German Greens: Preventing climate disasters will be costly

The Green party candidate hoping to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany’s upcoming election warns that efforts to better prepare the country against climate-related disasters is going to be costly

BERLIN -- The Green party candidate hoping to succeed Chancellor Angela Merkel in Germany's upcoming election warned Monday that efforts to better prepare the country against climate-related disasters is going to be costly and will require tapping into additional sources of revenue. Annalena Baerbock, whose party is trailing Merkel's center-right Union bloc in recent polls, said the Greens want to invest significantly more in prevention “and that will cost money.” “There's no beating around the bush: protection against floods, rebuilding cities to make them resilient against climate change costs money,” she told reporters in Berlin. Baerbock said the proposed measures could be paid for with money generated from carbon taxes or a softening of Germany's debt rules — an idea the Union bloc has ruled out.