Interview with German Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen: 'China Doesn't Want to Lead, and the US Cannot'

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SPIEGEL: But Germany is clearly so insignificant that no one wants to follow the German example on climate issues.

Röttgen: You are also deceiving yourself there. It is German policy to take a leading role in environmental technology. China and the US may oppose binding targets, but both countries are also pursuing a massive expansion of their own environmental technologies and will also buy the best technologies from around the world. Our role is in a sense quite traditional: We want to help satisfy the growing demand for energy in an environmentally friendly way with German technology, engineering skills and equipment. Our capital is green technology and political credibility. And we can exert political and economic influence using those things.

SPIEGEL: Germany will host a small climate summit in Bonn in June 2010. What do you intend to do better than the Danes?

Röttgen: It won't be possible for us to achieve in half a year what could not be achieved in the past two years and more and what did not succeed in Copenhagen. The fact that the US and China fundamentally reject the current approach is a turning point. It requires that we find the causes, which includes being self-critical. We also need to make changes to our strategy and to find a new approach. We need to talk about the whole format. The EU environment ministers agreed last Tuesday that they would do this in Seville at the end of January.

SPIEGEL: Is there any basis for hopes that there could still be a global climate treaty despite everything?

Röttgen: It is in no way finished. There are important goals in the closing document and there is an urgency to the issue. We have all the ingredients, but it remains an open question as to how we can achieve these goals. In my view, though, it is clear that despite all the disappointment, there is no alternative to the United Nations. If the climate protection process is transferred to another body, we will just have the same problems there. We should push forward the development (of the process) within the context of the UN and international law.

SPIEGEL: In the wake of the Copenhagen debacle, the German business community has attacked you for your climate policies. Will you be forced to roll back these policies?

Röttgen: It is a strategic mistake to demand something like that now. We can only guarantee German prosperity if we use and offer the most efficient products and the most environmentally friendly energy technologies. Many executives are encouraging me to stick to the current course. There are many firms whose bottom lines show that in the environmental sector growth rates and numbers of jobs are increasing. We shouldn't send that money abroad to buy oil -- we should be using it here to create jobs using German engineering skills.

SPIEGEL: Is there any truth to the warning by Hans-Peter Keitel, who heads the powerful Federation of German Industries (BDI), that a goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 40 percent would endanger Germany's competitiveness in the global economy?

Röttgen: This goal is the condition for our prosperity, because it will lead us to the most advanced technologies. If we now lose time with backward-looking discussions and lose our lead, then the Chinese and Americans will take the markets of the future away from us.

SPIEGEL: You once said that quantitative growth is a thing of the past. It's a nice soundbite. But the first major legislative package passed by the new German government, a coalition between Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party, is the so-called "growth acceleration law." How do those two ideas fit together?

Röttgen: This is a first, quick step to support families and people with average incomes during a phase of recession.

SPIEGEL: But the €1 billion tax cut for hotels could be better put into energy research.

Röttgen: This was a compromise solution, and not everyone needs to be thrilled about it. As environment minister, I would prefer to see hotels use the money from that tax break to renovate their buildings to make them more energy efficient and to switch to green energy. The tax cut shouldn't simply end up in the bank -- it should be put to good use.

SPIEGEL: Ahead of the climate summit, you said that doing without things wasn't the right way. Is that still true? Or do people need to prove through changes in their lifestyle that they can be better than politicians when it comes to saving the climate?

Röttgen: If ordinary people don't participate, then we cannot achieve anything. But the problem is too large to be solved through individual behavior alone. Everyone must participate, but the general population cannot replace the political responsibility and the technological revolution that are needed. We need to set strict CO2 standards, because investments in environmentally friendly innovations wouldn't be made otherwise. That applied before Copenhagen and it is especially true now.

SPIEGEL: So is it now necessary to do without?

Röttgen: I think doing without is the wrong term. It is not "doing without" if we drive an electric car instead of gasoline-powered cars or purchase regionally sourced food rather than products that have been transported long distances. It is not necessary to have higher CO2 emissions and to waste resources in order to have a high quality of life and human happiness.

SPIEGEL: Mr. Röttgen, we thank you for this interview.

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• Part 1: 'China Doesn't Want to Lead, and the US Cannot'
• Part 2: 'The Wrestling for Power Will Now Begin'
• Part 3: 'Our Capital Is Green Technology and Political Credibility'