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Do you want to bear the cost for not addressing the climate crisis?

Recipient profile picture Olaf Scholz
i
7 October
Dear Olaf Scholz,
I am writing you as a concerned member of society, who cares about having the least amount of humans possible die from the effects of the climate crisis we are in. You will likely become the new chancellor of Germany. Within that role, you will have a great responsibility not only for the people of Germany but for the trajectory of the world. I have to ask you: Do you know, that on the current pathway we have less than eight years left until we will have emitted so much CO2 that with certainty we will overstep 1.5°C global warming? Do you know, that a 2°C hotter world means 99% of corals dying, weather extremes becoming the norm and approximately 200 million people being displaced as a consequence? Do you know, that you can act to mitigate this catastrophe? Of course, Germany is not the epicenter of the world. Still, with only 1% of the world population, Germany currently emits 2% of all CO2. This means you have to be more ambitious with your climate policies. Being ambitious can no longer mean spending over 57 billion each year on climate-damaging subsidies. Being ambitious includes going into conflict with fossil fuel companies and the coal industry. It includes setting up a socially mitigated carbon price that reflects the real costs of CO2. It has to include the realization that we once were a country of great engineers. It is long overdue to ask ourselves: Where is the funding for the ingenuity needed to increase the production of renewable energies? Where are the necessary investments in public transportation? Where is the transformation of our economy? Most importantly though, being ambitious includes understanding that climate action and social policies stand in no opposition to each other, but rather that every climate action not taken will have detrimental impacts on the least well off. What we need is no incremental action. A green new deal is necessary. Let us stop asking what the cost of mitigation is and start asking if we want to bear the cost of an inconceivable climate crisis. Yours sincerely, Juna Ahmia

Juna Ahmia

Author profile picture Juna Ahmia

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