With his Social Democrats (SPD) lagging in the polls behind the Greens and the Christian Democrats, German Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Sunday pledged to prioritise climate change as he leads the party into September general elections.

"It's about the future of our country... the path Germany must follow in the 21st Century," Scholz told a socially-distanced SPD party congress after winning 96.2 percent support of 600 delegates to be their candidate in the September 26 election.

The poll marks a crossroads in German politics as Chancellor Angela Markel bows out after 16 years in power.

New Christian Democratic (CDU) leader Armin Laschet will look to replace Merkel, who currently runs a CDU-led coalition in which the SPD serves as junior partner.

But both traditional heavyweights are playing catch-up as latest polls place the Green Party in the lead with 26 percent of voting intentions to 23-25 for the CDU as the SPD trails on 14-16.

Having won his party's nomination last year, 62-year-old former Hamburg mayor Scholz said he was in the process of laying a "foundation for change" and urged the party to "get to work."

Portraying himself as a "committed European" he said climate change had to be a top priority as it comprised "this century's essential human mission".

"We have already lost too much time... We want to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045 by the latest," he added. That target has been brought forward from an initial coalition pledge of 2045.

The SPD also wants electricity to be produced exclusively via renewable sources by 2040.

A futher party pledge as the party looks to wrest back the polling momentum from the Greens, who have propelled enviromnmental issues centre stage, is to get 30 million electric vehicles on the road by the end of this decade.

Related Links

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The Space Media Network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceMediaNetwork Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceMediaNetwork Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

UK banks slammed over 'hollow' climate stance on coal
London (AFP) May 4, 2021
Britain's biggest banks have made "hollow" carbon-reduction pledges and are key financiers of coal, a campaign group said in a report Tuesday ahead of the UK hosting a climate summit. Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds, NatWest and Standard Chartered provided $56 billion (46 billion euros) to coal firms over two years to late 2020, according to Reclaim Finance. The British government, which will host UN global climate change summit COP26 in Glasgow in November, has itself pledged to hit net zero carbon emis ... read more