In the media: Climate action plan, industry concerns and power lines
Die Welt
Steel industry says its concerns over energy policy go unheard
Various voices from the steel industry raise concerns about the Energiewende in an article in Die Welt. Industry representatives are especially vexed about having to pay the renewable energy surcharge despite climate-friendly investments toward producing their own power. In a separate interview in Die Welt, Hans-J眉rgen Kerkhoff, head of the steel industry association (Wirtschaftsvereinigung Stahl), calls for reforms in emissions trading.
Read the article in German .
Read an interview in German .
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Tagesspiegel
Environment Minister wants airtight climate action plan
Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks won鈥檛 agree to any government climate action plan that doesn鈥檛 lead to Germany reaching its 2020 climate targets, the Tagesspiegel reports in a feature outlining political sparks around the plan. The government is expected to approve the plan on December 3.听 The country has suffered several years of rising CO2 levels, 听which means it鈥檚 now likely to miss its goal of slashing them 40 per cent by 2020 over 1990 levels. The country met its original targets, as defined by the Kyoto Protocol, in 2009. The paper also covered a forum it sponsored, in which politicians, industry representatives and academics debated whether the 40 per cent target should be changed.
Read the feature in German .
Read the article on the forum .
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Tagesspiegel
How Germany鈥檚 power system will be adapted to accommodate the Energiewende
Dagmar Dehmer in the Tagesspiegel outlines the details of a plan put forth Tuesday by Germany鈥檚 four leading power network operators to expand the system of power lines carrying renewable energy from northern to southern regions. This is the second draft of Germany鈥檚 new grid development plan (Netzentwicklungsplan).
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The Guardian
鈥淪ubsidy cuts and weak EU targets cloud German solar energy revolution鈥�
In a feature, The Guardian鈥檚 energy correspondent Arthur Neslen writes that the future of renewable energy in Germany is under threat. Despite high-profile projects like Werder Bremen FC鈥檚 football stadium, which is plated with solar panels, jobs have been lost in the solar technology sector as China gets in on mass-production, while falling feed-in tariffs are making renewable power generation less profitable. EU decisions have also had a negative impact on Germany鈥檚 renewable sector, Neslen writes, with Germany forced to bring forward an end to subsidies for solar power, while the Europe-wide target of 27 per cent of energy to be generated from renewables by 2030 is described by industry voices quoted in the article as 鈥渇rustrating鈥� and purely symbolic.
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The Hill
鈥淕ermany鈥檚 Energiewende is not the boogeyman鈥�
In a blog post for The Hill, Carol Werner and Jessie Stolark of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute in Washington write that renewable energy 鈥渋s nothing to get spooked about.鈥� The post says that though naysayers in the US claim Germany鈥檚 energy transition has hurt consumers, in fact, the average German electricity bill is only 100 US dollars, similar to that in the US, and 90 per cent of Germans back the Energiewende. They also point out that while the Fukushima disaster accelerated the transition, its roots go back to the 1970s.
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