Federal environment minister Barbara Hendricks in conversation with former US vice-president Al Gore
Tonight, former US vice-president and filmmaker Al Gore will screen his "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power" documentary in Berlin. The preview will be followed by a discussion on the fight against climate change with federal environment minister Barbara Hendricks, Al Gore, filmmaker and environmental activist Hannes Jaenicke and WWF director Eberhard Brandes and a talk on "Film and responsibility" by film director Volker Schlöndorff.
Hendricks: "Since 2014, we have seen record-breaking temperatures for three years in a row – for the first time since recordkeeping began. Each decade since the 1960s has been warmer than the previous one. And there is strong evidence that the current decade will reach another all-time high. Germany, too, has to adapt to the consequences of climate change.
It is true – and Al Gore’s second film is again about truth – that we can no longer afford to wait. We must stop using oil, coal and fossil gas by mid-century. Next year, Germany will map out the path towards phasing out coal power in a socially acceptable way.
The second important challenge we are facing is the phase-out of oil in the transport sector. In Germany this sector has not made any contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions since 1990. Current data indicate that emissions from transport will even increase this year. This shows transport policy’s complete failure with regard to mitigation. We therefore urgently need a real transformation of the transport sector."