Coal commission could overrun schedule - report / Fair climate policy

Armin Laschet, premier of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Germany’s largest federal state, is not willing to act as a mediator in the negotiations between environmental activists and the energy company RWE over the clearing of a forest near the Hambach lignite mine, the Rheinische Post reports. The conservative (CDU) state premier said that RWE had the right to decide when to start cutting down trees to make room for its nearby open pit coal mine, the largest in Germany. He stressed that the former left-green (SPD and Green Party) government had issued the license for mine expansion and that neither NRW’s parliament nor the government currently questioned the status quo. He also rejected proposals for a moratorium until the end of the German coal exit commission’s work, scheduled for December. NRW police union (GdP) leader Michael Mertens told the newspaper that the conflict surrounding the Hambach Forest could escalate once clearing work begins, estimating that up to 1,000 policemen per day will be needed to shield forest workers from protesters.

Read the article in German here. 

See the CLEW article Logging row continues to weigh on coal commission’s work for background and CLEW’S Commission watch for constant updates on the body’s work.

Due to its apparent lack of will to achieve a consensus, the mandate of Germany’s coal exit commission should be annulled and the government itself should find a consensus on how to end coal-fired power production in the country, Angela Hennersdorf writes in an opinion piece in the WirtschaftsWoche. Several members of the coal commission who come from environmental organisations have shown their unequivocal support to the anti-coal protesters in the Hambach Forest, while the energy company RWE remains unwilling to discuss the contested clearing of the forest to make room for expanding a nearby coal mine. Hennersdorf says the rivalling factions “have learned nothing from the past,” when similar clashes between environmentalists and the energy industry in Germany had led to disputes that lasted for years on end. “Some decisions must not be delegated to a colourful but irreconcilable bunch of interest groups. The decisive task of countering climate change is one such decision,” she says.

Find the opinion piece in German here (paywall).

See the CLEW article Logging row continues to weigh on coal commission’s work for background and CLEW’S Commission watch for constant updates on the body’s work.

German environment minister Svenja Schulze backs Chancellor Angela Merkel position on the European Commission’s proposal to raise the 2030 greenhouse gas reduction target. “We have set goals for 2020, which we will not reach. To then say ‘we will set even more ambitious goals’ is not easy in a political discussion,” Schulze said at a press conference in Berlin. Germany must act “more modestly” in this regard, as it is no longer a climate protection pioneer. “I think we must first do our homework and prove that we’re able to reach our goals.” Germany needs to win back its role as a leader by showing that a transformation is possible without social disruption, and by introducing a climate protection law. The minister said she is optimistic that the government would succeed in introducing this law, which will show how to reach the targets in the individual sectors. In the past, other ministries had left the environment ministry alone much too often when it came to the implementation of environmental protection measures. “It will be hard work and we need everyone’s help.” Schulze also addressed the ongoing work of the coal exit commission. “If we succeed in describing a coal exit path together with our coal regions, this could be a role model for many regions around the world. So we have an international responsibility,” she said.

For background, read CLEW’s coal commission watch, and the dossier The energy transition and climate change.

The leader of Germany’s junior government coalition partner SPD, Andrea Nahles, has attacked the Green Party, in parliamentary opposition, for pursuing a climate policy “that does not care about people in coal regions,” Veit Medick writes on Spiegel Online. Nahles said the Green Party, which currently enjoys unprecedented support levels in polls, is pursuing a climate policy “in which the state orders the shutdown of coal plants” but leaves people in the affected regions to their own devices. While nobody denies that coal-fired power production cannot go on forever, the SPD is not available for an “unfair attack on lignite” [brown coal]. 
The SPD, together with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU-CSU alliance, decided in 2016 to set up a commission to plan the end of coal-fired power generation in Germany.

Read the article in German here.

An agreement reached by Japan and China to set up a common standard for e-car charging technology could topple the Combined Charging System technology pushed for by German car companies, Welt Online reports. Japanese consortium Chademo and the China Electricity Council (CEC) want to develop a more powerful charging technology with a capacity beyond 500 kilowatts (KW) that would be capable of fully charging even the largest e-car batteries within just a few minutes and is supposed to be ready by 2020. “The Sino-Japanese cooperation shifts the balance of power in the automotive industry,” the article says. If this new technology becomes dominant in China at the expense of the Combined Charging System, “this would reduce [the German companies’] prospect of becoming a world market leader.”

Read the article in German here.

For background, read the dossier The energy transition and Germany’s transport sector and the article Economy minister Altmaier calls for mobility transition push.