As EU Industry Commissioner, Günter Verheugen should be familiar with the automotive groups. But when he recently visited a test centre in Scandinavia, he was "distressed" to find that environmental compatibility played virtually no role there as a criterion. Verheugen reported this at the third Allianz lecture in Munich's Residenztheater, held on Sunday. He continued by saying that in these times above all he would have expected Europe to be a global role model when it came to the economy and environmental issues.

"Europe's route to global leadership - economic and environmental challenges": The Allianz Foundation and national daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung could hardly have chosen a better time for the event. It came at the end of a week in which US President George Bush announced ambitious environmental goals, and climate policy was a key theme at the World Economic Summit in Davos. Verheugen emphasized that globalization had gone into a new dimension. Soon there would be genuine competition between industrial nations and countries with emerging economies operating on a similar technological level. Moreover, the era of American supremacy, which had begun after the end of the Cold War, was over. New York economist and Nobel prize-winner Joseph Stieglitz regarded this as an advantage: The USA was no longer in a position to dictate unfair conditions to the world, e.g. for trade, he said. Stieglitz is convinced that Europe's hour has come. In his view, the old continent with its diversity of values and a stronger sense of environmental awareness is in a better position than the US to operate in a multilateral world, which also needs to address concerns about climate change. It's a well-known fact that the situation always looks a lot better from a distance, and experienced European politician Verheugen issued a warning that the EU is very poorly equipped to deal with global challenges. At the moment, public sentiment - particularly in Germany - was against stronger political integration, commented Verheugen. And the absence of a constitution makes strategic policy in the EU much more difficult. Nevertheless, he was of the view that the energy paper recently presented by Brussels represents an important step forward with respect to climate change.

Potsdam physicist Hans Joachim Schellnhuber highlighted the importance of a far-sighted energy policy that also focuses on conservation and renewable resources. If humanity continued in the same vein, the earth was threatened with an increase in temperature of five degrees Celsius over the coming decades. It was some consolation that the serious consequences of climate change had now penetrated the public consciousness. Schellnhuber put the case for a third industrial revolution that would make industry and transport largely free of carbon. All three speakers were unanimous that this would be impossible without political leadership and they emphasized the need for a treaty to replace the Kyoto Climate Protocol. However, Schellnhuber commented that of course it would also be impossible without the people. They are the consumers and can exercise their power. For example, by purchasing environmentally-friendly cars.

JEANNE RUBNER. All rights reserved: Süddeutsche Zeitung