i don't know. if you need to be. discovered to. subscribe to the documentary. the germans are known for their humor it's their efficiency and organizational skills that is so impressive i think they secretly dream of the sound of documents being stamped stapled and filed away the bureaucracy here is

a nightmare and get me started it's because the germans love to plan everything and they usually do a good job of it but they don't always achieve what they want to achieve any quicker in some cases like the current vaccination rollout their absolute disaster is discussing it discussing everything trying to please everyone and just like the somewhat myth of german efficiency there are lots of other areas where the reputation doesn't quite match the reality germany is considered a pioneer in the fight against climate change at least that's the image you leave in stumble across the word any given and in some english magazines and newspapers it means energy transition and in this case it's the monumental shift from dirty and potentially dangerous power sources to renewables applaudable but if you look behind the success stories you'll quickly discover a few dirty secrets as they say old habits die hard is over.

what's the 1st thing that comes to your mind when you think about germany let me guess it's probably going to be sausages football and of course lots and lots of beer. well i guess there's a bit of truth in every stereotype but it's actually one more thing that a lot of people associate with germany. reassigning our economy to ensure a c o 2 emissions germany is often seen as a leader in the fight against climate change but to actually live up to our image. that's what's. really and i'm going to tell you why. and you don't have to take just my word for it. this is bill hare top climate scientist they have sat in the eighty's of the last

century with politics with recycling systems with energy efficiency programs and this is cloudy she's one of germany's leading environmental economists. so by the sounds of it we should be absolute superstars on all things green and indeed we want to go pretty much carbon free by 2050 a climate. kind of like new year's resolutions just because you say you're going to work out more doesn't mean you're actually going to do it right now we're in fairly good shape but that's only because the coronavirus pandemic has pushed down emissions once things go back to normal we're going to be off track again. germany at risk of. everyone things we're green but actually we're keeping. secrets over here and something tells me you're going to guess what the 1st one is . what can i say we're in love with cars.

and we always have been but most of them so. will run on these or gasoline and that means they pump out lots and lots of greenhouse gases it's hard to believe but transportation sector emissions in germany are the same today as they were in 1990 . 7. the last 20. which you see here right right now especially on the transportation sector germany is a car country we are producing a lot of cars we have especially strong. and the car lobby has always been close buddies with the most powerful politicians abandoning combustion engines and going the electric that's costly and risky but it needs to happen if we have to lower emissions. other countries have already set specific dates for when they want to phase out internal combustion engines completely francis said please aiming to have them banned by 2040 the u.k. by 2035 at norway already by 2025 and what about germany.

concrete ban it's not will not happen and it's not happening in germany because of because of the car lobby to be fair though we're not entirely stuck in the past the government has plans to set up more charging stations and there are subsidies for people who buy electric cars things are changing just very slowly. through. w. and really substantially. their manufacturing but the point is the. past. and what also needs to accelerate a lot faster is climate friendly public transport it's like a national pastime here to complain about trains being late overcrowded and expensive and that's because they often. can you believe germany invested in building about 60 kilometers of brand new highways and 2019 and just 6 kilometers

of train tracks so i can't addiction is one big reason why. we're lagging behind our climate ambitions and then there's a 2nd even dirtier secret. there are still around 100 active coal power plants in germany different a 3rd of the country's electricity but compared to other energy sources there are massive c o 2 emitters the good news is that we're shutting all of them down the bad news not until 2038 that's 80 years later than experts say is needed to meet the paris climate goals. just have a guess when this plan started operating was 10 years ago or maybe 5 years ago now it was in may 2020 it sends a very bad thing to the rest of the world the o.e.c.d. countries are. around 202030 germany doesn't match that and when are the big emitters in the south and the developing world also made by around 2040 it's

a very hard case to make. one of the world's richest countries is not actually made in the scientifically to find time travel to get out of the market. italy is planning to phase out coal by 2025 and france by 2022 well they rely on nuclear energy and sweden with its relatively small population is already coal free. why on earth is germany lagging behind on this front. we have had a lot of mining in the western part of germany since 1950 and that relates to have a strong connection of the coal miners to the society also to the cartridge entity but also to the political lobbying our framework and that resulted still that we did not manage share to phase out call early on celeste quickly recap germany is

dangerously addicted to costs and germany just can't shake its habit. tonnes and tonnes of coal. germany is not that whole world i think we have to do much more related to. around 2030. transport we have to do that transportation transition and the products. much more attractive it's much cheaper. that it's also electric cars which we need on the streets there's a lot to do but hey we've got an image to lose. well it's not just germany's image that's at stake it's the nation's future 2 thirds of german surveyed say protecting the environment is paramount you can see

it in the way they love to sold their rubbish their reputed for being recycling world champions you've got a bit of a plastic one of the paper metal batteries. clear. and then is for the stuff you do the other bins but if you put any of the other rubbish in there you're in big trouble of course sorting out the plastic from everything else is a great thing and the germans banned plastic bags at supermarkets he is ago but actually using less plastic and other would be even better. did you know that you live in a world full of plastic. bits in the water you drink and even the air you breathe and the food you eat is full of tiny plastic particles. every week you ingest up to 5 grams of micro plastics about the equivalent of a credit card. that much of that will remain in your body with as yet unknown

effects on your health. a 3rd of all the plastic produced goes into the packaging that you buy. if you're a german you generate an average 38 kilograms of waste from plastic packaging every year that's more than a european average of 24 kilograms and no matter where you live the richer you are the more ways to generate if you buy things online you create even more plastic waste. chances are you'll use half of your plastic products only once and then discard them. but the plastic will stick around you and your environment for the most part not just for your lifespan but for centuries. well which we know a little dirty secret germany used to ship a sizable contingent of its plastic waste to china but beijing put a stop to that not all that long ago it was a rather time that she jinping announced to investors in double switzerland at the

world economic forum that the chinese were set on becoming the globe's green ambassador it's needed they want to clean up their act they also wanted to become leaders in take out official intelligence and robotics well they've already achieved that they still love the germans for their cars and industrial machines for how much longer. sure all the world is the. thomas newman bag runs the chinese operations of e.b.m. pops to a german manufacturer of electric motors and fams is task is to grow the business but how does that work we hear a lot about unfair constraints on foreign firms in china. or this is it shanghai factory e.b.m. pabst has been selling fans in china since the mid 1990 s. sales have been growing continuously even during the pandemic but things have got

a little difficult lately because beijing has unveiled some new industry standards norful who is trying to introduce its own standards used to just to dock european or american ones but now china wants to assume a greater leadership role with a. different industry standards lead to higher costs for companies operating in more than one jurisdiction the european commission has indicated it sees no need to change established international standards. china is germany's most important trading partner and in terms of goods europe's as well thousands of european firms operate there china may be promising a more level playing field but the european union chamber of commerce in china still has a long list of complaints position paper of european chambre $430.00 pages line 100 cases every year to only a small part of that gets resolved. laborous process and put it together and this

all of the companies operating already in china a lot of companies would like to do more business china not able to do so the symmetry between the openness of europe and china is quite quiet when you watch. while foreign firms are allowed to bid for state contracts they rarely actually. when out against chinese competitors. chinese state owned enterprises are often at an advantage thanks to generous subsidies enabling them to offer lower prices that applies to outside china as well. and in the digital economy the fastest growing market foreign players have little to no access. e.b.m. pabst tests the noise levels of its products. with very quiet fans it aims to win over chinese consumers an increasingly important market for the german

company. here the hooks were growing faster in china than anywhere else you know currently accounts for 13 or 14 percent of our total revenue and the figure is set to rise a lot. we're aiming to increase that to 30 percent of isaac and so. right now commercial matters is sometimes overshadowed by the pandemic. or i just want to see how you're doing after 14 days in corentin. very much and it's tough being holed up in a little hotel room for 14 days well. we're doing ok i've been out in the sun i'm going for a cup of coffee. nice change from being stuck in one room all in all i coped pretty well. china is a key driver of the global economy and knows how to use its growing economic might

to further its interests. that also applies to its dealings with the european union and its demands for greater fanous. we are standing on 27 feet and so it's always very easy for china in order to cause dissonance and. rifts within the european decision making process for example 70 plus $112.00 e.u. countries from the eastern european bloc as well as 5 that i actually not eat your members and china sit together in order to discuss business something i guess brussels doesn't really like. to speed said the marquis tax instance competitive disadvantage is china's stresses its right to protect its industries in order to catch up with the west is it going to change i think china's own pace and i think the kind of control they want to maintain over their economy will only lead to let

us have a small portion of the tollgate that we have so it's a serious problem but the market act.