UN climate conference: “Brutal truth” at the climate summit – cake for distant Merz

Antalya. Time is running out in the fight against the climate crisis - yet many heads of state and government skipped the climate conference in Turkey, including Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU). There, UN Secretary-General António Guterres warned the global community: “The brutal truth is that the climate crisis is escaping us.”

Specifically, Guterres called for a rapid exit from oil, coal and gas as well as higher taxes on the gigantic profits of the oil companies. The revenue would have to flow primarily to vulnerable states that suffered from the climate crisis. “Polluters have to pay!” he shouted to the plenary session of the “Leader's Summit”.

At the two-week conference with over 90,000 participants, more than 190 countries discussed how to contain the climate crisis and financial aid for poor countries, many of which are particularly suffering from the fatal consequences. Depending on the region, these include more severe and frequent heat waves, droughts, forest fires as well as storms and floods.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva targeted opponents and blockers. “Science and international cooperation are under attack.” Climate agreements are “favorite goals of reactionary forces,” said the left-wing politician, without naming names. But in times of polarization, diplomacy can “open windows where doors have been closed.”

The USA withdrew from the Paris Climate Agreement under President Donald Trump. Other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, are part of the UN climate negotiations but regularly block progress that would bring the world closer to phasing out coal, oil and gas.

The host of this year's summit, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, emphasized that his country wants to be climate neutral by 2053 and expand renewable energy. On Monday, just at the start of the climate conference, Erdogan announced the discovery and exploitation of two more oil fields. Turkish environmental activists also repeatedly criticize the fact that a coal-fired power plant in the west is to be expanded and that some deforestation is being carried out to achieve this.

Now Erdogan explicitly warned about global warming. “I hope that the conference will be a new turning point in the fight against the climate crisis and believe with all my heart that with your support we will achieve this,” he said. “We all know well that a burning forest, a drying river, a polluted sea and a felled tree harm the entire planet.”

Guterres said emissions of climate-damaging greenhouse gases would have peaked again in 2025. And the past four years have been the hottest since records began. Therefore, climate-damaging fossil fuels such as coal, oil and gas must “extinct like the dinosaurs,” demanded Guterres. "But it doesn't happen by itself. The dinosaurs didn't have a lobby, but fossil fuels did."

Every year, hundreds of lobbyists from the oil, gas and coal industries are represented at the climate conference. Every government must develop credible roadmaps for the exit, said Guterres. “That means: no new coal, no new oil and gas infrastructure.”

A climate protection index published annually by the organizations Germanwatch and NewClimate Institute provides a reality check for the appeals. The index evaluates the efforts of 64 countries and the EU, which together account for more than 90 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. In comparison, Germany is falling further behind and is only mediocre in the fight against global warming. For the third time in a row, the Federal Republic fell down the list - now to 25th place, three places lower than last year.

The experts even rate climate policy at the national level alone as “weak”: Germany slipped nine places to 36th in this category. Lead author Jan Burck said: “Half of the EU states have better grades.” This is primarily the result of the policy of Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU), who is increasingly relying on natural gas.

The fact that climate protection is not at the top of the current federal government's list of priorities is also shown by Chancellor Merz's absence from the climate summit. He justified the cancellation, among other things, with an important cabinet meeting and other obligations this week. However, climate activists were particularly outraged that Merz, who also had his birthday on Wednesday, wanted to go “to an Italian restaurant” with his family.

In Antalya, activists symbolically cut a birthday cake for Merz. Luisa Neubauer from Fridays for Future said it was a “Happy Birthday without a Happy Future”. “We would like to be able to celebrate our 71st at some point, in stable planetary conditions,” she said. Merz disappointed the global community with his rejection.

Overall, participation in the two-day “Leader's Summit” was rather restrained. There were around 80 heads of state and government on the list of speakers; at previous summits there were more than 100. In addition to Germany, the large EU countries France, Spain, Italy as well as Poland and Romania, where together more than two thirds of the EU population live, were also missing from the list.