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07/11/2026 July 11, 2026 Unions, businesses call for delay in Germany's climate target — report Businesses say they want more time to reduce emissions Image
07/11/2026 July 11, 2026 Unions, businesses call for delay in Germany's climate target — report Businesses say they want more time to reduce emissions Image: Jan Woitas/dpa/picture alliance Several representatives from business, trade unions and politics say Germany should push back its goal of reaching climate neutrality by five years, a media report said on Saturday. The Sunday edition of the Welt newspaper cited the CEO of energy giant RWE, Markus Krebber, as saying that postponing the 2045 goal to align with the EU's target date of 2050 could lessen the pressure on German industry.
Krebbers told the paper that Germany's current aim of becoming climate-neutral five years earlier than the bloc made it more expensive to do business in, without any benefit to the climate. Michael Vassiliadis, head of the Mining, Chemical and Energy Industrial Union (IGBCE), told the Welt that the target should be pushed back to give industry more time to reduce its CO2 emissions and thus retain its competitiveness.
Gitta Connemann, who heads the small and mid-sized business group (SME) of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU), also spoke out in favor of a "more realistic" timetable. "We want less CO2,
not less industry, so emissions trading must fit reality," she said. Their remarks echo those made earlier this year by Merz, who said climate-protection measures must not put undue pressure on the economy.
The BriefWire