Running Out of Steam

In Germany, green is good. The renewable energy sector is growing in leaps and bounds, and the country's pioneering laws to promote renewables serve as a role model for other nations.

Germans themselves are conscientious recyclers who separate their trash and take their own carrier bags to the supermarket while Chancellor Angela Merkel has made climate a key issue of her administration and of Germany's G8 presidency, leading to her being dubbed the "Klimakanzlerin," or climate chancellor.

But when it comes to pursuing climate protection goals, the country has run out of steam, say environmental activists.

As the United Nations' climate change conference opened in Bali on Monday, dozens of activist groups banded together to call on the German government to do justice to its reputation as a global leader on climate protection.

In particular, environmentalists take issue with the government's plans to build as many as 25 coal-fired power stations, and the German car industry's opposition to speed limits which would cut carbon dioxide emissions.

Coal to fill void left by nuclear phase-out

Greenpeace Germany, for example, has criticized Merkel for making big pledges to cut the country's CO2 levels at international events, and then quietly approving plans to expand the coal industry.

In June, the European Union agreed to cut CO2 emissions by 20 percent by 2020. Merkel, the driving force behind the target, pledged to make more radical cuts of up to 40 percent should other industrialized countries make similar commitments.

But in Germany, coal-fired power stations currently account for 44 percent of Germany's energy supply -- a share that is only set to increase with the addition of more such power stations which the government says are needed to fill the void left by the phase-out of atomic energy.

"There is a clear contradiction between Merkel's public stance at international forums and the German reality," said Greenpeace Germany spokesman Karsten Smid. "The goal of cutting emissions by 40 percent cannot be achieved in any case, and the figures do not even take into account the 25 new power stations being planned," he told the German news agency DPA.

Merkel was opposed to the nuclear phase-out which was agreed under the previous government. "It doesn't make sense to say you want to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and then have the first thing you do be to switch off that (energy source) which doesn't create any CO2 emissions," she said at the party conference of her Christian Democratic Union in Hanover on Monday. But, referring to efforts to halt construction of the country's new coal-burning plants, she said that this, too "defies common sense" if Germany's future energy supply is to be secure.

Clean energy from renewables currently makes up 12 percent of Germany's energy supply, and while she stresses her commitment to the expansion of this sector, Merkel has repeatedly said that coal will remain an irreplaceable part of Germany's "energy mix."

Activists campaigning for speed limits

Just as driving fast, gas-guzzling cars on a highway with no speed limits looks set to remain an irreplaceable part of German culture, much to the dismay of environmental groups who say this passion for polluting cars is part of the dirty flipside of the country's clean, green image.

They note that the government refuses to consider introducing speed limits on the 6,000 km (3,700 miles) of highway where there is no top limit. Environmentalists argue that speed limits could cut Germany's CO2 emissions instantly, and also do away with German carmakers need to produce the heavy, powerful cars that are designed to do the speed on the Autobahn.

But according to a new survey by German legal insurer ARAG, that would be one more factor to add to the growing weariness among the German population for the issue of climate protection. Of the over 1000 Germans polled for the company's latest "Deutschland Trend" survey, two-thirds rejected the idea of introducing national climate protection measures.

Among the respondents classified as executives and civil servants, only 53.4 percent said they were in favor of something concrete being done in 2008 in Germany to protect the climate. And more than 76 percent of the respondents meant to represent Germany's middle class said they saw no reason to drive their cars less, or improve energy efficiency in their own homes.