Germany and Peru agree climate partnership

State Secretary Annen said: “Our climate partnership aims to support Peru in two ways - in mitigating the damage that climate change is already causing there today and in preventing future damage through active climate protection. Peru is a driving force in international cooperation on climate protection. We are launching this climate partnership with the aim of jointly shaping the path towards a carbon-neutral and sustainable future in a socially equitable way.”

State Secretary Hajduk said: “We will only be able to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement if we all pull together and the industrialised countries support the global south in achieving the climate targets. The German-Peruvian climate partnership is a good example of this. Like for Germany, it will be critical for Peru to bring together the issues of greenhouse gas reductions in the energy and transportation sectors and forest and nature conservation.”

Peru is one of the countries in Latin America that is suffering the most from climate change. Rising temperatures are increasingly causing Andean glaciers to melt. Not only does this have serious consequences for Andean ecosystems and biodiversity, but it also threatens the water supply in the low-lying and arid coastal regions, which are home to more than 50 percent of Peru’s 33 million inhabitants. In addition, there are increasingly frequent violent floods and landslides on the mountain slopes, which destroy settlements and fields.

At the same time, Peru is the second largest Amazonian country with great biodiversity and therefore has a special role to play in the area of climate protection. This is why the new climate partnership is geared towards supporting the country through projects that advance climate protection and at the same time help the local population to be better prepared to deal with the consequences of climate change. For example, Germany is helping Peru to develop sustainable public transport systems in order to reduce harmful carbon emissions. In the Amazon rainforest, the focus is on protecting the forest, for example through combating forest crime, which is increasingly threatening indigenous communities.

Just days before the start of COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, the launch of the new inter-ministerial climate partnership sends a message of support for Peru’s ambitious climate goals which include achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. The climate partnership also marks the launch of a regular high-level climate dialogue between Germany and Peru (including the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, the Federal Foreign Office and the Federal Environment Ministry). Current plans are to engage with the scientific community, the private sector and civil society to jointly work on climate issues.