Overview
- Angela Merkel spoke at the Federal Environment Ministry’s 40th‑anniversary event on Wednesday and warned that climate change is an "existential question" that needs precautionary action, while also saying her governments sometimes relied on "the principle of hope" instead of stronger measures.
- She defended her 2011 decision to set a legal phase‑out of nuclear power and said she still believes Germany can meet its climate targets without returning to nuclear energy.
- Environment Minister Carsten Schneider used the gathering to call for faster expansion of renewables and said those who oppose that build‑out are acting against Germany’s national interest.
- The event brought together former and current environment ministers, climate activists and veterans of the anti‑nuclear movement, serving as a symbolic cross‑party moment that restated positions but did not announce new federal policies.
- The remarks sit against a longer history: the BMU was created after Chernobyl, Fukushima in 2011 prompted Merkel’s exit decision, Germany shut its last reactors in April 2023, and the debate over the Energiewende, electricity costs and industrial impacts remains a key political fault line to watch.