The German government has decided to slash its budget for helping developing nations cut their greenhouse gas emissions and deal with the effects of a warming planet – right in the middle of global climate talks in which finance is a central and highly sensitive issue.
Poorer nations insist at every annual climate summit that countries that became rich by exploiting fossil fuels – meaning Europe and the US, according to an outdated UN definition – ought to help them mitigate the impacts of a warming planet.
Germany, which emits around 2% of global CO2 emissions, contributed €6 billion towards the €100 billion annual global climate finance goal in 2024, in line with a 2021 pledge by former chancellor Angela Merkel.
But an agreement at last year’s COP29 summit in Azerbaijan will see the annual target rise to €300 billion by 2035. Berlin is pulling out. Critics say Berlin’s U-turn could damage trust in the broader climate action process.
Euractiv has reviewed a draft budget hammered out during a gruelling 15-hour negotiation in Berlin on Thursday, which shows that cuts to the development ministry budget will result in an annual reduction of around €1.5 billion.
Under the heading of ‘bilateral government development cooperation’ – also known as ‘budget line 2301’ – the ministry’s fiscal headroom is being significantly reduced, from around €6 billion to just €4.58 billion.
“Even Germany’s development ministry no longer expects the country to meet its €6 billion climate finance pledge,” said green MP Jamila Schäfer. “The gap between promises and action is measured in rising temperatures, lost livelihoods and broken trust.”
The development ministry said “final figures” for a given year could only be verified in the following autumn.
The latest development comes almost midway through the COP30 meeting in Belém, Brazil, and just weeks after Berlin trumpeted its 2024 climate spending while declaring Germany a “reliable partner in global climate policy”.
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