Germany’s Minister of Finance, Olaf Scholz, signals the days of life’s amenities for the masses are coming to an end. All necessary to avert dangerous climate change. Flying will be a thing of the rich.
On April 29th, Germany’s Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled that the country’s 2019 Climate Protection Act did not go far enough to limit dangerous climate change, and thus violated the fundamental rights of younger generations to a humane future.
Lawmakers moving to end comfy lifestyles
The court has ordered the German legislature to draw up clearer reduction targets for greenhouse gas emissions. And now that the Federal Constitutional Court has ruled, regulation-zealous lawmakers are moving with renewed vigor to wean the masses off their comfy lifestyles of air travel, own homes, large cars and meat.
The good times are all about to come to an end for the German masses, who the government seems to believe have become too spoiled.
The most recent comes from German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz who announced he wants to impose a price floor on low-cost flights in Europe, he said in a TV program “ProSieben Spezial Live.”
No flight should be lower than 50 or 60 euros (USD 60 to 70).
Back to the trains
German online national daily Welt here reports that as part of its election platform, the country’s SPD socialist party “promises that rail travel within Europe will become cheaper and more attractive than flying” and that “a lot of money would have to be invested in the expansion of local transportation.”
Wind and solar energy growing too slowly
In the television interview, Scholz called on states to take concrete steps for more climate protection. Scholz is dissatisfied with the now very slow pace seen in wind and solar energy investments. Currently many of Germany’s win turbines are reaching their 20-year lifetime, and continued operation of these older turbines is not longer profitable due subsidies running out and high maintenance and repair costs.
Replacing older smaller turbines with new, larger ones faces major hurdles such as setback distances and fierce opposition from citizens groups and nature preservation activists.
In response to the Federal Constructional Court’s ruling, the German cabinet has launched a new climate protection law, which will require Germany to become “climate-neutral” by 2045 instead of 2050.
Elitism
Already some are warning that limiting energy intensive activities, such as flying, risk dividing society into the “haves” and “have nots”. Welt science journalist Axel Bojanowski, for example tweeted.
Auch arme Leute können sich mittlerweile Flugreisen leisten, da sollen die Preise erhöht werden. Elitismus ist ein Faktor in der #Klimadebatte, ohne den sie sich nicht verstehen lässt, glaube ich. https://t.co/oHJqOw6Zbc
— Axel Bojanowski (@Axel_Bojanowski) May 13, 2021
In English: “Even poor people can now afford air travel, so prices are to be increased. Elitism is a factor without which the #Klimadebatte [climate debate] cannot be understood, I believe.”
What’s next? Heat? Meat?
Bojanowski later comments on how far should it all the regulation ought to go:
Ob das “dann halt so ist”, wird ja noch demokratisch entschieden. Ich zweifle, ob die Leute all ihre Bedürfnisse daraufhin abklopfen wollen, ob sie ein Menschenrecht sind. Was ist mit dem klimaschädlichen Konsum von Fleisch, Gemüse, Benzin, Heizöl, 3-Zimmer-Wohnungen usw?
— Axel Bojanowski (@Axel_Bojanowski) May 13, 2021
“I doubt people want to have all their needs checked to see if they are a human right. What about the climate-damaging consumption of meat, vegetables, gasoline, heating oil, 3-room apartments, etc.?”
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