When will Germany stop coal mining? | Germany | '
"Everything has to be put to the test: the principle applies: in doubt for safety." It is March 14, 2011, three days after the meltdown at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan, when German Chancellor Angela Merkel is perhaps making the biggest turnaround in her government policy to date: the nuclear phase-out. At the end of 2022, eleven years later, the last three nuclear power plants will be shut down, and then nuclear energy will be history in Germany.
Angela Merkel got a lot of support for her gut decision. Critics, on the other hand, still complain today about their supposedly overhasty politics, without looking at all the consequences. Eight years on, Germany and the Chancellor are facing an energy policy decision with similar consequences: How long will Germany still rely on coal-fired power plants?
Coal commission recommends exit until 2038
The coal commission – with representatives from industry, industry and environmental organizations – recommended in January that it would no longer produce electricity from coal until 2038. In the next 20 years, Germany should shut down all brown and hard coal power plants. Only in this way can Germany achieve its climate goals, which are far behind. Five months later, however, the political situation has changed significantly.
The Greens have dominated the European elections with climate protection, and the protests of the young "Fridays For Future" movement are getting louder and louder. Opinion polls show that environmental protection is currently the top priority for Germans. The demand of many, above all young people: Germany has to get out of the coal sooner.
Climate policy of the federal government good to poor
"Germany has been hesitating for too long and holding on to coal for too long," says energy economist Claudia Kemfert. She calls for a quick rethink: "What utilities and politics have not understood, is that the window of time for action closes more and more irrevocably and a 'Next Sun' we can only afford a maximum of seven years." Sticking to brown coal prevents the energy turnaround.
Claudia Kemfert from the German Institute for Economic Research: Due to the coal exit, the lights do not go out
Kemfert is Head of the Department of Energy, Transport and Environment at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin. She strongly advocates a faster coalition exit. For the expansion of renewable energies, they would give the Federal Government the grade 2, well, "But not 1, because the expansion has been massively slowed down in recent years, and for the non-existent coal exit a fifth." A 5 is inadequate.
Claudia Kemfert does not accept the fact that the German economy will suffer massively from the carbon leakage, as coal advocates calculate: "The coal industry has no great significance for the German economy – unlike other sectors such as the automotive sector." The structural change would also be financially supported. Your appeal: "A smart coal exit creates economic opportunities because it invests in future markets and the economy is freed of unnecessary environmental costs and legacies."
What happens when there is no wind and no sun is shining?
Thilo Schaefer is an environmental expert at the German Institute for Economics in Cologne. He can understand the argument well: "I find the demand understandable, now in Germany very quickly shut down the coal-fired power plants, because in this way massive emissions could be reduced quickly." It is no longer about the 'if' at the coal exit, but about the 'how' and 'when'.
Environmental expert Thilo Schaefer: "Not enough talking about how a future without coal power should work"
But Schaefer also warns of a hasty exit and the associated higher electricity prices: "I do not see that we are already able to replace electricity on days when wind and sun are not sufficiently available."
However, because Germany has failed to invest in electricity storage in the past, on days when there is no wind and no sun is shining, the reality is: "As of today, we import electricity from our neighboring countries: we then receive nuclear power from France and Belgium and coal-fired power from Poland, which will of course help our national carbon footprint but not the climate as a whole. "
European action asked
Germany must therefore act European instead of national, the environmental expert demands: "Global warming emissions have a global impact, we need to think bigger!" Schaefer's other demands: less bureaucracy in the approval process for wind energy, faster expansion of power lines from north to south, and the promotion of gas-fired power plants as bridging technology.
But also a rethinking of the citizens must be: "If it is really concrete, where is the next wind turbine or 'I am directly affected by a power line?', Then it looks suddenly in the commitment to climate change very different."
In fact, for many Germans there is a big discrepancy between the desire for more climate protection on the one hand and the own action on the other side: the least refrain from air travel, eat less meat or sit on the bike instead of the car.
Germany threatens to lose the connection
This is demonstrated by politics, criticizes Carl-Friedrich Schleußner, scientist at the Berlin think tank "Climate Analytics": "Political behavior in Germany is simply highly inconsistent Between the ambitions we have, for example to fulfill our obligations under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, and what we actually do are worlds. "
Carl-Friedrich Schleußner: "Lignite is not a future technology, but pure conservation"
The environmental expert criticizes the "managed energy transition" and, above all, misses to consistently focus on renewable energies. "We were once the world market leader in solar power generation, we gave that up." Wind energy is now in for a similar development: "Because of the ever increasing difficulties of building offshore wind farms in particular, there is a wave of bankruptcies among operators, and if we lose touch with this technology, we will do the same."
The recommendation of the coal commission to shut down the last coal-fired power plant only in 2038 is therefore halfhearted: "This is a signal according to the motto: We are not in such a hurry and we are not really serious about the Paris Climate Agreement." The example of the United Kingdom, which is leaving coal by 2025, shows that things can also go faster, says Schleußner: "Germany would be quite different today with the speed with which other countries are advancing in the energy transition."
What does RWE do?
For energy companies like RWE, the question now arises: what to do in the Hambach Forest? The Group has relied on coal and very little on renewable energy. The dismantling was initially approved by the Group until 2040 (in 2016 by the then red-green state government), in October 2018 the Higher Administrative Court of Münster imposed a provisional grubbing-up stop. After the coal commission considered the preservation of the Hambacher forest as "desirable", promised RWE at the request of the state government, until spring 2020, no trees to fell. And then? Dredging, because it is economically worthwhile? Or finally put the clearing ad acta?
Rolf Martin Schmitz, CEO of RWE, will speak at the Annual General Meeting on May 3, 2019 in Essen
Carl-Friedrich Schleußner from the Berlin-based think tank "Climate Analytics" says: "As the boss of a company that is profit-oriented, I may be able to understand the grubbing-up, but as a social player, which should make a significant contribution to the energy transition, that is irresponsible The energy companies as well as other large German companies simply overslept and slowed down for many years. "
Thilo Schaefer from the Institute of German Business in Cologne points out that corporations like RWE still earn their money mainly with the big power plant mills: "So they have to have the leeway to build new business models, so I have to be the boss of such a company driving double track: trying to make as much money as possible with traditional technology while establishing new business models ".
Claudia Kemfert, Head of the Department of Energy, Transport and Environment at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin, advises RWE's board of directors to instead invest more in renewable energies: "Above all, I would try everything to regain lost trust and the younger generation Involve instead of intimidate – these are the customers of tomorrow! "
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