Germany’s Merkel: Economic Stimulus Program Should Consider Climate Protection

From Reuters:

Governments should focus on climate protection when considering fiscal stimulus packages to support an economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday. Her comments are the clearest sign yet that Merkel wants to combine the task of helping companies recover from the pandemic with the challenge of setting more incentives for reducing carbon emissions.

Speaking at a virtual climate summit known as the Petersberg Climate Dialogue, Merkel said she expected difficult discussions about how to design post-crisis stimulus measures and about which business sectors need more help than others.  “It will be all the more important that if we set up economic stimulus programmes, we must always keep a close eye on climate protection,” Merkel said, adding the focus should be laid on supporting modern technologies and renewable energies.

She a good and highly intelligent person, and this is evidence of precisely that.  As long as we’re dipping into government coffers (that will need to be replenished with taxation), we might as well be investing those funds into businesses who products are beneficial to the environment (or, at worst, benign).

Predictably, we don’t seem to be contemplating this approach in the U.S., but the vast majority of Americans would like to see a change, starting with a new administration taking control of the federal government next January.