BERLIN, June 4 (UPI) — The head of a sustainability council appointed by the German chancellor has criticized U.S. President George W. Bush’s climate protection plans.

Citing Albert Einstein, Volker Hauff, the head of the German Council for Sustainable Development, said Monday a problem could not be solved by a solution based on thinking that has led to exactly that problem.

“The Bush proposal negates the economics of climate policy,” Hauff said in a statement, adding the industry was the main actor responsible for climate change.

“You can only solve this problem if you impose an activity framework on the market economy, with critical values and an emissions limit,” he said. “We need to make the market our ally for an efficient carbon dioxide reduction and therefore we need limit values for emissions and for all valid CO2 targets. The U.S. proposal misses that.”

Bush last week said he was committed to global action against climate change; he proposed a meeting of the world’s 15 largest emitters. He didn’t spell out, however, how far Washington would go to turn that pledge into concrete action. The United States has opposed the German proposal of binding carbon dioxide emission caps and energy-efficiency targets.

Critics say the Bush plan undermines the U.N.-led climate-change discussions in Bali, Indonesia, at the end of this year, where a successor agreement to the Kyoto Protocol is to be drafted.

When it comes to climate protection, “Europe’s place is in the driving seat,” Hauff said. Climate protection will make the European economy more innovative and competitive on the global markets and more attractive for many global business partners, if it aims at a “low-carbon” economic system, he said.

Hauff’s sustainability council is financed by the German government and was appointed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel; it has organized a June 4-5 conference on behalf of the German government that summoned 150 European experts from the political and scientific realm to discuss sustainability strategies ahead of this week’s Group of Eight summit.

Avram Grant has been named as Chelsea’s new manager following Jose Mourinho’s shock departure from Stamford Bridge last night. Grant, who was director of football at the club, will take charge alongside Mourinho’s No2 Steve Clarke.

The news was confirmed in a statement from Chelsea, which read: “The club is delighted that in Avram we have an experienced man who can come in immediately at this difficult time to help deliver our objectives. In Steve we have a Chelsea man and he will be a crucial part of the management team going forward. Avram and Steve have our full confidence and support.”

Grant, 52, took Israel to the brink of the 2006 World Cup, joined the Chelsea board in the summer from Portsmouth, much to the disgust of Mourinho, who often sneered at his methods and his abilities.

Mourinho isn’t the only one to cast doubt on Grant’s talents. In Israel Grant is known as ‘Mr Jammy’ and having a ‘big fat behind’ - a phrase that means being lucky - after scraping a number of fortuitous draws and victories during Israel’s Germany 2006 campaign. One critic, former Israel coach and TV pundit Shlomo Scharf dismissed him as “King of the Isles” because Israel could only beat the Faroes Islands and Cyprus during an admittedly tough qualification group that contained France, Ireland and Switzerland.

Others who have worked with Grant say he is shrewd and sly - but tactically cautious. Roman Abramovich has repeatedly demanded a more gung-ho style from his team; if he thinks Grant is the man to deliver it, he may be disappointed.

“He’s certainly highly intelligent, knows the right people and is very media friendly,” said one source. “He only met Roman Abramovich in June 2005 when Israel played Ireland, yet he immediately set about cultivating him, becoming his friend and confident. Grant’s friendship with Pini Zahavi, who works closely with Abramovich, certainly has done him no harm.”

Another source told the Guardian: “Grant is an excellent schmoozer - he knows exactly how the media work. During his first training session he will get to know all the names of the press guys and remember them. Journalists will then be wined and dined, and flattered about their knowledge of football. Grant realises that his public image is vital, so he will work hard to get the media on side.”

Grant was appointed shortly after Mourinho had bid his former players farewell at Chelsea’s training ground in Cobham, Surrey this morning. Mourinho then ran past a crowd of photographers, his face hidden in his trademark trench coat, before being driven off in a black saloon.

Mourinho is understood to have contacted five senior players by text message last night to inform them of his departure and by midnight the entire first-team squad knew he was going. The club’s chief executive Peter Kenyon, chairman Bruce Buck, and Chelsea’s owner Roman Abramovich’s key aide, Eugene Tenenbaum, were then called to an emergency meeting at Stamford Bridge last night to discuss the situation.

Many of Chelsea’s staff and players had last night been enjoying a relaxing evening at a Fulham Broadway cinema as they watched a screening of Blue Revolution - a new documentary about the Abramovich years. But senior players like captain John Terry and midfielder Frank Lampard were absent and the remainder, except a reluctant Shaun Wright-Phillips, refused to talk to the media. Mourinho also attended the evening but also ignored the waiting media and looked decidedly glum. Not surprisingly, as events transpired.

A few years ago, it looked like Germany might not be big enough for four mobile network operators. Deutsche Telekom’s T-Mobile («www.businessweek.com») and Britain’s Vodafone («www.businessweek.com») dominated the market. O2, a subsidiary of Spain’s Telefonica («www.businessweek.com»), and E-Plus, owned by the Netherlands’ KPN («www.businessweek.com»), fought over the scraps. As the overall market matured, KPN Chief Executive Officer «investing.businessweek.com» fretted that “we would not be growing as fast as the market,” he recalls.

But in 2005, KPN imported a brand from Belgium that has shaken up the duopoly in Europe’s largest mobile market. Called Base, it appeals to customers confused by the myriad rate plans offered by other operators. It also targets the growing number of customers who no longer have landline phones. KPN’s success in Germany shows that, with the right business model, it’s possible to gain share even in a mature market. Cheaper by the Minute

As the name implies, Base is basic. While other carriers supply free or very cheap phones to customers who sign two-year contracts, Base does not give away phones. Instead, it offers lots of cheap calling time. For $108 a month, Base subscribers can make unlimited free calls anywhere in Germany. A comparable offer by Vodafone costs $144. The E-Plus brand, which continues to operate alongside Base, has adopted a similar low-price strategy. For example, it offers a plan under which all calls cost 10 euro-cents per minute, or about $0.14.

Customers love it. E-Plus is gaining market share in Germany, with third-quarter subscriptions up 16% year-on-year, to 14.1 million. More important, E-Plus operating profit rose 79% during the quarter, to $193 million—some 20% of KPN’s total operating profit during the period. E-Plus’s profit margin is nearly 38%, second-best among German operators after Vodafone, according to KPN figures. “No doubt about it, [the strategy] has really turned around the company entirely,” says Dan Bieler, the Munich-based consulting director for European telecom market watcher IDC («www.businessweek.com»). “The margins are really solid in a market that has been very competitive.” Spanish Expansion

Now KPN, the dominant carrier in the Netherlands with worldwide sales of $17 billion, is planning to export the Base business model to Spain early in 2008. The venture marks a resumption of the group’s international expansion after its earlier withdrawal from the Czech Republic and from Indonesia, a former Dutch colony. Those ventures led CEO Scheepbouwer to conclude the company’s best prospects were close to home. “Europe is our backyard,” Scheepbouwer told BusinessWeek over coffee at an Amsterdam hotel. “That’s where we do business best.”

Spain is a growing but highly competitive market where KPN faces bigger entrenched players including Telefonica, Vodafone, and France Telecom’s («www.businessweek.com») Orange mobile unit. KPN will operate there as a mobile virtual-network operator, or MVNO, renting capacity from an existing provider, probably Orange. But IDC’s Bieler thinks the Base brand could carve out a niche in the crowded market. “It’s not going to be a walk in the park, but with this kind of strategy they have something new to offer,” he says.

Outside its home market, KPN is evolving into primarily a marketing outfit. In Germany, E-Plus has outsourced functions such as network maintenance, which is handled by Alcatel-Lucent («www.businessweek.com»). In addition to Base, E-Plus has a stable of brands in Germany aimed at various groups, such as Ay Yildiz for Turkish-speaking residents. E-Plus is also the service provider behind Aldi Talk, a prepaid mobile service that’s sold at «investing.businessweek.com»discount stores, which are as ubiquitous in Germany as Wal-Mart («www.businessweek.com») outlets are in the U.S. Following Web Developments

Scheepbouwer talks about expanding to other markets such as France, though there are no definite plans. One question, however, is how KPN’s no-frills model will fare as consumers increasingly use mobile handsets to download music, watch TV, or find their way around a strange city. As «www.businessweek.com» (BusinessWeek, 5/30/07) such as the Apple («www.businessweek.com») iPhone or Nokia («www.businessweek.com») N95 become commonplace, KPN may need to adjust the model based on cheap talk minutes, IDC’s Bieler says. “The focus on the low end of the market might have to be rethought,” he says.

E-Plus already offers unlimited mobile Internet service for an extra $36 a month, but KPN says that’s not a big part of its business. A major disadvantage for KPN: it doesn’t have a Web portal to compete with the likes of Vodafone Live!

For now KPN is keeping a close watch on T-Mobile and Vodafone. “There are two big players who dictate the rules of the market,” Scheepbouwer says. “We call ourselves smart followers—we wait to see what happens in the market and follow as closely as we can.”