Despite increasing public pressure, both coalition parties within Merkel’s so-called Climate Cabinet favor taxes or market based trading schemes to tackle the climate crisis instead of new regulations to increase renewable energy or hard measures to phase out fossil fuels. L. Michael Buchsbaum takes a look It’s not often anymore that the leader of the German government visits the former national capital city of Bonn, let alone gives a speech in its old Parliamentary hall. While politicians back in Berlin vigorously debate which new laws should be included in a raft of climate protection measures intended to enable Germany to meet it’s national and international climate goals by 2030—scheduled to be introduced on Friday, September 20, Chancellor Angela Merkel traveled to quieter Bonn in order to present to Klaus Toepfer, who once held the cabinet post of Minister of the Environment and later went on to head the United Nations Environmental Program, the State Prize from North Rhine-Westphalia, its highest civilian honor. The sagacious 81-year old Toepfer is still revered as something of the green … Continue reading Sound and fury: Merkel’s Climate Cabinet and its shortcomings