Saxony-Anhalt state premier warns against expedited coal exit

Instead of pushing for a coal phase-out, Germany should reduce its carbon emissions from transport and housing, Saxony-Anhalt State Premier Reiner Haseloff said, according to a dpa article carried by Berliner Morgenpost. An observer in the recently formed coal-exit commission, Haseloff opposes a fast coal phase-out, pointing to the thousands of jobs that depend on the coal industry. Saxony-Anhalt is a major lignite producer. On Tuesday, Haseloff called for a million-euro emergency programme to fund the structural change away from coal in regions economically dependent on the fossil fuel, the dpa article says.

Read the article in German here. 

For background, read the article Commission watch – Managing Germany’s coal phase-out and the factsheets Coal in Germany and Germany’s coal exit commission.