Garmisch-Partenkirchen (dpa/lby) – environmentalists have sharply criticized the effort involved in the G7 summit at Schloss Elmau. Numerous helicopter flights, constantly circulating police cars, diesel generators – that was not a figurehead for the meeting, which had climate change as a central topic on the agenda. There can be no question of a sustainable summit, said the district chairman of the Federal Nature Conservation in Bavaria (BN), Axel Doering, on Wednesday of the German Press Agency.
“It is a complete mystery to me how you can put the words sustainability and G7 summit in one sentence,” said Doering, who is also President of the environmental umbrella organization Cipra Germany. He hopes that at least the resolutions at the summit will slow down climate change.
Helicopters were constantly circling over the area. For example, journalists were flown from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Schloss Elmau, which is ten kilometers away as the crow flies. Police cars would have left the engine running even when stationary – “probably because of the air conditioning”.
Diesel generators ran at checkpoints on the roads, for example. The police said that diesel units were only used where power supply was necessary and not possible via the grid. “It may be necessary for vehicles to keep their engines running even when they are stationary, among other things, because technical devices are in operation in the vehicles,” said a spokesman. Otherwise the battery could be discharged and the vehicle could no longer be used. The police only used a few electric vehicles around the summit. “Particularly because the correspondingly long charging times and shorter ranges severely limit their area of ??application.”
Even before the summit, Doering had criticized the barrier around the castle, a kilometer-long fence. “This is nature’s nursery at this time.” The helicopter flights also disturbed the sensitive nature. “It doesn’t fit here – just like the whole summit doesn’t fit here.” And: Just publicly accessible charging stations for electric cars were not accessible for weeks because the federal police had blocked the parking lot in question.
