Parliamentary Evening: Energy and Climate Policy - Impacts on Germany's Competitiveness

Climate protection is one of the greatest global challenges of our time. The international community hopes to achieve a breakthrough at the UN Climate Change Conference currently taking place in Paris. Despite other countries' pledges in the run-up to the Paris summit, Germany clearly is a pioneer when it comes to climate protection. This raises the question of competitiveness.

Active climate protection is no walk in the park. Current measures implemented in Germany will allow greenhouse gas emissions to be cut by 33 per by 2020, if economic growth remains favourable. The aim for 2020, announced by the German government, however, is to reduce CO2 emissions by 40 per cent. Further measures will therefore be implemented to close the seven-per cent gap.

But will the Germany economy be able to bear such measures? Will businesses be able to keep up with international competition?

These and other questions will be addressed at the fourth Parliamentary Evening organised by the Rhine Neckar Metropolitan Region together with the Mannheim Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW) on February 1, 2016, at 6 pm. The event will take place at ZEW.

Members of the Bundestag who have their electoral districts in the Rhine Neckar Metropolitan Region as well as selected representatives from the fields of business and research will have the opportunity to voice their opinions regarding energy policy during a panel discussion. Gerhard Augstein from SWR will host the evening.