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Today we’re diving into Germany’s latest climate woes and the ever-evolving world of climate diplomacy. Let’s get into it.

In advance of the latest G7 summit, Germany is going head to head with their counterparties. Despite the G7 historically taking leadership on climate change policy, Germany wants the summit to formally push for public investment in to the natural gas sector.

They’re arguing that it’s a necessary component of the transition in light of global energy security issues. The rest of the squad is not impressed.

Security First

Let’s be honest, Germany hasn’t had the best couple of years when it comes to energy security. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine left Germany to fend for itself, and as one of the biggest consumers of Russian gas, they were disproportionately affected. Just when you thought things couldn’t get worse, they closed their last nuclear reactors. Germany was in a tight spot.

Scrambling to avoid disaster, they quickly built and funded liquified natural gas terminals on the North coast. In parallel they negotiated a number of international deals to secure alternative gas sources. They moved quick to fund a range of sources and restore confidence in their energy sources.

In recent months, the situation has improved and from the outside in it looks like Germany has sufficient gas to serve its needs. These new statements seem to indicate a renewed interest in investing further in natural gas.

German Flipflops

Germany says that these are a temporary solution and that the same terminals will be repurposed to generate green hydrogen. Critics argue that the science on this is still mixed as green hydrogen is yet to be developed at scale. The Strawman just wonders why those nuclear reactors were closed…

Even if we give Germany benefit of the doubt, leaders in the G7, especially the UK and France, argue that Germany’s investments into natural gas over the last couple of years need to remain an exception.

It’s like when a friend group makes some plans but that one guy is ‘feeling something else’ at the last minute. Not okay.

It’s unlikely that Germany will be able to rally its fellow G7 members under this cause but it just goes to show the role energy security has on climate policy. It’s not enough to fund green energy, we need to plan how we get there and in many ways, this is Germany’s way of asking for help.

Until next time,

The Strawman