by Will Jones
Joe Kaeser said strict zero-emission targets had crippled manufacturing and heavy industry in Germany and beyond. He called on the German Government to work on a more “economically feasible plan” for the country to decarbonise.
“The critics have a point when they say you risk your economic power [and] society’s wellbeing by being ideological about Net Zero,” he said.
His comments will raise questions about Britain’s approach to Net Zero, which official forecasts show will add hundreds of billions of pounds to government spending over the next few decades.
As well as questions about cost, the UK and Europe face increasing pressure from the US to dial back plans which Trump administration officials claim are making countries “subservient” to Beijing.
Sir Keir Starmer will fly to China this week in the first visit by a British Prime Minister since 2018, with energy likely to be among the topics discussed.
Kaeser, who previously ran German industrial giant Siemens before becoming Chairman of its energy division, warned that European companies were becoming uncompetitive because of green energy policies.
He criticised the Government in Berlin for forcing zero emission targets on carmakers and demanding that businesses prove the products they sell have no connection to deforestation.
The German businessman also criticised officials for sacrificing reliable, cheap energy by ditching fossil fuels.
Kaeser said: “They became ideologists on renewables. That’s a bad idea. If you are an industrial country and cannot provide a sustainable, affordable and reliable source of energy, you have a problem.”
Germany’s share of global emissions is currently less than 2% – much lower than other industrialised countries including Brazil and India – and Kaeser said even halving this figure would make little difference to the global picture.
By comparison, China now accounts for a third of global carbon emissions while the UK’s share is less than 1%.
“Why would you risk your industrial competitiveness by maybe being a rounding error in the global discussion?” Kaeser said.
Germany has a goal of hitting zero carbon emissions by 2045, a more aggressive target than Britain’s legally enshrined 2050 deadline.
Kaeser, who is also the Chairman of Daimler trucks, attacked the EU’s approach of reaching Net Zero by regulation. He said Brussels spent too much time drawing up rules for manufacturers without considering how they could kill demand.
Worth reading in full.
Stop Press: Britain’s energy industry faces collapse thanks to Labour’s “chaotic and needless” rundown of the oil and gas sector, one of its biggest union backers has warned. Louise Gilmour, Scotland Secretary of the GMB union, says “delusional” Net Zero policies championed by Ed Miliband are causing “arguably the most destructive industrial calamity in our nation’s history”, the Telegraph reports.
Poacher posing as gamekeeper…
The biggest polluter, in both Net Zero and Reality sense, is also the biggest benefactor?
Would that be China with 34% of all global emissions and over 70% of global Coal emissions? The place where heavy industry appears to be moving as renewables can’t reliably power industry.
Winner! The check is in the mail (don’t wait for it).
but… but… China is an undeveloped nation- they say so themselves! /s
We need more manmade CO2 ppm to increase flora and fauna, decrease world desert areas, increase crop yields per acre to better feed 8 billion people.
This CEO talking about de-carbonizing shows he continues to think less CO2 is better.
He does not realize, such brainwashed thinking got Germany, the UK, France, Spain, Italy, etc., in severe economic trouble.
They have had zero GDP growth for years along with stagnant wages, while:
1) spending more on blackhole military to feed Russophobia,
2) spending more on illiterate, inexperienced, fast breeding, culture-destroying walk-ins/float-ins, almost all sucking from various government program tits.
Europe needs vastly more than an ENERGIEWENDE U turn.
Yes, China has this global power game sown up. Developed Democratic nations are the patsies here; we have to slow down our economies and give away our wealth and influence so the developing nations can catchup and surpass us This is all organized by dysfunctional unelected UN entities that are beholding to China and its political buddies. So why be surprised about what has been happening to us democratic dummies, time to wake up folks!.
Trump has led the US out of this climate and energy policy quagmire and hopefully other smart nations will soon follow his sensible lead on these issues. If not, they will become second rate nations beholding to the UN/EU regulations and restrictions, with limited ability to fund their welfare state economies and any sensible defense deterrent to bullies like China and Russia.
The climate crisis is just the latest phase of ongoing environmental alarmism and political theatre dreamt up by globalist socialists in the UN/EU to bring down rich democracies and distribute our wealth to the have nots. However, we now know that we need continuing technological progress to keep ahead of the economic curve and easier lifestyles, and for this we still need cheap electricity from fossil fuels and nuclear to drive industry forward. The renewables transitions has already failed because it does not provide low-cost reliable power when we need it 24/7. Engineering and cost-effective economics are necessary for modern civilizations, not so much socialist ideology, ecological fearmongering and weak politicians with no vision for the future.
Keir Starmer will fly to China this week
The not so dear leader is on his way to Beijing and only because he gave the ‘mega-embassy’ the green light. Had he not done that – against all reason, common sense and all advice – he’d be here facing the music of his neurotic and chaotic government.
Starmer could not shake off mad Ed. One wonders why. Mad Ed is totally dependent on China to realise his clean power revolution/transition etc. And here we are with covert ‘Chinese police stations’ in the UK harassing Chinese political dissidents and students. Starmer deliberately spiked the trial of Chinese spies in Parliament. God knows what else goes on to China’s advantage.
Labour amateur hour (government) puts industry close to the bottom of its priorities. I posted yesterday on the invisible oil fields of the Falkland Islands, bigger than the North Sea – and they have absolutely nothing to do with Putin, Ukraine – or anybody else. Mad Ed’s obstinacy and his blind faith actually blind him to the potential in the Southern Atlantic. Fortunately, however, mad Ed cannot stop the self-governing islands from exploiting their local resource.
The UK is more and more an authoritarian theocracy based on Gaia – with some input from woke Christianity:
Church of England in net-zero crackdown on flowers. – Daily Telegraph
Xi will say: Jump.
And Starmer will answer: How high?
And we will all sigh.
Funniest thing on BBC radio, part of the trade delegation is the Brompton bikes CEO, he wants to get Chinese people out of their cars and onto his bikes. They only just got off their millions of bikes! Anyway, all that will happen is millions of Bwumptun bikes will appear on temu for £10, they don’t need him even if there is demand, they will just steal the design.
I heard that. Another nutter, in my opinion. But then…
Understanding Brompton Bike Factory In China: Composition, Standards, and Applications
Manufactured at the Brompton factory in China, each part is engineered for durability, precision, and seamless integration with the bike’s iconic folding mechanism.
https://www.alibaba.com/product-insights/brompton-bike-factory-in-china.html
To quote the Pythons: What a give away.
China used to have to steal technologies with spies in foreign countries. Now they have the all powerful Climate Change to bring those foreign factories and associated technologies to their shores…in the name of the common good.
Makes it easier to duplicate and control.
In engineering world, people who were born in USA, went to college in USA then stayed to work in USA have become unusual. Scanning 2025 Master’s thesis author surnames in engineering and technology topics will verify stats available online.
I experienced historical phases of technology copying and exporting – today enough generations have passed that the best educated technologists might be academically Western, but most are not culturally Western. They have not much need to copy when they are able to do it themselves – example cost effective parallel processors for AI.
The USA tragedy to me is a little about the smart minds diverted into “climate science”. The tragedy to me is much more about the opportunity cost: What some of those smart minds could have accomplished by now had they chosen to work on more practical problems.
“Master’s programs in electrical engineering in the U.S. are heavily dominated by men, with women making up roughly 28.5% of graduate engineering students as of 2021. The field sees a high concentration of international students, with over 55% of electrical engineering master’s degrees awarded to temporary visa holders.”
Looked it up to check myself. 55% temporary visa holders in US college electrical engineering was actually _lower_ than I expected. More checking might be needed.
As long as I was there:
“In 2023, the locations with the highest concentration of Electrical Engineering degree recipients are Los Angeles, CA, New York, NY, and Pittsburgh, PA. In 2023, the locations with a relatively high number of Electrical Engineering degree recipients are Copiague, NY, Needham, MA, and Fort Myers, FL. The most common degree awarded to students studying Electrical Engineering is a bachelors degree.”
The headline article is about a Seimens exec (German engineering company) complaining about green constraints. What’s that got to do with EE students in USA? There’s a common problem in Western culture where Westerners have steadily let go of solvable, productivity-increasing ideas to chase unsolvable, productivity-decreasing ideas. The Seimens exec is speaking as much on behalf of “The West” as he speaks for his own company. He’s the post WW2 generation telling the kids of 2026 they’d better stop d—ing around or they’re toast.
“Keir Starmer will fly to China this week “
I presume he’ll bring his knee pads.
He had forgotten them, so the plane turned around to get them.
He couldn’t borrow a pair of knee pads from the British embassy in Beijing, a building which is certainly well-stocked with them? (Or, if not there, either the Canadian embassy or the Australian embassy?)
kneepads and a bib. standard issue for Xi’s new colonies’ subordinates.
how much coal and uranium does “green” Australia deliver to china every year?
he could also borrow from carney though those may be worn out.
The UK has been collapsing during and since WW I.
The collapse accelerated after WW II
Twice it had to be rescued by the US.
The UK pays only 10% tariff, while the EU pays 15%
If the UK screws around with China, it will face the same tariffs as Canada.
“An unprecedented collapse.” [UK chemicals]
“It is, in large part, a consequence of the rise in UK industrial energy prices. Since most industrial chemical production is highly energy-intensive, it is now far cheaper to carry out these reactions in other countries. ”
https://news.sky.com/story/why-ending-the-manufacture-of-a-humdrum-substance-would-be-final-nail-in-the-coffin-of-an-industry-that-was-once-britains-pride-13494625
“Net Zero policies championed by Ed Miliband are causing “arguably the most destructive industrial calamity in our nation’s history”, the Telegraph reports.”
So … to keep the greens happy without bankrupting the nation’s industrial sector, start replacing coal, gas and oil-based power with clean, reliable carbon-free nuclear — cheaper in the long run anyway. And it shows the greens that the end of CO2 is near.
Rebuilding Germany’s nuclear industrial base in order to restore the one that existed thirty years ago is a twenty-year proposition at the minimum, possibly even a thirty-year proposition.
The full 21 GW of nuclear that was closed in the last two decades, 30% of Germany’s power generation in the 1990’s, isn’t coming back anytime soon, if ever.
Germany is completely screwed in the near-term future, and mostly screwed for the mid term future as well — assuming that nation’s industrial heritage is ever successfully recovered at all. And they did it to themselves.
Industry is Being Sacrificed to Net Zero Ideology
Everything has been, not just industry.
British Intelligence Goes Full Guardian Promoting Untestable Computer-Generated Scares of Eco-System Collapse
Conspiracy nuts have had a field day over the delayed release of work compiled by the British Intelligence Services warning of possible eco-collapse, mass extinctions, food shortages, conflicts and mass migration. In fact, the flimsy 14-page report is little more than a cutting job from the Guardian. Twenty-six mostly usual suspect sources are named, and highlights of the most extreme scenarios are cherry-picked in yet another Net Zero Blob effort to create population panic. – Daily Sceptic
In the end, we are all being sacrificed by mad Ed et al to net zero ideology.
So, “decarbonise”. but in an “economically feasible” way. Last time I checked, the answer to doing something stupid and harmful isn’t doing less of it.
These giants of industry are just now realizing that the ideological “climate” movement against fossil fuels would lead to ruin? Cry me a river.
Does this sound too harsh?
You should have known all along that incremental CO2 in the atmosphere has a vanishingly weak influence on “warming” or on any trend of climate variables. The “climate” mitigation value of decarbonization was always indistinguishable from zero when considered in the proper context of dynamic energy conversion within the general circulation. It cannot be otherwise, and the modelers know why.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1PDJP3F3rteoP99lR53YKp2fzuaza7Niz?usp=drive_link
What to do? Reject the unsound core claim of “climate” harm on physical grounds. Move on. Get back to the fundamentals.
Thank you in advance for your prompt attention to this matter.
Are the people of Germany and the UK going to wake up before, or after, Net Zero policies bankrupt them?
There seems to be a little stirring among the ranks. Will it make any difference?
The Net Zero train wreck coming is obvious. Except to politicians who have invested their personal prestige in making Net Zero a success. They can’t quit now!
Here in NY we face the same ultimate result if the politics don’t get fixed soon. At least the current administration in Washington is changing things at the federal level. We’ll see what happens.
I wonder what’s going to happen to NY. There are powerful NYC residents who would live happily in no other place, and the direction their government has taken does not match their interests. If I think too hard about how this could be happening, I wind up with wild conspiracy theories about Mamdani working for Goldman Sachs or the NYT trying to oust the legislative branch. Chem trails over Yankee Stadium? What is the historical precedent for an economically strong state unilaterally exiting an economically large union? Brexit does not fit. Sparta and Athens -eventually- ended up on the same team.
As I’ve said elsewhere on WUWT, one of two populist economic philosophies will eventually win out in this country. One will win, the other will lose. It will either be Trump’s America First populism, or it will Mamdani et al’s socialist-communist populism.
Mamdani’s socialist-communist populism will win out in New York state because the downstaters are 70% of the New York population; because the socialist-communists have an effective messaging strategy focused on affordability issues; and because they have a highly effective ground game capable of mobilizing large numbers of their voter base.
The Republicans in New York state have neither the political will, nor the messaging, nor the ground game needed to keep New York state from falling into the hands of the socialist-communists.
I wish things were different there, but it is what it is.
If what you predict comes true, where does “Wall Street” go?
where does “Wall Street” go?
weren’t they setting up a new stock exchange in Texas?
KevinM: ‘If what you predict comes true, where does “Wall Street” go?’
Wall Street will stay put in New York for the time being in order to see just where Mamdani and his communist city government actually goes. How far, and how fast.
If Mamdani’s shakedown of Wall Street operations gets too onerous, if the extortion payments get too steep, then Wall Street will move elsewhere, possibly Texas as Tony_G notes.
Can’t someone tell Herr Kaeser that the most “economically feasible plan” for everyone is to forget decarbonisation altogether because CO2 is not dangerous in any way?
De-carbonising (carbon dioxiode) achieves nothing good and plenty of bad. There is not a shred of scientific evidence to show that it does. So we need to stop wasting time and prodigious amounts of money on NERT ZERO
“He called on the German Government to work on a more “economically feasible plan” for the country to decarbonise.”
Not enough courage to simply say that decarbonizing anything is nuts?
And another ‘conspiracy theory’ coming true with the passage of time.
Gasp! Is it possible that Europe is discovering that there are larger dangers in the world than climate change? Nahh, just my imagination.
No it won’t, Miliband will just double down
That is exactly what will happen. Miliband will just double down. And Labour will support him, because they are way too deep into their socialist ideology to step back..
I’ll say the same thing about the UK that I said above about Germany.
The UK is completely screwed in the near-term future, and mostly screwed for the mid-term future as well — assuming that nation’s industrial heritage is ever successfully recovered at all.
And like the Germans, the Brits did it to themselves.
Is there a post-industrial world? I’ve read a lot of Sci-Fi where authors do an okay job speculating future technology but fail describe a culture that “makes sense” – silly example: Why would George Jetson commute to a job (doing nothing he couldn’t do from home) to press a little red button repeatedly (while a fully autonomous robot maid takes care of his home) in a flying car? JJ was only a children’s cartoon but it demonstrated the general flaw in thinking by proposing its writer’s contemporary culture recast as-is in a futuristic scenario without asking “if you can do this, then why don’t you do that?”.
Wandered off topic. Point was: Why go backwards to recapture yesteryear if Tomorrowland outlives Michael Jackson?
Just my opinion — there is no post-industrial world which can support a vibrant middle class. If most of us aren’t making things, only two classes will exist. A small monied elite and many millions of serfs who own nothing, or next to nothing.
A philosophy like “Karl Marx discovers automated manufacturing”.
Only corrupt ignorant government could hold on to this corrosive fantasy this long. What an embarrassment.
Doesn’t the Labour Party represent Labour?