Merz skips UN climate conference in Antalya, Greens call it a devastating signal

Merz stays away from Antalya

Chancellor Friedrich Merz will not travel to the UN climate conference in Antalya, Turkey, which runs from Monday, 9 November, to Friday, 20 November, and is expected to draw almost 200 states. Deputy government spokesman Steffen Meyer said in Berlin on Wednesday, 4 November, that Merz thanked the organisers for the invitation but has other commitments that make attendance impossible. Asked for details, Meyer declined to name the reasons and pointed only to different interests and different schedules. The conference is also expected to draw tens of thousands of diplomats, media representatives and lobbyists. The absence had been anticipated after earlier hints. Merz attended last year's summit in Belem, Brazil, and German chancellors have attended the leaders' meeting within the UN climate talks in each of the past five years.

Schneider and Alabali Radovan to represent Germany

Environment Minister Carsten Schneider will represent the federal government at the conference, Meyer said. Development Minister Reem Alabali Radovan, both members of the SPD, has also announced her attendance. Meyer stressed that the government and the chancellor personally take climate protection very seriously, and he called the conference an important forum for multilateral decisions. He said the Paris Agreement remains the central guideline for government action in all policy areas. According to the spokesman, Germany's aim at Antalya is to persuade other countries to make greater efforts toward climate neutrality.

“I can say with certainty that Federal Minister Schneider will represent the federal government at the COP.”

Greens and climate activists respond

Katharina Dröge, parliamentary group leader of the Greens, told AFP the absence was a devastating signal to the world. She noted that Merz had said in August he would do everything to push back climate change, and argued that he is not even making time for the most important decision-making forum on global climate policy. Dröge said that after the United States left the Paris Agreement, Germany needed the clarity of a German chancellor, and that Merz had once again disappointed on climate protection. Luisa Neubauer of Fridays for Future called the decision an absolute taboo break, in a year of record heat and other climate disasters in Europe. She accused the chancellor of demonstratively leaving young people in the lurch, and said the federal government looked sleepy on the international diplomatic stage.

“This is a devastating signal to the world.”

Heat deaths and off-track targets

Martin Kaiser, executive board member of Greenpeace Germany, said the political response at home to more than 15,000 heat deaths this summer had been hardly any, which he called unbelievable. He said the chancellor's absence was an embarrassment for Germany, and urged Merz to announce a Zeitenwende in German climate policy at the UN conference. Kaiser said German climate policy is currently not on course. The Expert Council on Climate Issues has attested that, as things stand, Germany is missing its climate targets for both 2030 and 2040. The Environment Ministry's spokesman pointed instead to Germany's roadmap for phasing out fossil energy sources, which only a few countries have published alongside France and the Netherlands, and reaffirmed the goal of cutting CO2 emissions by 65 percent by 2030 compared with 1990.