The latest UN Climate Conference took place in Qatar - the state with the world's highest carbon dioxide emissions per inhabitant. This is a country that could only be interested in securing its survival as a major oil and gas exporter.
An energy drink targeted at the 18 to 30-year-old age group gives a German hero wings, and with a total marketing budget of EUR 500 million, famous names such as Sebastian Vettel successfully achieve breakneck speed. Others skydive from the stratosphere. You only live once?
Qatar enjoys the world's third-highest per capita income. Its fabulous wealth gives the country the means to buy a high profile, with the football World Cup due to take place there in 2022. Qatar plans to host the first ever CO2- neutral World Cup. We are expected to believe that Qatar will by then have become a capital city of cyclists and that - naturally - the stadiums and conference centres will be air conditioned using solar power. Many millions of euros will be invested in these plans.
We don't have this kind of budget. Here in North Germany, we can easily imagine Qatar's population cycling around in solar-cooled cycle helmets at temperatures of around 45 °C. Surely they will only get the SUV out of the garage at weekends?
However, this vision is open to doubt, and we can't help thinking once again of yolo. Our thoughts also turn to the many committed young people serving internships in our company, who stand at the top of wind turbines with eyes shining and who get to experience new energies and innovative technologies at first hand. We help them understand how to stop climate change, achieve the energy changeover, and develop good prospects for themselves and for sustainable business in Germany. Crisis-proof, secure, and independently of scarce, ever more costly fossil energy resources.
We are constantly reminded of the need for action by studies, current investigations or, even more dramatically, natural disasters that officially have no direct link to increasing global warming. The fact that the latest World Bank-commissioned climate study has reached unequivocal conclusions here has failed to make any real impact.
As an entrepreneur, I am acutely aware of my responsibility here. Our motivation and drive in this area come from the people we can provide with models for their lives as they face increased performance pressure, a growing flood of information and uncertainty about the future. We want to show them that their professional and private prospects can be bright as long as we, decision-takers in the energy industry, make the right choices.
If we do, we can make it possible to achieve both life satisfaction and a cool job.
Sources and relevant links:
Tagesschau.de: "Erde erwärmt sich schneller als gedacht" (in German)