Climate Action Plan draft backs ecological tax reform, carbon price floor

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung

“Everything for the global climate”

A leaked draft of the Climate Action Plan 2050 shows the path the German environment ministry wants to take to carbon neutrality by the middle of the century, reports the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The draft includes concrete targets and deadlines for different sectors, a recommendation for ecological tax reform, local climate protection measures, and suggests the need for an overarching concept to internalise environmental costs in market prices. In the transport and building sectors, this could see government test whether “additional levies on fossil fuels and heating fuels” could be used to support environmentally beneficiary technology.

Read CLEW's factsheet on the Climate Action Plan 2050.

Der Tagesspiegel

“Cutting emissions from coal in half by 2030”

The draft version of the Climate Action Plan 2050 also lays out milestones for a coal exit, says Der Tagesspiegel. By 2030, CO2 emissions from the energy sector are to be reduced from today’s 358 tonnes per year to 170-180 tonnes. This means a number of old coal-fired power stations will have to be shut down by 2030, particularly old lignite plants. The plan also implies that investment in new coal power plants and new lignite mines should be stopped, the article says. The environment ministry suggests in the draft that a commission should prepare suggestions by the middle of 2017 on how to implement a coal phase-out .

Carbon Pulse

"Draft shows Germany considering minimum EU carbon price"

According to a draft of the 2050 Climate Action Plan seen by Bloomberg, the German government “favours an emissions market that may ‘include the adoption of a Europe-wide minimum price to set a sufficiently strong price signal,’” Carbon Pulse reports. France backs a price floor, which it plans to implement domestically from next year. But so far, the idea has had a “lukewarm” response at a European level. Germany’s support “could significantly boost the proposal’s chances” the article’s author, Ben Garside, writes. EU carbon prices rose as much as 6.9 percent on Thursday as Germany’s draft paper raised the prospects for political intervention and oil prices led the energy complex higher, Garside writes in a separate article.

See the article in English here.

Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Ballast in the shaft”

The Gorleben salt mine is becoming the sticking point in the advisory report on finding a final repository for nuclear waste in Germany, writes Michael Bauchmüller in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. Part of the commission, which is tasked to present the report next month, wants to ensure that every potentially suitable location in Germany can be tested further, including Gorleben in Lower Saxony. But other members of the body highlight historic failures in the exploration of the salt mine that would make a repository in Gorleben “politically unenforceable”, according one of the co-heads of the commission, Bauchmüller says.

Read a CLEW factsheet on the nuclear storage question in Germany.

dpa

"Tesla criticises German premium for electric cars"

Tesla has said that the 60,000-euro price limit on electric cars eligible for subsidy under the government’s new scheme is designed to exclude the American manufacturer’s vehicles, dpa reports. Tesla called the price limit arbitrary, pointing out that the scheme was designed in consultation with German carmakers. 

See article in German here.

Handelsblatt

"EnBW and wind power; Lull in south"

German power company EnBW is calling for regional targets for the expansion of wind power capacity, Handelsblatt reports. Last year, 42 percent of new capacity was installed in the north of the country, and 44 percent in central Germany. Only 14 percent of new installations were located in the southern states. Baden-Württemberg, where EnBW’s operations are located, has just 700 megawatts of wind capacity.  EnBW head Frank Mastiaux says the auction process for wind power capacity under a revised renewable energy law will perpetuate the regional imbalance, as suitable sites in the south are often more expensive to develop and maintain because they are less accessible, and suggests a target of, say, 40 percent of new capacity to be built in regions where wind farms are less likely to be taken offline.

See the article in German (behind a paywall) here.

FIZ Karlsruhe

“Modelling renewable electricity supplies”

Experts at the Öko-Institut have produced a report looking at scenarios to meet the government’s target of supplying 80 percent of German power from renewables by 2050. “Modelling power supply for 2050” uses a model for the power market that incorporates technical and economic factors, and found that “heat storage systems for CHP plants make economic sense” and “load management for industry, commerce, retail and services provide further possibilities,” according to a press release.

See the press release in English here.