Merz announces sustainability plan, stresses risks of climate change

The German government plans to adopt a sustainability action plan on Wednesday, Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said, stressing that climate change poses a concrete risk to people's lives.

"Climate change has become a threat to life and limb," the conservative leader said on Tuesday at an event organized by the Council for Sustainable Development (RNE), which advises the government on sustainability issues.

Merz said the action plan is to include measures to enhance air quality, as well as support for sustainable economic practices worldwide, for example within global textile supply chains.

The chancellor pointed to a growing number of forest fires, extended periods of drought and the health risks posed by increased heat as tangible consequences of climate change.

Climate change, he said, has long become a reality, which means that climate policy must not just be designed to curb global warming. 

Cities must become more resilient to heat, infrastructure must be better protected against extreme weather events, water resources must be secured, and the agricultural and forestry sectors must adapt, Merz said.

Merz, whose centre-right-led coalition government has been criticized for not focussing enough on climate action and walking back some of the measures initiated by the previous centre-left government, rejected the notion that climate action cannot go hand in hand with economic growth.

Pointing to renewable energy technologies, he said the clean-tech sector has been growing in Germany by an average of 5% per year since 2010, faster than the economy as a whole.