Germany: No guarantee UN climate talks will end with a deal

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s foreign minister says there’s no guarantee that this year’s United Nations climate talks will result in an agreement that’s backed by all sides.

Officials from almost 200 countries will gather next month in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to discuss how to tackle global warming.

The annual event is supposed to end with a concluding document that needs to be passed by consensus. In past years, the talks have often gone into overtime and positions have been watered down to secure agreement from all countries.

Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told a parliamentary hearing that “in these times it’s not an automatic given that there will be a concluding document,” German news agency dpa reported.

Asked what the German government’s minimum goal for the meeting was, she told lawmakers: “That it takes place. There’s never certainty, given the current world situation.”

Germany planned to use the talks to announce new commitments for reducing emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, dpa quoted Baerbock as saying.

Also Wednesday, Germany’s transport minister announced that the government wants to massively expand the country’s charging network for electric cars, spending 6.3 billion euros ($6.17 billion) over the next three years as more and more drivers to turn away from combustion cars to more climate-friendly vehicles.

Earlier this week, the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz decided to keep three German nuclear plants running until April to help the country manage an expected energy crunch this winter due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

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