The President of the Federal Environment Agency, Dirk Messner, has expressed concern about the progress in German environmental policy in recent years. “Today a cold wind is blowing towards us in environmental and climate policy,” said Messner South German newspaper.
Mainly due to the economic situation pressure arises. “The currently dominant view is: The economy is doing so badly that we cannot now afford expensive environmental and climate protection,” said Messner. “So we’re postponing that, lowering the targets and extending the deadlines,” he criticized. This is not only ecologically harmful, but also economically.
The clearest symbol of this is the debate about the combustion engine stops. We know that the future will be determined by electromobility, but we are still relying on technology from the past. This is an “expression of a mental block of the present in which we are stuck,” he said.
Messner was also critical of plans to weaken environmental and climate requirements in order to speed up procedures. Nothing speaks against a more efficient bureaucracy. “It becomes problematic when environmental and climate policy per se is labeled as particularly bureaucratic. And it is then considered progress when climate and environmental targets are lowered,” he said. The goal must be a “sensible reduction in bureaucracy”.
