Need to focus on long-term goals – energy transition expert

Germany’s politicians should focus less on the 2020 greenhouse gas reductions target and more on the long-term goals, especially in the heating and transport sectors, economist Andreas Löschel, who heads the advisory board authoring the German government’s energy transition monitoring report, told Energie & Management in an interview. During the ongoing talks to form a new government coalition after Germany’s election, political parties had discussed for weeks whether three, five or seven gigawatt coal capacity had to be taken off-line, but this too much short-term thinking. “We wouldn’t really need to be right on target for the 2020 goal, if there were signals that we’re on the right path for the long-term goals,” said Löschel.

Find the full interview in German here.

Find information on the last monitoring report in CLEW’s 2016 article Experts call for CO2 price to retain Energiewende’s credibility.