Diesel summit fails to impress NGOs / Hybrid airplane in the making

The latest diesel summit of Germany’s federal government and representatives of municipalities with high levels of air pollution has been a “failure”, Jürgen Resch, head of organisation Environmental Action Germany (DUH), said in a press release. None of the measures presented are adequate to substantially bring down levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) pollution in affected cities before a possible driving ban could take effect, the DUH said. The summit resulted in neither a pledge by carmakers to mechanically retrofit nine million manipulated diesel cars, nor did it make progress on a so-called “blue badge” solution needed to identify vehicles that abide by emissions standards. Chancellor Angela Merkel “submits” to the carmakers and continues to appeal to voluntary measures instead of threatening the companies with huge fines, Resch said.

Michael Ebling, mayor of the city of Mainz and head of the Association of Local Municipalities (VKU), said that federal financial support to enable German cities to reduce air pollution had to continue after 2018. “The elephant in the room” - the car industry - had to present alternative engines more quickly, Ebling said in a statement. The carmakers either had to do so voluntarily or policymakers had to come up with binding legislation, he added.

Gerd Lottsiepen, of environmental organisation Verkehrsclub Deutschland (VCD), said the summit fell short of being “the necessary beginning of a transition in the transport sector”. Digitalisation measures, if anything, would only improve air quality in the medium-to-long term, and the underlying factors of high NO2 levels had not been tackled, Lottsiepen said. Manipulated cars had to be retrofitted by the carmakers and new registrations of cars with excessive emissions limits needed to stop, he argued.

Read the DUH press release in German here, the VKU statement here and the VCD press release here.

See the CLEW factsheet The debate over and end to combustion engines in Germany for more information.

Germany’s last lignite-fired power plant will go off-line by 2040, the Social Democratic energy politician Bernd Westphal said at an event of innogy, the renewables spin-off of utility RWE, which owns many of the country’s lignite plants. But the move towards a climate-friendly economy should not be reduced to a coal exit, said Westphal, who has been among the first in his party to call for discussions about a renewal of the coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU after her talks with Greens and pro-business FDP had collapsed. The question of the speed and starting point of a coal exit has been one of the most controversial issues during the coalition talks. Westphal said a new model to finance the energy transition was necessary in order to bring all sectors – power, transport and heating – together in so-called sector coupling. “With the Renewables Energy Act alone, we won’t achieve that,” the SPD politician said. Some form of a carbon price to create a level playing field for all forms of energy could be a solution. However, Westphal warned against moving too fast. “We should not overdo it otherwise we drive industry abroad.” Westphal also voiced doubts that e-mobility was the panacea in transport. The country should remain open to other technologies and factor in leaps in innovation. Speaking at the same event, innogy CEO Peter Terium urged the government to speed up the move to renewables, which were cheap now and should not be punished for rising costs in the first phase of the energy transition. Terium also stressed that investment in local and regional distribution grids were far more important for a decentralized and increasingly digital electricity system than the construction of the much-contested transmission power lines.

Find background on the Social Democrats’ election programme here and an overview of other party’s energy and climate priorities in a factsheet.

Get background on Westphal’s view from the pre-election interview. Find the options considered to finance renewables in a factsheet. The dossier connecting up the Energiewende provides details of the debate about power grids.

The German Industry Initiative for Energy Efficiency (DENEFF) has praised the strengthening of efficiency rules by the industry and energy committee of the European Parliament. “Investment in energy efficiency needs planning security,” said DENEFF chairman Christian Noll in a press release. Ambitious efficiency rules would create new jobs, increase energy security, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, Noll said.

See the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and Efficiency for background.

The Higher Administrative Court in Münster has put a temporary stop to the clearing of the Hambacher forest in North-Rhine Westphalia where energy company RWE wants to extend a lignite mine, Marlon Gego reports in the Aachener Zeitung. Friends of the Earth Germany (BUND) had submitted an emergency appeal to stop the forest from being cleared, although a court in Cologne had given RWE permission to expand the mine. Anti-brown coal activists are living in tree houses in the forest and have vowed to fight any eviction. The clearing ban is in place until the court in Münster has reached its decision.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW factsheet Coal in Germany for more information.