Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel told the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, that the time had come to act. "We have all witnessed the dangers of climate change in the last few months. We only saw winter in the calendar in Germany," he said, alluding to last year's unusually mild winter.
Gabriel reminded the MPs that Germany needs to improve its energy efficiency by three percent per year in order to meet the EU target of reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 20 percent below 1990-levels by 2020.
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