Saving the environment and, at the same time, continuing to produce, distribute and consume goods as we have done in recent decades, will it be possible without creating serious problems for future generations ? Our traditional economic structure, the linear economy – taking, manufacturing, eliminating – is certainly not able to overcome this dichotomy. Europe and, in parallel, China, are developing rather a “circular economy”: a holistic philosophy excluding waste and promoting recycling.
Interview with Frank Schwalba-Hoth, co-founder of the German Green Party and non-executive Vice-President of the World Green Design Organization, a Chinese circular economy initiative, of which he organizes the annual conference in Brussels.
LHCH: You were not only in 1980 one of the founders of the Die Grünen party, the 1st institutionalized environmental party in Europe, but also one of the first deputies of this party in Germany and in the European Parliament. Fallen in love with political and social life in Brussels, you decide to stay in Belgium after your mandate, to work with Greenpeace and finally to dedicate yourself to the organization of win-win meetings, coaching, conferences and events at international scope. Mr. Schwalba-Hoth, thank you for being with us.
Frank Schwalba-Hoth (FSH): Thank you for welcoming me over Chinese tea.
LHCH: Before telling us about this World Green Design Organization, could you first remind us of the heart of ecological thought?
FSH: From the outside, some people are often tempted to reduce our thinking to just saving the environment. But it is only one aspect of our policy. From the start, we seek answers to the total spectrum of our contemporary problems: agriculture, architecture, international trade, economy, equal opportunities, energy, social, transport, etc. In all of these areas, we do not rely on survey dictates. Only our values guide us: the multilateral instead of the national; respect and dignity at the place of competition; decentralization rather than overly centralized structures; democracy in place of authoritarian structures; diplomacy instead of wars; responsibility instead of orders; respect for life instead of the death penalty; the long term and not the short term.
LHCH: Do the Greens also have a specific vision of macroeconomics?
FSH: People have already spoiled the limited riches of our globe a lot: look at the state of the seas, the soil, biodiversity, forests, pollution, climate change … With a little thought, we can see that the current neoliberal economy is going right into the wall. One of the ways to respond to these new challenges is to develop elements of the circular economy. Basically, become more demanding with regard to the qualitative and quantitative management of the materials used during production. A “zero waste” philosophy against waste, the use of renewable energy instead of old polluting energies. Germany, a highly industrialized country, already dedicated 40% of its energy needs to wind and solar energy.
LHCH: WGDO is a Chinese initiative. How is China driving these circular economy issues?
FSH: First of all, China has been guided by a “holistic” view of the world since its very long history, and long before Europe. The All before the parts: the nature around us is seen as a Whole to respect because we are a part of it and we all depend on it. This is also fundamental for us, environmentalists.
Then, before its modernization in the 1950s, China was a great nation of respectful and traditional agriculture – with clean air and blue skies instead. Industrialization has arrived, coal has been used in enormous quantities with its share of pollution; becoming the “Factory of the world” has further exacerbated this situation. But today, too many people suffer from this degradation of the environment and it has been discovered that other sources of energy exist which are even more efficient, without being more expensive. China is therefore now showing a firm desire to embrace the European movement launched 40 years ago for a greener world.
Europe, in terms of the environment, goes beyond its old political divides. We see this in the European Parliament: all political forces, from the left or the right, agree on the circular economy. When we look at the global conferences on the climate where the EU and China work hand in hand, it has today become a planetary movement especially if the USA voted courageously on November 3.
Back to the WGDO. It is one of the Chinese structures where CEOs of major companies meet several times during the year in China and once, generally in September, in Brussels. It is a space for dialogue to exchange technologies and methods in order to optimize a green economy; awards are given to the most innovative and the most successful. of these companies. In Brussels, these Chinese CEOs meet their European counterparts.
LHCH: China is nicknamed the “Factory of the world” with all the environmental consequences that flow from it. It is therefore predestined to become an essential engine in the global circular economy if it is to continue its leadership. Why did the CEOs of the World Green Design Association contact you here in Brussels? Your reputation as “King of Networking”?
FSH: I have been in Brussels for 36 years and always at the heart of European affairs. Thanks to my many relationships, I helped these Chinese insiders to open the ideal office here in Brussels: a master house heated by geothermal energy, belonging to Prince Laurent, in the European district. I also contacted MEPs to sponsor the organization of their annual conference here in Brussels. But for this year of the Covid-19, we will unfortunately have to give it up.
LHCH: For a year now, a new team has headed the European Commission, the executive branch of the EU. What can we expect from it in the context of a circular economy?
FSH: Our structure gives a lot of programmatic power to the President of the Commission. A new era has dawned with the election of Ursula von der Leyen as President. It is not “normal”, it is extraordinary. Born in Brussels as the daughter of one of the first senior European officials, she has a European spirit in her veins. With a bilingual education (German, French), she has half a dozen children (and integrated a Syrian refugee child into her family), was the minister who served the longest in the cabinet of Angela Merkel and an environmental, societal and social vision that I have never seen in any of its predecessors. With this mixture of clear ideas, charm, modesty, hard work, intelligence, thoughtfulness and deep negotiation skills, she will go down in European history as the person who was able to “Green the EU ”And having seduced the rest of the world to follow her … I must clarify: she is not a member of the Greens, but of a political part of the center-right, but she has named her program for the next five years “Green Deal”. If you take a look at the content, this is a lasting and completely new vision for official EU policy.
LHCH: This is the first time that the Commission has been chaired by a woman and, moreover, a German. Will the influence of women and Germany increase in the EU?
FSH: The influence of women certainly: the President has already insisted that half of her commissioners be women. But an influence from Germany? No. Mrs von Leyen is a “real European”: she will try to serve the interests of all EU member states with the same intensity.
LHCH: Do you believe that it will be a path for the long struggle waged by the 1st European environmental party?
FSH: Yes, surely. It is a difference between on the one hand, the analyzes and requests made by civil society, – intellectuals, NGOs, environmental associations – and on the other, the more or less the same positions defended by the President of the most important European institution. I am full of gratitude, and even joy, that our views will now ultimately directly guide the politics of our continent and indirectly from other continents.
LHCH: What about the Greens in Germany ?
FSH: This is another satisfying story. To avoid too much structural disorder, a political party must pass the 5% mark to enter parliament. During the 80s, we managed to take this step. For decades, we have had an electorate that has plateaued at up to 10%, a little more among women, in metropolitan and university towns. In recent years, everything has changed … We doubled the number of active members in the 2019 European elections; we were voted over 20% and some polls give us even more. If the trend remains similar until the next national elections, the Greens will become a key player in Berlin: in a center-right coalition, we will see a Green vice-chancellor … and in a center-left coalition we might even see a Green as Merkel’s successor.
LHCH: Germany is Europe’s economic spearhead, a big consumer of coal and, at the same time, the country where the Greens are becoming politically important. A situation, all things considered, somewhat identical to China if we refer to the WGDO?
FSH: At the beginning of the history of the Greens, we were a party “against”; then we became more and more a “FOR” part. Regarding the choice to use this or that energy, we are FOR renewable energy.
Before China became the world champion in wind and solar power, Germany was number one in these two sectors. Those with German experience know that my country is neither the sunniest nor the windiest. Germany has therefore shown that to become a world champion of the sun and the wind, one needs above all political will, technology and favorable legislation.
These laws are important. In Germany the big electric companies are obliged (!) To buy renewable energy, even when it is a very small producer and they are also obliged to finance the cables to connect these units with the electric network. With such a law, we avoid what happened years ago in Inner Mongolia where a large part of the wind turbines produced no electricity for lack of connection with this network.
But your question was about coal. Of course, it was the key energy factor during the economic boom after WWII. But our will and international obligations to fight climate change pushed us to negotiate steps to abandon in the coming years the entire coal sector, while creating solutions, admittedly expensive but win-win, for regions where workers coal mines are very numerous and need new perspectives.
LHCH: Having a wind turbine next to your house – especially when the larger ones of 12 MW have a rotor of 220 m and a peak height of 260 m and sweep an area of almost 40,000 m2, is it practically bearable ?
FSH: It’s true, the wind turbines have become larger and larger. For the defenders of the coal and nuclear power, it was therefore a kind of bread blessed to use this kind of argument! But it’s a ghost debate. These super-large wind turbines are found only in the sea. For installations on land, there are restrictions everywhere to avoid nuisance for the population and air traffic.
If you talk to farmers, you will often hear that they want more and more land units, why? There are, especially in northern Germany, peasants who earn more money with the concessions paid by the company that installs and manages the wind turbines than with their livestock and crops.
Finally: we are condemned by the Earth’s capacity to absorb the harmful effects of human activities and therefore, we are forced to define our way of life from renewable energy.
In the EU (especially Germany) and China, we have understood that it is necessary to be the front-runners to tackle these key changes of the 21st century.
LHCH: Thank you very much, Mr Schwalba-Hoth, for this nice interview.
