Lecture: Coal - Colombia - Climate Change: Paradoxes and Contradictions of German Energy and Climate Policy

From January to September 2022, Germany imported almost three times as much hard coal from Colombia as in the same period of the previous year. In view of the dramatic consequences of climate change and the associated need for rapid and drastic reduction of CO2 emissions, this fact must be very surprising. Even greater doubts about the future viability of Germany's current energy policy arise when one considers that new hard-coal-fired power plants are still being built in Germany - and this despite the fact that Germany has already withdrawn from its own hard-coal production. The hard coal fired in this country therefore comes exclusively from imports - from Colombia, among others. Coal production in countries of the Global South, in turn, often leads to enormous ecological damage and social upheaval. We want to talk to Till Groth about these interrelationships and the central question of how a sustainable and future-oriented German energy policy can be shaped. Till Groth is a climate expert at the Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland e.V. (BUND). Im Projekt „Stärkung der Zivilgesellschaft bei der Umsetzung nationaler Klimapolitiken“ arbeitet er mit den Projektpartnern von Censat Agua Viva aus Kolumbien zusammen und kann sich so auch immer wieder ein Bild über die Auswirkungen des Energiehungers Deutschlands auf die dortige Ökosysteme und Gemeinden machen. Die Veranstaltung wird organisiert von SEBIT, Agenda 21 und AG Umwelt. Vortragsort ist das Zimmer SPQ-0302 im Schlossplatzquartier der Uni auf der Prüferstraße.

Contact: Florian Schierz, (florian-eberhard [dot] schierz [at] student [dot] tu-freiberg [dot] de (florian-eberhard[dot]schierz[at]student[dot]tu-freiberg[dot]de))