Curriculum Vitae
Josef Göppel
Josef Göppel was born on 16 August 1950 on a small farm in the Franconian village of Rauenzell near Ansbach. He grew up with a strong attachment to the land and became a forester. He worked as a forestry engineer for 28 years – mostly outdoors. Göppel is married and has four daughters.
In 1972, he became involved in the local politics of his home region. After eight years in the Bavarian State Parliament, he was elected directly to the German Bundestag in 2002. All his political activities focus on living and working in harmony with nature.
Göppel has been the head of the CSU’s environmental working group since 1991, and has played a significant role in shaping the party’s environmental platform. Within the party, he has a reputation as a sometimes difficult and persistent unconventional thinker. The media regard him as the green conscience of his party.
As a forestry engineer, in 1986 he founded the Land Care Association of Middle Franconia. His aim was to overcome the bitter divisions that existed at that time between environmentalists and farmers. The initiative became a success, and today there are 155 Land Care Associations in 14 German Länder, with equal representation of farmers, conservationists and local politicians. Göppel has been head of the German Association for Landcare since 1993. The network Landcare Europe was founded at EU level in 2016.
In the mid-90s he joined the International Eco-Social Forum and worked on the Global Marshall Plan Initiative.
In 2005 he founded the Renewable Energies Network in the Middle Franconia region together with business representatives, craftspeople and scientists. In 2014 this led to the creation of the Franconia Regional Electricity cooperative, which aims to sell electricity directly to those in the immediate vicinity of the production sites.
He stood firmly by Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2015, when her generous policy of receiving Syrian refugees came under harsh criticism from the CDU and CSU.
A key cross-party initiative in the German Bundestag can be traced back to Göppel: members of government and opposition parties joined forces in the Future Forum on the Environment, where they made the case for more sustainable environmental policies.
In the Bundestag elections, Göppel’s personal votes have far surpassed the second votes for his party every time; in 2013, the figures stood at 53.3 percent to 47.6 percent.
An outsider’s view proves revealing – the following text appeared in the local press after an appearance at the Nürnberger Presseclub:
"Göppel is a true conservative. He wants nothing more than to preserve creation. The CSU Member of the Bundestag approaches politics through the lenses of his Christian faith and his long experience working with nature. He has been known to get on the wrong side of people, whether it be his fellow party members or supporters of conventional growth policies. He was the only member of the CSU to vote against generating electricity from nuclear power in Germany long before the start of the energy transition."
Political Career
•1972-2004 Herrieden town council
•1974-1994 Middle Franconia District Council
•since 1991 Chairman of the CSU environmental working group
•1986 founded the first Land Care Association
•1994-2002 Bavarian State Parliament
•since 1996 Ansbach county council
•since 2002 German Bundestag
Full steam ahead for global climate protection
UN Climate Change Conference in Montreal
Josef Göppel, Member of the German Bundestag, Environment Policy Spokesman for the CSU, Representative of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group on the Committee on the Environment of the German Bundestag, on the occasion of the beginning of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal.
Berlin, 02. December 2005 - How can we break down the wall of indifference which exists regarding the changes to the earth's climate? Life is already hard enough, I am often told. Do you environmentalists have to deprive us of the only small pleasures we have left: cheap flights, fast cars, handy disposal items? None of your horror scenarios are even proved and they're a long way off in any case!
It is true that, so far in Germany, it is mainly farmers and forest owners who are affected by extreme climate events; so far the urban population is not under threat. Likewise, figures concerning insurance claims made to the major reinsurers no more enter our consciousness than do lottery numbers if we haven't bought a ticket: $60 billion worldwide in 2005, the highest level of insurance ever paid out for atmospheric-induced damage. The next highest record is also from recent years: in 2004, a total of $40 billion was paid out. At the same time, prices of raw materials are rising to unprecedented levels. Even scrap iron is currently selling for $200 per metric ton. Oil prices have doubled over the last 18 months. Should we wait until these problems are regulated by the markets? This is the talk of cynics. Politicians who continue to delay the implementation of a determined climate protection strategy are violating their oath of office, in which they promised to protect the people from harm! It is true that climate change cannot destroy the ecosystem, yet it can destroy human civilisation. Today, already, 50 to 100 million people are threatened by a lack of drinking water. Were temperatures to rise by two degrees, this number would triple. Where will these people go?
There is no sensible alternative to lowering consumption of raw materials and energy. Otherwise, the way in which settlements are currently distributed across the world will not be sustainable for much longer. Anyone currently under 40 years of age would have to expect to experience dramatic migration flows.
The UN Climate Change Conference in Montreal is the first such conference to take place since the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol and the first to take place on North American soil. Montreal is intended to be the first step towards the negotiations which will create the framework for international climate protection after 2012. The goal of the German delegation is for Montreal to conclude with a formal mandate for negotiations. As we know, it was the 1995 Berlin Mandate which set in motion the negotiations which led, in 1997, to the Kyoto Protocol. Concrete reduction targets for the time after 2012 cannot be expected in Montreal, but a timetable for a follow-up agreement can be expected. This is supported by most EU states, together with Canada, Norway, several South-American states and South Africa. China is at least aware of the problem. The role of Tony Blair is unclear. In 2004, he was the driving force within the G8: Now, he is determined to get the US on board. It appears that he is prepared to abandon a great deal of that which has been achieved to this end. We Germans are pushing for the adoption of a follow-up agreement. Yet is seems doubtful whether this can be achieved by 2008. Presidential elections are due to take place in the USA at the end of 2008. Many allies of the US are cautious about signing anything binding before then. In addition, there is a possibility that a new US government might come on board in 2009. What is clear is that non-binding agreements on technology transfer, like those being promoted by the USA, will not suffice!
The framework laid down in the German government programme is, thankfully, clear on this point. We intend
- to seek to achieve, by 2009, an international climate protection agreement for the time after 2012, which builds on the Kyoto Protocol;
- to seek to ensure that other industrial nations and economically advanced newly industrialised countries are part of a new climate protection agreement and that they make commitments in line with their capacities;
- to propose that the EU commits itself, in the framework of the international climate protection negotiations, to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions from their 1990-levels by a total of 30% by 2020. Assuming this is the case, Germany will seek to achieve a reduction in emissions greater than 30%.
- to adequately include air traffic in the system of emissions trading.
Germany will maintain its leading role in climate protection. The grand coalition is taking a new approach in its relationship to the developing countries. We will move forward a new partnership between industrial nations and developing countries, one aimed at an ambitious modernisation of energy supply to increase energy efficiency and at expansion of the renewable energy sector. The intention is for this partnership to complement a binding climate protection agreement, on no account to substitute such an agreement.
The concrete measures which we take in our own country will remain decisive for the credibility of our climate protection policy.
- We will increase the share of electricity produced from renewables to at least 20% by 2020 and the proportion of overall energy consumption provided for by renewables to at least 10%.
- We will retain the basic structure of the Renewable Energies Sources Act. We will adapt fee rates, degressive steps and support periods in line with the development of individual renewable energies. In the wind energy field, we will concentrate on renewing older installations and on offshore generation.
- We will intensify the export initiative for renewable energies.
- We will make better use of the market potential of renewable energies in the generation of thermal energy by continuing the market incentive programme on the current scale, as well as through a law on the use of renewables for heating purposes.
- We will work steadily to improve the energy efficiency of the economy, with the goal of doubling energy productivity from 1990 levels by the year 2020.
- We will double support in the framework of the CO2 building modernisation programme compared with 1990 levels to 1.5bn euros per year and significantly improve the programme's attractiveness (switch to a system of investment grants, tax benefits and inclusion of rented accommodation). Our goal is to ensure energy-efficiency modernisation measures are carried out in 5% of buildings per year.
- We will introduce an "energy passport" for buildings.
- We will increase the proportion of biofuels to 5.75% of total energy consumption by 2010.
How can we live just as well - or better - than today whilst reducing consumption of natural resources to 20% of current levels?
This remains a central undertaking for the future. The main challenge we face is to increase value added whilst using less materials and energy!