City of Berlin plans to pull forward own coal exit to 2028-2029 from 2030

The city of Berlin plans to speed up its coal exit, regional newspaper Tagesspiegel reports. The prospective city government composed of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens and the Left Party said they had agreed during their coalition negotiations to switch off the last coal power plant in 2028-2029, at least one year earlier than the current target date of 2030. They said this step would be possible with massive investments in solar arrays and the continued use of natural gas until alternatives, such as hydrogen, are available. The members of the prospective coalition government also agreed to consider climate protection a cross-sectional task. "There are various laws, but we devised a uniform governance for all departments," Green politician Bettina Jarasch said.

The whole of Germany currently plans to exit coal by 2038 at the very latest, but the prospective federal coalition government composed of the SPD, the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) has said it wants to pull forward that date, "ideally" to 2030. Coalition negotiations at the federal level are also ongoing, and climate activists are especially keen to find out the date of the coal exit, which is expected to be specified in the coalition treaty next week.