"Even though the energy crisis is so serious that nothing less is at stake in the coming weeks than ensuring the survival of industries in Germany and Europe, climate protection must remain a high priority," BDI President Siegfried Russwurm said at the association's climate congress.
Germany seeks to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 65 percent by 2030 from 1990 levels and to be completely climate-neutral by 2045. Already, companies had "successfully set out on a path to (help Germany) to become a climate-neutral industrialized country," Russwurm said.
Boosting renewable energy production, upgrading the electricity grids and jump-starting the hydrogen economy are at the heart of the German climate strategy, according to the BDI. But the roll-out of costly climate-neutral solutions will need government support.
But for achieving the 1.5-degree target of the Paris climate agreement, the decarbonization of industries must happen at a global scale, according to the Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin).
"Industrialized countries must provide financial support to emerging and developing countries to make this happen," said Catherine Marchewitz, an expert at DIW.
A study the BDI published last year put the cost of achieving climate neutrality in Germany at 860 billion euros (846 billion U.S. dollars) by 2030. Inflation fueled by the current energy crisis is expected to push this figure higher, Russwurm said.
Producer prices in Europe's largest economy have been rising faster than ever: they grew 45.8 percent year-on-year in August, according to the Federal Statistics Office (Destatis). But energy prices rose almost three times as fast: by 175 percent in the case of electricity.
In line with the emergency measures proposed last week by the European Commission, Germany plans to skim excess profits from energy producers that have lower production costs than gas-fired power plants and can therefore profit from the high energy prices.
This includes most renewable energy companies. The government will use this money to help households and small and medium-sized enterprises to pay their energy bills.
"What is needed now is a dual strategy of measures to deal with the energy crisis and intensified investment in climate protection," Russwurm said. "The economy and energy supply must be made crisis-proof and more resilient." (1 euro = 0.98 U.S. dollars)
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