germany can keep the wheels of industry turning and electrical appliances running while reducing emissions. While the proportion of electricity generated from alternative energy sources is rising in line with ambitious targets and generous subsidies, fossil fuels remain the primary energy source in Germany. Some companies are experimenting with sinking carbon dioxide in deep rock instead of sending it up the smokestack. The talks have also reignited Germany's old debate about nuclear power. Under standing legislation, all the country's 17 nuclear power stations are to be scrapped by 2021, but some center-right figures favor keeping them longer. The government said the next step was to draft legislation this year
setting targets until 2020. (dpa)
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