Germany seeks investors to hit CO2 target: paper

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany needs some 400 billion euros ($565.6 billion) to meet its goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2020 and aims to achieve the goal by making green investing attractive, the environment minister told a newspaper.

Norbert Roettgen told the Financial Times Deutschland the government would make the conditions for investment in climate profitable for private sector investors, the paper said.

"Investments in climate protection are basically not the business of the state, but rather a good financial investment," he told the paper in an interview printed in its Monday edition.

"In Germany, to reach the CO2 reduction goal of 40 percent in the next 10 years, we need around 400 billion euros, or some 40 billion euros per year," he added.

Roettgen, who is due to meet bankers in Frankfurt on Monday, said the 40 percent goal was "secure." Germany had previously vowed a reduction in emissions of some 30 percent but Roettgen said such a target would not require innovation.

"Then the company that doesn't invest in innovation would have an advantage," he said.