Time is ticking.

And I don’t mean the time until the next Bundestag elections, but our time on this planet.

Esteemed colleagues from the AfD, since you’re constantly putting forward arguments without facts here, this isn’t a perceived truth or a TikTok video, but these are the facts in the world we live in today.

2023 was the year with the second-warmest temperatures ever recorded in Europe, with the largest forest fires ever observed, with the most days of heat stress, with damage caused by extreme climate events such as floods and storms, which totalled over 13 billion euro here in Europe alone.

Time is running out to somehow get the climate crisis and its impacts under control so that we can continue to live together on this planet in the best possible way – in prosperity, in security and, above all, in peace.

The key now, as with all the crises we’re experiencing around the world at the same time, is not to bury our heads in the sand. And so I’m looking forward to this Climate Change Conference, especially in these difficult times. After all, the climate crisis and international cooperation have shown us that, here in particular, if we keep on finding the strength to work together despite all the differences around the world – and they’re much bigger than the differences we have in this room, between the democratic parties here at any rate – then we can achieve incredible things. Climate action around the world is an example of what we can achieve together if we want to.

A number of colleagues – and this is a sign of strength from this Parliament – attended the Climate Change Conference in Paris together, in different roles, whether in government or in opposition. The term “renewable energies” featured in the text just once – and that was the result of joint effort on the part of various colleagues from the Greens, the SPD and the CDU/CSU – just once.

The 2015 conference in Paris wasn’t that long ago, especially when you consider the current situation. Years later, at a Climate Change Conference held in a Gulf state last year, we decided that the end of the fossil fuel era was nigh and that renewable energies were an investment in the future around the globe. This is feasible and achievable if we work together on climate action, security policy and a smart economic policy – at the international level.

That makes a difference. That’s why we’re calling for everyone not to bury their heads in the sand now, even though the crises have, unfortunately, become even more serious since 2015. Every tenth of a degree matters. You can think of this as an incentive or as a challenge. In these times of crisis, I always think that the glass is half full. Because if we don’t believe that we can do this, then we won’t be able to do this. Each and every tenth of a degree makes a difference.

Here are the facts that you, the members of the AfD, have called for time and again. If, as in a 1.5-degree scenario, the Arctic will be ice-free every 100 years in the future, then that’s dramatic enough. However, in a world that’s two degrees warmer, that would be the case every ten years. That would spell the end of the island states, which is precisely why we’re helping them.

Or take global fishing yields. In a world that’s 1.5 degrees warmer, yields will fall by 1.5 million tonnes, and by three million tonnes in a world that’s two degrees warmer. What will that lead to in countries where fishing plays an important role? Most likely to crises and conflicts. So this isn’t just a question of climate action and species conservation, but it is also a highly explosive security challenge that we’re addressing together here.

As far as migration and security are concerned – this is also a key issue for Europe and for Germany and a reason why we’re committed to international climate action – we know that, in a world that’s two degrees warmer, 189 million more people would be affected by food insecurity than is the case today.

In a world that’s four degrees warmer – we’re still on this path; 3.6 degrees of warming is the worst-case scenario – ten times as many people would be impacted. That would mean that 1.8 billion more people would be affected by food insecurity, which would trigger further crises and, above all, migration flows. That’s another reason why the question of how we engage in climate action is very much a key security policy issue, also for us in Europe.

The fact that you from the AfD can only be obstreperous in the face of all of these facts shows that you don’t care about what’s at stake here, but that all you want to do is sabotage debates.

This is where we stand right now. It goes without saying that it would be easier if we could continue to join forces internationally to tackle the greatest security threat of our time. But here, too, we cannot simply wish that the world were how we’d like it to be.

We always have to get to grips with reality. That’s why, as the government, we’ve formed a range of international alliances on climate foreign policy in recent years, alliances that span continents. With the countries that are suffering most from the climate crisis, with other industrialised nations, especially with countries on other continents and, above all, with those who genuinely want to achieve something.

That, too, is a positive development that has taken place in recent years. The situation concerning climate policy is similar to the question as to who stands by the United Nations Charter. Around 140 to 160 countries keep on coming together right now, saying that they want to continue to work on precisely the issue of climate policy because it’s a highly important geopolitical issue.

So I don’t for one moment share the view that if the new US administration – but we don’t know that yet – were to withdraw from the international stage under the banner of “America first!”, our response should be that we will do less, too. On the contrary, our response will be Europe united! This means even greater climate action in Europe – not for ideological reasons, because we need greater climate action as a matter of principle, which is what some here in this room insinuate, but for the security of our country as a location for business and investment.

So, if you look at this from our point of view, we’ve always been in competition with the United States, particularly in the field of clean technologies. If it were to withdraw – and I’m deliberately using the subjunctive here – then another country – namely China – is ready to step into the breach with investments, not only on the domestic stage in China, but also in Africa and Latin America. That’s why it’s in our economic interest to say at this very moment that now is the time for an even stronger Green New Deal in Europe, now is the time for even more climate-related investments to protect our European economy and to create incentives for investments here in Germany.

This is also the debate currently under way in the United States, of course. I travelled to Texas a little while ago, which is, as we all know, a Republican-governed state. Thirty percent of its electricity is now generated from renewable energies. Many German companies are based there – in the ammonia sector, for example. Many, many jobs depend on this. What are they saying there? They’re not saying that German companies should withdraw – quite the contrary. It goes without saying that they don’t want stranded investments there.

That means, even in our cooperation with the US, even if we may have to approach this a bit differently now, I believe that we should continue to cooperate in the field of economic policy as democracies in this world, even if the going gets a bit tougher here.

If we do not do this, then other players, authoritarian regimes, dictatorships, will fill the gap. That’s why climate action has become such a highly charged geopolitical issue, and why we’re addressing it in a way that befits our present day and age.