Germany's environment and climate ministry will regain principal responsibility for international climate policy matters under a dedicated department, the environment minister said today, but climate has not been afforded a role in the country's new national security council (NSR).
The environment ministry will set up a new department for international climate policy, the director of which, Heike Henn, was confirmed by the German cabinet today. Henn was the environment ministry's climate, energy and environment director in the previous government. The new department will lead international climate negotiations on behalf of Germany.
The foreign ministry, which under the previous government had taken the lead on climate policy, will remain active in the field, including through a network of 50 "climate priority embassies" anchored in different embassies around the world.
The environment ministry will assume the leadership of the IKI international climate action initiative, which funds a range of actions including programmes designed to improve readiness among developing countries for Article 6 of the Paris climate agreement, which among other things governs two carbon market mechanisms.
The environment ministry will co-ordinate with the development ministry on IKI, which under the previous government was run by the economy ministry, and which supports projects that promote climate and biodiversity protection in developing and emerging countries. The foreign ministry will also participate in IKI with its own programmes on climate and security.
Germany's intelligence services view climate change as one of the five biggest external threats to the country, the environment ministry stressed today.
The ministry also said that in its application for a seat on the UN Security Council in 2027-28, Germany will focus on the interconnection between climate, peace and security.
But Germany's cabinet today officially established the country's new NSR without giving a role to climate or the environment minister.
The NSR, chaired by the chancellor, will meet regularly on strategic issues, and also convene in crisis situations. It consists of eight ministers, including the digital affairs, economy and energy, defence, home and foreign ministers. Representatives of Germany's federal states, other countries, the EU, NATO and other international organisations, and think-tanks, foundations, academia, security and intelligence services might also participate in the meetings.
Environmental non-government organisation Germanwatch today warned against "excluding the climate crisis as one of the greatest security threats of our time". For the NSR to "respond effectively to global risks to human security, the climate crisis must be consistently and systematically anchored as an issue", Germanwatch's head of international climate policy, Laura Schaefer, said.
This includes giving the environment minister and "selected" climate experts a "seat at the table" of the NSR, Schaefer said.
