威力彩玩法

News
07 Oct 2022, 14:37
Benjamin Wehrmann

Second east German state government leader rejects faster 2030 coal phase-out

dpa / Die Welt / 威力彩玩法

The state premier of Brandenburg, Germany's second largest coal mining region, has rejected calls to bring the end of coal use forward to 2030, becoming the second east German regional government head to do so. Earlier this week, the Western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) had agreed to end the use of coal by 2030 rather than 2038, the end-date enshrined in Germany's coal exit agreement.

Dietmar Woidke from the Social Democrats (SPD), said pulling the coal exit forward eight years like in western North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) would not be an option for his state. 鈥淪ecurity of supply currently is the focus. Our lignite from the Lusatia region does an indispensable job here,鈥 Woidke told news agency dpa in an carried by Die Welt. The 2020 coal exit agreement in Germany timed a phase-out completion by 2038 or possibly 2035 and the new government that entered office in 2021 said it would aim to pull the exit forward to 2030. But while western NRW said it will manage to comply with this aim, eastern regions appear to be more wary in light of the energy crisis fueled by Russia鈥檚 war on Ukraine. After Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony already rejected the idea, Brandenburg鈥檚 state premier confirms that an accelerated coal exit currently is no option, a position that was underlined by the in the state on Thursday by operator LEAG in a bid to strengthen the region鈥檚 energy security. At the same time, Woidke stressed that gas could no longer be seen as a bridge technology, calling instead for a resolute ramp-up of renewable power generation capacities. 鈥淣ew gas plants are neither climate neutral nor do they bring us economic or social stability,鈥 he argued. 鈥淚nstead, we finally need a faster buildout of renewables to achieve energy independence.鈥

NRW鈥檚 state government earlier in the week together with energy company RWE announced that the state aims to shutter its coal-fired power plants by 2030, but would have to refire lignite plants in the short term to backup the power system. RWE said it will commit to investing in renewables and new gas-fired, H2-ready power plants. Eastern Saxony-Anhalt rejected the idea of an earlier exit a day later, saying the 2038 framework is 鈥渞ealistic鈥 and was agreed with broad societal consensus that could not be abandoned in the energy crisis.

All texts created by the 威力彩玩法 are available under a . They can be copied, shared and made publicly accessible by users so long as they give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made.
« previous news next news »

Ask 威力彩玩法

S枚ren Amelang

Researching a story? Drop 威力彩玩法 a line or give us a call for background material and contacts.

Get support

+49 30 62858 497

Journalism for the energy transition

Get our Newsletter
Join our Network
Find an interviewee