Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) have arrived in Canada for a visit. They landed in Montréal on Sunday evening (local time), where they were received by Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland.
A photo published on Twitter also showed Scholz being greeted by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
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On their trip, Scholz and Habeck are accompanied by a delegation of business representatives. Visits to Montréal, Toronto and Stephenville, a coastal city in Newfoundland, are planned with Trudeau until Tuesday. The focus of the trip is bilateral cooperation in the areas of climate and energy.
Specifically, the signing of an agreement on cooperation on the subject of hydrogen is planned. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is also on the agenda. However, due to a lack of export infrastructure, supplying Canadian gas to Europe is difficult. According to the federal government, in addition to energy policy, geopolitical issues such as NATO cooperation and the relationship with Russia and China should also be discussed.
Against this background, Robert Habeck contradicted the assumption that Germany could not find enough liquid gas on the world market. The problem in Germany is the lack of infrastructure to use liquefied natural gas (LNG) as an alternative to Russian gas, Habeck said in a ZDF interview on Monday.
Therefore, LNG loading terminals would be built on the German coast. “But there is gas for them.” The companies would have bought enough gas on the world market. “Where does our gas come from is not the question at all. But how does the gas get into the country,” he added. So Canada may not be available as a fast supplier of LNG gas.
“Of course, we still have a very critical winter ahead of us,” emphasized the Green politician at the same time. Full gas storage creates more security, but Russia can further reduce its deliveries.
That is why it takes a lot of effort to save 20 percent in gas consumption so that there is no gas crisis. An ordinance that provides for energy saving requirements for public buildings and shop windows from September 1 should help here. This was “on the last few meters,” said Habeck.
The German economy is meanwhile pushing for quick agreements with the North American country. The Federal Association of Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA) hopes that the visit to Canada will increase the pressure on the government coalition in Germany to finally ratify the German-Canadian trade agreement CETA in the Bundestag, association president Dirk Jandura told the Düsseldorfer Rheinische Post (Monday edition).
Above all, cooperation in energy supply and in supplying the German economy with so-called rare earths must be strengthened, stressed Jandura. By accelerating the completion of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plants, Canada could also help “keep the European economy running and households warm,” said the BGA President.
The Federal Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW) emphasized that the development of a hydrogen economy is not possible at national level alone. Germany and Europe are therefore dependent on importing hydrogen. “It is all the more important to conclude reliable international partnerships at an early stage,” said Kerstin Andreae, Chair of the BDEW Executive Board, to the “Rheinische Post”.
In addition to possible future cooperation on hydrogen, Canada is already a reliable supplier of raw materials for the energy transition, explained Andreae. This applies, for example, to precious metals, titanium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and aluminum. There is great “potential for further increases” here, she emphasized. (AFP)
