the environment is not responsible make up your own mind, dw, made for mines. the good news. for decades, germany was regarded as the model country in europe. it's still the largest economy, but the economy has suffered a mass of downturn. how did this happen? and is germany once again, the sick man at the roof has some international news headlines, have all ready for flames. we'll take a look at the sectors where things are not running so smoothly in germany. how spain is trying to get a handle on illegal irrigation. what a new type of under c station for humans might look like and how drones are helping to save lives.

we are visiting medium sized companies in germany. companies with up to 5000 employees. there are hundreds of thousands of them. the driver of the german economy, but the mood has never been so bad. what are the problems take during the, for example, a family business that has been producing ceramics for bathrooms for over 200 years . dorothy has several locations abroad with many thousands of employees, but here in southern germany, the high cost of gas is becoming a problem. with the kiln is the part of ceramic production. we run our products through the qm for around 20 hours and region peaks of over $1200.00 degrees celsius. and consumption isn't just short term. it's 247 all year long. so we consume as much as a small village sales and production in germany of now

collapsed for the 1st time. the reason gas prices have risen sharply since the warren ukraine and the price this is for the company's mass of electricity consumption have also remained at a very high level for many years. this has made management nervous. let me trouble we associated price increases, reduce demand enormously, and we're not working at full capacity in our german factories compared to other countries. that's cool, quite as the price of electricity is 6 times higher here than what we pay in canada offers. who are the result door of each is building a new state of the art climate neutral factory in canada, they're receiving subsidies for 25 percent of the cost from the canadian government planning, including construction has taken just over a year. so far. the furnace is there for use green electricity. germany was no longer an option as a factory location for the medium sized company. the dilemma in germany,

the c o 2 tax for companies increases if they do not reduce their c o 2 emissions. but there are also hardly any financial incentives compared to canada. green electricity is much more expensive here and green hydrogen isn't even available yet, which makes planning difficult. what's the current status of international electricity cost? easily is the highest price for industrial electricity at $56.00 us cents per kilowatt hour. germany is in the upper range at $0.29. francis electricity is a 3rd lower than germany's and did 15 us cents. industrial electricity in the us is only half as expensive as in germany. could state subsidies prevent industry from moving abroad or going bankrupt? we asked an economist if you want to present this, you will need to take public money to make it attractive for these companies to

stay and zoning. which means that you will use scars, public money, specs, pay of money to preserve what was yesterday. and micro position is if we use public money, let's use it to bill will drive $12.00 tomorrow. and these industries will not be the growth engine of the german, that it was a germany economy going forward. another problem in german industry is the slow, bureaucracy and sluggish planning process. for new projects, this is was guns from southern germany. he's an architect in building developer. in china, he was able to complete a huge construction project within 2 years. in germany, he's also doing a construction project to the southern city of shortcut the car manufacturer, a portia is interested in investing there, but the plans have stalled desperate kids investment. let's say yes, good projects that we're now working on here, for example, is in the german sino eco park and this is in the dust drill area covering 24

square kilometers. here we're talking about 16 hector's, which is many times larger units. i'll have that one. um, we don't do the project at the same time is here in stuttgart. we're almost finished with the show here. this in t mobile for the automaker portion, would like to move in to its new office space in germany. so what's the problem endorsed? is this on the escape fee? did i as in thing, as in the, i would put it into germany, there are many different interests that are all justifies and yes, they are all justifies. but if we don't succeed in balancing these interests and bring them together, then we'll all block each other endlessly. and this will be 2 major projects. simply getting stuck in the approval bank log you name stole stick and live. and the 3rd example takes us to the center of germany, and i'm stuck right in the middle of it and it's a good feeling when someone helps you but you don't get that feeling i

use of i trail. this family business has been around for over a 100 years. right . there is a managing director and it's supported by his son. you'll harness there's 6 electric cast. iron furnaces consume as much electricity as a small town, but their competitors abroad aren't able to get their energy much less expensively . what's the name is in our problem, is that the german foundry industry in general, and we, it's a twitter company specifically, already. disadvantage in international competition, in turkey, india, brazil, and friends, electricity prices are much lower. well, this kind of thing will be used to make a coupling for a truck and parts for wind turbines, cranes, and the railroad. however,

domestic buyers are also holding back as the economy is weakening of the job and he had negative growth of minus 0.3 percent in 2023 and is in recession. china was once again the winner with the highest economic growth at 5.2 percent followed by the developing countries and all other g 7 countries of good. yeah. what is the charge due to the insecurity we've seen on the market since last summer? our incoming order level is down significantly. i'm done, you know, sunshine, they're still working on existing orders, but in 3 months they could even be threatened with part time work. they would like to run their electric ovens on your green electricity or even hydrogen, but they need government support for the conversion and also money to reduce the price of electricity. florida, we are into normally

a fan of subsidies, but in this case we would like to see some help from the german government to preserve the german industry, at least the energy intensive industry. the other countries are financing their industries, energy transformations, with billions in loans and government debt. and germany would have a lot of leeway here at 66 percent of its gross domestic product, germany has the lowest national debt of the g. 7 countries followed by china with 83 percent in canada and france. it's almost twice as high as in germany. in the usa, it's even higher. the and the lee has the highest national debt. at 144 percent. germany was once the economic engine of the european economy at the moment. it's the brakes and there's

a danger that more and more companies will go bankrupt or move abroad, the folk smug and bmw mercedes and portia b a as a buyer's bosh. and to some who just a few of the german companies that are well known worldwide. and some of them have been leaders in their industry for decking that for many of them. that seems to be a thing of the past. there's simply too many hurdles right now. are truman industries? on the decline? for decades they was a gold standard. german cars, machines, paints varnishes medicines, radios and televisions, many products with the labeled medium of germany dominated world markets. and today in germany, a slips into a recession, and in 2023 was the only country among the largest industrialized agents with

negative economic growth. and almost all former flagship industries were affected. there are many reasons for this. the automotive industry driven car brands initially slipped through the transformation to electron mobility and are now lagging behind in battery production and hardly offer any affordable east. china is now leading the way in the car, manufacturing the chemical industry asap steel, the chemical company with the highest sales in the world, shut down several plants had its main site in the big soften and cut thousands of jobs. one reason, the high energy costs in germany, which are also causing problems for the automotive industry, the pharmaceutical industry, and it's also suffering from the price of electricity and gas, but also from bureaucracy. nowhere else does the approval of new drugs take as long as in germany. the only exception was the corona virus fact seen from beyond check

. however, many companies are now turning their backs on germany because they can produce more cheaply in asia. mechanical engineering, machines from germany, where once the top export, with more than 80 percent sold abroad. however, demand is now collapsed due to the poor global economic situation. high energy prices and a shortage of skilled workers are also waiting on the industry. only the german electronics industry seems to be defining the crash. it's benefiting from digitalization and the continued high demand for computers, cell phones and the like. overall, however, the outlook for the most important german sectors remains rather bleak. there's a lot of catching up to do, particularly in terms of energy prices, digitalization deep bureaucrat ization, and the transformation to a green economy gloomy weather in many european countries. the nasty winter weather has been going on for

weeks. no wonder many people are long need for summer. for sun, warm light, clothing, and strawberries, and in the spring they usually come from spain. southern and to lucio exports fruit with 550000000 euros every year. farmers need a lot of water for cultivation. that is leading to dispute. white strawberries are all the rage this year. shooting here was something exclusive for us. the reason was since the berries put a fierce dispute over the water, that's why it wasn't the farmer who met us, but this man, an employee of the irrigation association. more on that later. this is about a packed in november 2023, between the spanish environment minister and the end delusion. prime minister, 1400000000 euros to save the don't yanna national park. europe's largest whitland, the man from the irrigation association thinks the pact is good. like what of the

tween the central government to make a delusion, regional government, other it has brought some hope that the conflict will finally be resolved for another the conflict of conflict. it's a fight over water farmers who publicly campaign for the protection of the ground water for your threats from colleagues, and are afraid for their lives and their land. that's why the farmers and monte always send manuel delgado. maybe we will finally manage to get companies in the region to shut off and bumping water out of the ground. langley hold on, and then measure exactly how much ground water is being extract in colorado. and that's how they do it. i will get that side that we fiddle them, then i'll hang on to a few kilometers further on environmental activist, philippe fuentes. this takes us to one such a legal, well, it as recently been sealed off, things have been approved for the authorities are now making efforts to close the wells. but there are still more than one to 1000 a headquarters that are legal in the don't. yeah, the attachment area to figure is as high as $4.00 to $5000.00 tech there. so that

kind of thing if it needs something. so on the one hand, it's a battle between farmers with water rights and those without, between legal and illegal for the environmental list puts needs to be very clear what have been able to look into the details of this pact. just see what's possible . so if we want to see a significant reduction in water consumption here in the closing illegal wells and even the legal wells must be a priority, they got a they getting proof of like after getting committed to why all this scientific studies confirm it. the don't young a nature park simply doesn't get enough water. this is particularly noticeable in the summer months when lagoons like this one dry up. it was again that's done. listen to us. you don't. yon isn't a port state due to the falling water table. it was partly because of the persistent drought and is but also because of the people's excessive water consumption. cynthia prolong, got like a, someone feel free and the owner especially the consumer. that what, what about 3, the best one us after use of political wrangling over water and strawberries,

an agreement has now been reached. one important component areas are to be re naturalized here. for example. there could be a forest again, instead of plastic, the farmers would receive $100000.00 euro spar hector over 30 years. but there was a catch even though the pact was agreed to in november last year. there's still nothing concrete for one of course i did. i want to say that we need agreement assignment and they're not ready yet time because this is an open tact, but that needs agreement from everyone affordable. we had to enable guess the top download. but the farmer's in monday are already thinking ahead. they're wondering what consequences the closure of the fields will have for the labor market. and what kind of they are they put the whole on hector creates around 10 direct jobs will be that. so if we assume that areas of 15021600, in fact the accept the offer. and then we have the $16000.00 jobs, one of the movie. they've been of it. and don't know if he's able to have it all

the don't you 100 packed, not only provides for decommissioning fields. it's also to improve the supply of water to the region. because not everyone has access to ground water. hundreds of millions of bureaus had been earmarked for this. the water comes from the border area with portugal. those reservoirs are full in winter, but the existing pipes are in sufficient demo for us and for the year that this infrastructure needs to be built down for that the project circle. yeah, they can prepare the, the declared in part, you need the feel new pipes the time to cover the distance of a good, 80 kilometers to the strawberry fields. we would've liked to talk to the strawberry farmers directly affected by this. we would also have like to know whether the numerous abandoned fields were already related to the shortage of water. however, all of our requests for interviews with farmers in the region who rely on this

water were refused. after more than 2 months, the 1400000000 euro packed for don't yada has not yet improved anything. neither sustainability of the berries, nor the transparency of the farmers in south western spain. in space, humans can already spend time at the space station eating and sleeping and conducting research from there in the depths of the oceans below 200 meters. this is so far, only been possible to a very limited extent. the marine technology company deep wants to change that out of state, meaning that they do believe it batch of during the disastrous ocean gave permission to free the submersible involved imploded under the high water pressure resulting in the tragic death of all 5 people on board. but there's a team with a better idea in 2027, deep clients to send

a team of 6 at coronado to their sentinel oceanic habitat system at a depth of 200 meters. the idea is not new in the 19 sixty's french ocean explorer shock who stoke built in underwater village. the project was a success, but humans have never consistently state deep underwater. for any long periods. 200 meters is the last point where sunlight penetrates the ocean. estimated 90 percent of marine life is found above that depth. if deep site comes to fruition, it will be like the i ss except under water. the project allows the aqua not to stay under water for up to 28 days. normally time is pretty restricted for getting samples frequently under 20 minutes. the high pressure and the low temperatures of the deep sea, together with corrosion are tough on equipment. to handle this extreme environment, deep sentinels will be built with materials used in space rockets. the underwater

homes will take care of themselves. they'll use renewable energy, have special reactors to deal with waste and won't rely on this surface for anything. 6 people will be able to live in research in this underwater habitat. the sentinel is about 36 meters long, and 6.2 meters wide. it's fitted with private bedrooms and a kitchen. many challenges need to be overcome, such as structural stability in a high pressure environment. and they're also questions about the environmental impact and unknown health hazard was the project aims to discover secrets in deep sea research that would enable human kind to better understand climate change. and develop new medicines. the subsea environment also has the purpose conditions to prepare for space exploration. the project is used for minimal environmental impact and to leave nothing but bubbles, take nothing but photos,

data and memories. those who, as in most industrialized nations, have both doctors and pharmacies close to home can get the medicine for vaccines. they need quickly fund. those who live far away from larger towns often have no access to medicine. in malawi, a drone from germany has been providing really for some time now a drone that flies food to a german village and a back seen to him, malawi and village sounds like a global company. almost in any case, it all started with an interesting idea. and do my so i have a good buddy, you always asked me to build an honest break. that's the american vertical take off aircraft. and then i said, no, don't even start. it's too complex. it's got 2 helicopters on the wing tip. let's

build something simpler. then i made a drawing precise, that's what i came up with, and that's how it started to it. i'm happy to find the file that was back in 2011 ended student digs. you'll know time has about to build a model that could swindle its propellers like an osprey. he took it out to a meadow and done stuff and try his luck over and over again, like back flips. and one of the 1st prototypes even survived. as in the beginning, it didn't work at all. every time we went out of the system crashed and every time we ask ourselves why must nevada that went on for a year, we went out broke the comforter, went home repaired, it went out again the next day. and then that was this moment. that was the big one when i loaded the comforter into the car when we were done. and so i don't know what to do. the culture didn't break this time. i'm to think of the i'm indians all to angle on want. but then, so how is it be the almost non types of conductive prescott,

intrinsic muscles or that kind of stuff put this lead the foundation for germany's most successful drug company. the aircraft slowly took shape to stand out from the crowd. they did in goals real, go all schools. another idea from a friend was a fair called big boys, toys, toys, when i googled it, there were a lot of crazy items that were colored gold, but there weren't any golden drones for it. so i thought maybe they'd like destroying it or not. how do you know if mister last liked his dusty unpublished be it's like for the, the golden drone costing 1000000 euros did not attract any billionaires from abu dhabi. but business started taking off even without the gold co founder tom clement looked for buyers for the wing comforter and found them so we as long as we built to drone, sold it and use the money to hire someone. and if we vented that 30 times, it had 30 more customers purely so financed in 2019 the wing comforter flew

a medical mission in africa for the 1st time for civilian use. one of the founders, clear goals. and the idea was to take the drone technology that yona ton built kind of an exit weird when really makes a difference, like delivering medicines. and in the back to st. john's and blood reserves go from that was the starting point. 4 years later, 150 people are working at wing copped are constantly improving the drone and making it safer. so that one day it will fly completely automatically to the current model size, 100 kilometers per hour and can transport 5 kilos up to 100 kilometers. but for wing copier, it's using medicine is not just the question of attitude. as a medicine, i'm not only saves lives, it's also very expensive. lab samples of doses of vaccine are very small, we label can be delivered quickly by drones and the border also well compensated

corporate side. this is how we uncomfortable once to earn money in the future, creating entire delivery networks around the globe. move and start vaccine event go by. we will have strong growth in grow globally. we'll train more and more young people locally who have met and operate these networks as well. after health care in medicine, we will certainly include food and perhaps even packages. and this will end the entire e commerce sector mit open in. in this program. the company is now launched a trial delivery service in germany in the sparsely populated own involved developing range. you can order from the supermarket and then have the goods delivered, not directly to your front door. so lastly is by cargo bike a lot of effort for a carton of milk. too much of these types, the economics are still a challenge and also making it so efficient that it's a fully automated if i'm with all the permits that domain. and then we'll take a few more years and pay off enough dough on flights and sparsely populated malawi

had been taking off successfully for years. things are different in germany. permits are needed and it takes time to get them for a drone service provider drobek met slowing things down. it was equipment how many of orange? because our customers don't want to wait almost a year to fly. i got an order today and want to take care of it now while i want to fly tomorrow, it's more so. so we're also talking about how we can automate the permit process a little frustrated with you. but i don't want him to actually end up on shopping income. progress in the aerospace at home is slow, but we can comfortably still committed to finding new energy sources for the drone, like hydrogen. that might still be a long way off, but it obviously sounds good to investors. the wing comforter founders have sofa raised 100000000 euros and capital for their ideas and products. it looks like things will continue to trend upward. that's it for this episode of me,

we took a closer look at germany's economic problems and legal wells in spain, living under water, longer in the future, and remote medicine delivery. be sure to join us next week by the

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ice melting more rapidly than in the ice fields and pass the

business dw, news life from berlin. the european union agrees fresh sanctions on russia and the aftermath of the death of brushing dissidence, alexi, and a volley. the u decides to put more pressure on the kremlin for its invasion of ukraine. we look at whether previous sanctions are having an effect. also coming up almost 2 years on since russia waged war on ukraine, we take a look at just some of the carnage the kremlin has inflicted on the country the .