Interim facts: On enduring other opinions in the energy transition

The other day, on the way back from an excellent event on digitalisation in the wind industry in Osnabrück, my train was – of course – delayed. So I stood in the train station strolled through the bookstore and stayed in front of the magazine shelf stand. Between business magazines and travel guides lay a booklet with the Title: "Climate and Energy Complex" from Tichy's Insight. I hesitated for a moment. What Was that exact? I leafed through it – and remembered again: Roland Tichy, a journalist of the school of thought that relativizes climate change and considers the German energy transition to be an aberration.

I'm someone who has been is involved in this energy transition, accompanies it communicatively and Helps project developers to create acceptance. So I asked myself: Should I really buy this magazine? I felt an inner resistance – the impulse not to enter this world of thought and language. But at the same time I knew: If I take communication seriously, then I also have to listen to those voices. that are foreign to me.

I bought the magazine. And on the On the way to Berlin, I read it almost completely.

Of course, I found a lot in it, which contradicts my convictions. Skepticism about climate research, Doom and gloom rhetoric about the alleged "green ideology", the usual mixture of ridicule, doubt and defensiveness. But the longer I read, the stronger I became consciously: This is also part of social reality. These voices they shape debates – and they don't disappear just because we don't ignore.

We often talk about the fact that Democracy thrives on strife. But quarrels have to be learned. The basic rule reads: "One has the right to one's own opinion, but not to one's own Facts." This sentence is attributed to US Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan – and he gets to the heart of the crucial tension. Opinions are expression personal interpretations. Facts, on the other hand, are the common ground on which a discourse can take place at all. If we lose this basis, we talk only about each other, not with each other.

In Energy Transition Communication I encounter this phenomenon all the time. The proponents argue based on the belief in technical reason: climate targets, CO₂ balances, Efficiency. The critics, on the other hand, often out of emotion: Fear of change, Distrust Institutions, feelings of loss. Both are real, human reactions. But while we experts believe that we can convince with facts, we often miss the emotional foundation on which in which opinions arise at all.

Enduring other points of view does not mean to adopt it. It means enduring them without them. immediately. Anyone who listens to an opponent of wind power without immediately inwardly to work through the checklist of his errors, you may discover that behind this is often not a rejection of climate protection, but a feeling of Loss of control. That it's not about the wind turbines, but about trust.

And trust doesn't come from dogmatism, but out of relationship.

That is why we need to industry more spaces for joint reflection. Not only information evenings, where experts are allowed to give lectures and citizens are allowed to ask questions, but real Dialogue spaces: moderated processes in which different perspectives coexist – without immediate evaluation. Communication is not a by-product of projects, it is part of the infrastructure of the energy transition. Who they shapes, shapes acceptance.

I think that's the real challenge of our time: the ability to overcome ambivalence Endure. To accept that democracy is not a system of consensus, but rather a system of consensus. a space of dispute – one in which we rub up against each other without tear.

When I left the train, the Notebook read next to me. I wasn't convinced by what it said. But I was grateful to have read it. 'Cause it reminded me that Communication is not a comfort zone. It is the place where we can overcome the impositions of democracy – and grow.

Michael Krieger is Communications consultant for processes of the energy transition. He accompanies participation processes, moderates citizens' dialogues and develops strategies for Acceptance-oriented communication. More information at www.dialoge.digital