Professor Töpfer, you used to be the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Today you are the director of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Climate, Earth System and Sustainability Sciences in Potsdam. Many people say the results of the Copenhagen climate conference fell short of expectations. What can Germany do to push the process forward?
Our industry has what it takes to be a pioneer in this field. We didn’t wait until everybody else installed their coal-fired power stations with flue-gas purification systems. We just went straight ahead and did it. And that has given us an economic advantage. We should take the lead, set a good example and continue making the most of the opportunities our industry offers.
How can this work?
For example, creating a new power grid in the North Sea is an excellent idea. There is a whole range of such opportunities – irrespective of whether we reduce emissions by 30 or 40%. The main thing is that we make a start on reducing them. We can add up the figures later. This way we can make progress a lot faster.
Where do you see potential difficulties?
I’m suspicious of anything that leads us away from competition for better technologies and quicker actions. You know, along the lines of: “We’re not going to do any more than others, and we don’t need to do anything at all until we have a new agreement on targets.” That’s the wrong way of going about it.
