German government should annul coal exit commission’s mandate and decide for itself – opinion

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.