Before translating this paper into English, I want to note my intuition.
The Chinese are probably allowing such a foolish decarbonization movement to unfold in Germany, which is nothing compared to China's carbon emissions.
It is a Chinese ploy to undermine the German economy and make it dependent on China.
Germany is so quickly falling for the schemes of a nation of abysmal evil and plausible lies because, as I have mentioned, Germany is a nation of pseudo-moralism, i.e., a country of rhetorical flourishes.
The same is true of the U.S. Democratic Party.
I can hear China, which has been exploiting its pseudo-moralism to the hilt, smiling broadly.
It is why Germany went "nuclear-free"... The real reason why the German government is controlled by radical environmental leftists (President Online)
Germany changed its energy policy after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in 2011 and achieved zero nuclear power plants on April 15, 2023.
German writer Kawaguchi Maan Emi, who lives in Germany, says, "Behind the government's policy change is the existence of a massive environmental NGO.
Germany's largest NGO has a budget of 6 billion yen and tremendously influences the government's decision-making.
This article is a partially re-edited version of "'Decarbonization' Will Save the World: The Big Lie" by Taishi Sugiyama (editor), Marn Emi Kawaguchi, Hideki Kakeya, Jun Arima, and others, published by Takarajimasya Shinsho.
It has the image of a small and weak organization that stands up to great evil.
On April 30, 2021, the online edition of Die Welt, a major German newspaper, carried a lengthy article titled "The Underestimated Power of the Green Lobby."
It was an excellent article that showed traces of meticulous research, and for the first time in a long time, I felt the absolute power of journalism.
The authors are Axel Boyanovsky and Daniel Wetzel.
Much of this paper was enlightening, and I solved the mystery of Germany's energy policy a bit.
The environmental NGOs, often considered small and weak organizations fighting against big evil, have a global network and have infiltrated the political center, influencing the political process with their mighty power and ample funds.
A great deal of public money is being poured into NGOs.
And the media has abandoned its critical spirit and strongly supports the government and NGOs.
In this article, I would like to examine the German government's dangerous energy policy, introducing shocking details as the two authors report them.
40% of power generation from coal and lignite to be terminated
Although environmental NGOs pose as a modest grassroots movement, their influence on energy policy and global warming prevention policy now far exceeds that of industrial lobbies.
While the ethics committee convened by the German government after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident in 2011, which included clergy and sociologists rather than utility company representatives and scientists, decided to phase out nuclear power in 2022, seven years later, in 2018, the Committee on Growth, Structural Reform, and Employment (also known as the Coal Committee), NGO representatives had replaced clergy.
It is hard to believe that representatives of coal importers' unions were not even allowed to observe the meeting, even though it was to discuss the coal phase-out.
Germany is a country that has traditionally developed based on coal, and even now, 40% of its electricity generation is based on coal and lignite.
To suddenly terminate this industrial structure that has been in place for many years in a top-down fashion is a somewhat reckless plan.
A hasty exit from coal would violate the rights of corporate shareholders and deprive tens of thousands of workers in coal mines and related industries of their livelihood.
Therefore, the Coal Commission has decided to drop at least 40 billion euros by 2038 to compensate all sides and reform the affected states' industrial structure.
The government's basic policy now is that it does not care how much money is spent on the energy transition.
However, there is no indication of the financial resources and what the alternative industries will be.
However, both the members of the Coal Commission and the politicians have decided to get rid of coal by 2038 "at the latest," easily ignoring the mountain of problems that lie ahead.
Politics and Politicians are in Tight Alignment
The Greens objected, arguing that the coal-free date should be further pushed back.
The Greens are in league with nature and environmental NGOs, which can be found all over Germany.
With 11 million registered members, they are now a significant force in shaping public opinion in Germany.
With NGOs on its side, the Greens are riding the wave of decarbonization, and it is now said that after the general elections in September 2021, the party will be in the running to become the ruling party.
The tag team between politics and NGOs is already solid: NGOs participate in government technical committees, often accompany politicians on their outings, and have a regular seat as observers at international conferences.
In 2019, while attending the UN Climate Action Summit in Madrid, Environment Minister Schulze said, "Conversations with NGOs are crucial to me. We are fighting for the same issues," he tweeted.
The legality of unelected people acting on taxpayers' money and interfering in national politics and even in the formulation of legislation is quite tenuous. Still, it is already the norm in Germany today.
Moreover, the national government, state governments, and the EU are strong supporters of the finances of these NGOs.
■ Even with a considerable budget, the reality is that there are "obvious missing pieces."
BUND, headquartered in Berlin, has 580,000 members and received €21 million in public subsidies in the six years from 2014-19.
Meanwhile, Germany's largest NGO, NABU (620,000 members), also received 52.5 million euros (about 6.83 billion yen) in subsidies from eight public institutions during the same period.
NABU's main activity is the protection of flora and fauna, and in recent years, it has advocated for the protection of wild birds that die from being caught in wind turbines.
NABU received the most extensive grant of 36 million euros (about 4.68 billion yen) from the Ministry of the Environment, with others coming from the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Education and Research, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
In addition, an unprecedented budget of 47 million euros (approximately 6.11 billion yen) has already been set aside for subsequent four-year grants from 2020 to 2023.
However, according to the paper's authors, there are "clear missing pieces between the declarations and the actual situation" in the NGOs' financial reports.
In 2016, the European Parliament's Budget Committee commissioned a group of experts to audit the finances of EU-supported NGOs.
Still, the NGOs are intricately intertwined, and funds are widely spread, not only in environmental and nature conservation, but also in church charities and joint projects with China, which in the end are the NGOs, where, In the end, the investigation was fruitless, as it was impossible to determine which NGOs were engaged in which activities, where, and in what kind of relationship with each other.
I need to learn how to interpret this fact.
Was the group of experts incompetent, were the NGOs professional, or were there forces that wanted to hide the reality?
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
■ "Profitable work" is suing windmill operators
There are other questionable fundraising methods by NGOs.
There are currently 78 NGOs in Germany that have the authority to sue companies and municipalities on behalf of the people.
NABU and BUND are taking full advantage of that authority as well.
According to Die Welt, the approach is "really creative.
One attractive fundraising method is to file a lawsuit against the operators of wind parks (wind farms) for damage to wild birds caused by wind turbines.
However, the lawsuit is somewhat reminiscent of dismissal, as the defendant is said to drop the case if it donates a specified amount of money to an organization designated by the plaintiff.
It is a "lucrative business" (Di Welt) and is becoming NABU's specialty.
A wind park manager from Hesse who donated 500,000 euros (about 65 million yen) to NABU's nature conservation fund commented, "No company can resist."
However, he said that after the donation, the park would be endorsed as a bird-friendly wind park.
This approach, however, has been problematic within NABU, which says that its members, who believe that bird conservation and the expansion of wind power are incompatible, are beginning to move to NGOs that advocate for the regulation of windmill construction.
One of the executives sent a letter of protest to the president of NABU, saying, "We are explaining away the horrific bird deaths that are still occurring as a thing of the past.
The identity of the foundation that advocated a grand energy transition policy
Environment Minister Schulze is also a member of NABU.
While he regularly admires NGOs, he is naturally close to wind power companies. He insists wind turbines should be erected wherever possible to achieve decarbonization.
Ultimately, Schulze's true identity may be that both sides value him.
It makes the distrust of NGO executives even greater.
What was most interesting about Di Welt's article was how this grand energy transition policy started.
According to the report, it all started in the United States.
In 2007, a research report entitled "Design To Win-Philanthropy's Role in the Fight Against Global Warming" was completed.
The commission was commissioned by the Hewlett Foundation (a charitable foundation created in 1966 by Hewlett, one of the founders of the Hewlett-Packard Company).
The study aimed to determine how the foundation's money could be best used to establish and implement global warming prevention policies.
Bloomberg and Rockefeller also invested.
The report clearly stated that an annual investment of $600 million would reduce global CO2 emissions by 11 billion tons by 2030 and limit the rise in global temperature to less than 2 degrees Celsius.
The report also presented how global warming countermeasures could be made a political issue, how they could be made a social problem among the public, and how region-specific countermeasures should take shape in the United States, the European Union, China, India, and other regions.
In any case, it was here that the far-reaching decarbonization plan was switched on, and this report became the global master plan.
The following year, 2008, the European Climate Fund was established in Den Haag, the Netherlands, to implement these plans in Europe.
Investors included the Hewlett and Packard Foundations in the United States, Bloomberg, Rockefeller, the IKEA Foundation, and the Mercator Foundation in Germany.
Chapters soon expanded to Berlin, Brussels, London, Paris, and Warsaw, each topped by a top European elected manager or former politician drawn from the ranks and paid vast sums of money.
Today, most NGOs in Europe that advocate decarbonization and energy transition receive support from either the European Climate Fund or the Mercator Foundation, another giant foundation, or both.
■ Everyone is flocking to them under the banner of decarbonization.
But the real impetus for European climate policy came after the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident.
The time is finally ripe. Now is the time to spread the decarbonization blueprint around the world. Penetrate political, industrial, and business circles; implement new technologies and ideas. The "Change Agents" were convinced that success was in their hands, with substantial financial resources.
Since then, time has passed, and the transformation is proceeding according to their blueprint.
In 2019, the European Climate Fund and the Mercator Foundation contributed €42.2 million in grants to NGOs and think tanks working to decarbonize.
Incidentally, the Mercator Foundation's capital is €116.5 million (about $15.15 billion), according to its 2019 financial report.
When it comes to this, everyone is flocking to it under the banner of decarbonization.
On the other hand, those institutes that want to stay out of the loop and maintain a neutral position are understandably struggling.
For example, RWI's Leibniz Institute for Economic Research warned that the energy transition policy would transfer capital from the poor to the rich.
■No more orders for research that differs from government policy will be placed.
A study by an expert committee of the Bundestag and six independent institutes under the Max Planck Institute pointed out the contradictions in the Renewable Energy Act. They recommended its revision or repeal, but the government ignored them.
A media researcher at the University of Göttingen pointed out that most reports on global warming do not present the scientifically ambiguous aspects of the issue.
The problem is that orders are no longer placed for studies that produce results that differ from government policy.
Thus, heretical opinions are weeded out.
The operators of the power transmission networks still warn that simultaneously going nuclear-free and coal-free will not guarantee power supply, but there is no debate on the issue; Minister Schulze dismisses the new generation of small nuclear power plants as a "fairy tale," and the public has no idea when hydrogen will be commercially viable. The public believes hydrogen, which has no idea when it will be commercially viable, will soon become Germany's primary energy source.
We hope that the Japanese people will take a lesson from this aberrance.
In addition, the environment minister also hates CCS technology, which pushes the generated CO2 underground and into the ocean floor and plans to kick hydrogen to the curb, except for green hydrogen made purely from renewable electricity.
Ideology has taken on a life of its own in German energy policy.
We urge the Japanese to take these things that are going on in Germany as a lesson to others.
As of 2023, in Germany, where gas from Russia has been cut off due to the war in Ukraine, a coal renaissance is taking place to solve the electricity shortage.
Even lignite mining, which had been absolutely taboo, has been revived.
Naturally, CO2 emissions rapidly increased, but CO2-free nuclear power plants were terminated on April 15.
Since the Greens became the ruling party, energy policy has gone even further astray.
The German weather forecast no longer says, "Tomorrow will be a sunny day nationwide."
Since drought is occurring due to climate change, sunny weather cannot be good!
It's a strange country.
-Taishi Sugiyama
---Taishi Sugiyama is a Research Director of the Canon Institute for Global Studies. He holds a B.S. in Physics from the University of Tokyo and an M.S. in Physical Engineering from the same university. He has served as a member of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), Industrial Structure Council, Energy Conservation Standards Subcommittee, NEDO Technical Committee, and others. He is a member of the Sankei Shimbun's "Shoron" column. Author of "'Decarbonization' is Full of Lies" (Sankei Shimbun Publications), "Don't be Deceived by China and Russia's Environmental Manipulation! (Kaya Shobo, co-authored with Tetsuya Watanabe), "The Big Lie of Mega Solar to Save Japan" (Takarajima-sha, editor), and "The Inconvenient Truth about SDGs" (Takarajima-sha, editor).
---Kawaguchi, Maan Emi Writer Graduated from Nihon University College of Art, Department of Music, and completed postgraduate studies in piano at the Stuttgart State University of Music, Germany, in 1985. In 1990, she published "Living in Iraq under the Hussein Dictatorship" (Soshisha), which was highly praised for its critical solid spirit. Bestsellers. In 2016, "Deutsche Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachtanzte Generation" (Soshisha) won the 36th Energy Forum Award for Popularization and Awareness. In 2018, "Nihonjinron of Reconstruction" (Good Books) won a special award of the same prize. She has also authored many other books, including "And Germany Lost Its Ideal" (Kadokawa Shinsho), "Migrants and Refugees" (Good Books), "Sekai 'Shin' Keizai Senso: Why Do We Know the Future if We Know the Battle for Automotive Supremacy" (KADOKAWA), and "Merkel: Behind the Mask" (PHP Shinsho). Her new books include "Innocent Japanese, Wake Up from Your Daydreams" (WACK), and "What's Happening Now in Germany, a Left-leaning SDGs Advanced Country" (Business, Inc.).
---Hideki Kakeya Associate Professor of Systems Information Systems, University of Tsukuba Born in Osaka in 1970, Hideki Kakeya graduated from the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo in 1993, and received his Ph. D. in 1998 from the Department of Advanced Interdisciplinary Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering, the University of Tokyo. D. in engineering and worked as a researcher at the Communications Research Laboratory (now the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology) before assuming his current position. He specializes in media engineering and is the president of the Association for Assurance of Responsibility for Speech, a non-profit organization, and author of "What is Learning? The Ethics of Experts, Media, and Science and Technology," "Lies of Scholars," and other works; his most recent book is "The Lesson of 'Foresight'" (Kanki Shuppan).
---Jun Arima graduated from the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Economics in 1982 and joined the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (now the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry) in the same year. He has been a professor at the University of Tokyo's School of Public Policy since August 2015 and a specially-appointed professor at the same school since April 2021, where he currently serves. He is the author of "Private Kyoto Protocol Disclaimer" (October 2014, Kokusai Kankyo Keizai Kenkyusho), "The Truth About Global Warming Negotiations Economic War for National Interest" (September 2015, Chuokoron Shinsha), and "Global Warming Countermeasures Without Psychology: The Paris Agreement and Its Aftermath" (October 2016, Energy Forum).
*Readers know that I have mentioned German pseudo-moralism several times.
But after reading this paper, which is a genuine elaboration, I am genuinely appalled.
It is indisputable that China is watching the stupidity of the pseudo-moralists with a high smile.
