Like disorganised students, Germany's ministers had to pull an all-nighter to meet a deadline they had known about for months. On September 20th, after the members of the "climate cabinet" had spent 19 hours negotiating in the office of Angela Merkel, the chancellor, they unveiled a set of measures aimed at getting their environmentally wayward country back on track. It was a "Marshall Plan for climate protection", beamed Markus Soeder, leader of the conservative Christian Social Union, Mrs Merkel's electoral partner. But it was instantly dismissed as inadequate.
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