As German Chancellor Angela Merkel embarks on coalition talks to bed down her fourth term in office, a promise made shortly before her re-election may come back to haunt her.
At least that’s the view of nine analysts and researchers from Berlin to London who all say her target of reducing carbon emissions in Europe’s biggest economy by 40% in 2020 will probably fail. On September 14, Merkel went as far as saying that she will find ways to meet the goal, no matter what. At the end of last year, those emissions were down 27% from 1990 levels.
