Greens reject coal offer tabled by conservatives, FDP in German coalition talks

Germany’s Green Party has rejected an offer tabled by its aspiring coalition partners to reduce the country’s coal power capacity by up to 5 gigawatt (GW), news agency Reuters reports. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the pro-business FDP say that Germany’s coal capacity can be reduced by a maximum of 3 to 5 GW by 2020 without threatening power supply security. The Greens, on the other hand, insist that capacity must be reduced by 8 to 10 GW to achieve a corresponding reduction in carbon emissions in line with the national 2020 climate targets. “What has been tabled is not enough”, Green Party co-leader Simone Peter said. Germany wants to reduce CO₂ emissions by 40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, and reducing coal power is supposed to contribute around half to meeting this goal, Reuters writes.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW articles on Green climate policy concessions in coalition talks and on Germany’s rising emissions for background.

Also check CLEWS's updated factsheet on Coal in Germany.

Note: CLEW will publish an article on this topic later today.