Coal commission members eager to find solutions, but framework conditions “chaotic” – task force member

The members of Germany’s coal exit commission are “willing to work together constructively to find solutions”, but the conditions are “chaotic,” said Kai Niebert, president of the environmental umbrella NGO DNR at a panel discussion in Berlin. So far, no real debate has taken place on key issues, and thus the positions of the other stakeholders represented in the task force often remained unclear. Greenpeace Germany’s managing director Martin Kaiser added that crucial questions had not yet been discussed, such as which power plants should be switched off and at what time. Kaiser also said the environmental NGOs would not support just any decision by the commission. “There are red lines for us,” he said. DNR’s Niebert said that German Chancellor Angela Merkel "effectively axed" the opportunity to have an interim report on the table on pre-2020 action ahead of the COP24 meeting in Poland with her intervention that postponed the commission’s deadline. The task force meets today (26 November) to discuss the upcoming timeline.

For background, read CLEW’s coal commission watch and the news digest item German government denies media report in latest coal exit commission draft.