German FM wants 2 million new green jobs

BERLIN, Aug. 4 (UPI) -- German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter wants to create 2 million new green jobs over the next decade, a plan that has been dismissed by Chancellor Angela Merkel's Conservatives as unrealistic.

Steinmeier, who is challenging Merkel in the upcoming Sept. 27 national elections, detailed his campaign program on Monday. It includes a pledge to create 4 million new jobs over the next 10 years -- half of them in the green tech sector.

The center-left Social Democrat candidate has promised to create more than 2 million jobs in sectors that save natural resources, increase energy efficiency and lead in sustainable technologies and concepts, such as electric mobility.

"With the right policy, we can make these new intelligent technologies to a new export hit made in Germany," Steinmeier said. "No other country in the world has better conditions to become the world's top supplier for machines and products that save energy."

Germany is among the world's technology leaders in wind and solar energy, and also in their application. Germany's green sector currently employs roughly 1.5 million people, almost 300,000 of them in the renewable energy sector.

But Steinmeier's political opponents, the conservatives, have ridiculed the foreign minister's plans, claiming they are unrealistic. Some conservatives even said they were reminiscent of economic programs in former Communist East Germany.

The export-driven German economy has been suffering because of the global economic crisis, and experts expect unemployment, which now stands at 8.2 percent, to further rise.

But Steinmeier is optimistic that he can reverse that trend.

"This isn't a batch of cheap promises," Steinmeier, responding to the criticism, said in a speech later on Monday. "This is about getting the right perspective and setting ambitious goals. I believe full employment in the next decade is possible -- with new ideas and the right course."

A senior German energy expert said it depends on Germany's competitors in Asia and North America whether Steinmeier's job-creation plan can really become reality.

"Many non-German companies are already pretty well-positioned in the green sector," Claudia Kemfert, head of energy and environment at the Berlin-based DIW research institute, told radio station RBB on Tuesday. "I think 2 million is a very ambitious target. One million seems to be more realistic."