Germany in climate change dilemma ahead of G8

BOXBERG, Germany, June 4 (Reuters) As Chancellor Angela Merkel seeks to convince world leaders to cut greenhouse gases at a G8 summit this week, one of the biggest brown coal-fired power plants ever built is taking shape in this depressed town.

Hosting the Group of Eight summit in Heiligendamm, Germany may see itself as a guardian of the environment and sometimes wags a green finger at the rest of the world's efforts to tackle global warming.

But residents of this eastern town, where the population has halved since 1990, are delighted by the plant and by a plan to fuel it by re-opening an opencast pit which closed eight years ago.

The plant on the outskirts of Boxberg near the Polish border will emit 4.4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year -- as much as 1.5 million cars -- and is is one of 26 coal-burning plants due to be built in Germany.

''Everyone here is in favour of the new power plant,'' said Boxberg mayor Roland Trunsch. ''The town would have died without it. People went out to protest in the streets to get it built.

The CO2 doesn't bother any of us. The jobs are more important.'' Take a closer look at the building boom for coal-fired plants in Germany -- and the country's refusal to consider motorway speed limits or other pro-environment measures -- and it is hard to see how Europe's largest emitter of CO2 will meet even its own goals.

''It's hypocritical for the German government to preach to others about fighting climate change while they're building so many new coal-fired plants themselves,'' said Gabriela von Goerne, a climate expert at Greenpeace. ''It doesn't add up.

''Anyone doing the math can see that adding coal-fired plants will not lead to more climate protection in Germany. It's a contradiction to say you want to protect the climate yet build so many coal-burning plants. I can't figure out how it'll work.'' MIXED RECORD Germany's own record on the environment shows, at best, a mixed performance. It is the world's sixth biggest emitter of CO2 and its auto-makers are a powerful lobby against climate curbs. At the same time, clean tech and renewable energy are already among Germany's leading export industries.

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