Expert commission gives Energiewende status - "Greatest need for action" in transport sector

Germany is likely to miss several of its energy transition goals by 2020, including greenhouse gas reduction and transport sector goals, writes an expert commission tasked with monitoring the progress of the German Energiewende in a short interim evaluation. The "greatest need for action" was in the transport sector. It was not set to increase the renewables share or reduce final energy consumption enough to reach targets by 2020. The experts published their short assessment in time for the ongoing talks to form a new German government coalition, with the aim “to support the upcoming political discussions regarding the effective and efficient development of the energy transition”, says the paper. Germany was on-track to phase out nuclear power and increase the share of renewables in final energy and power consumption. However, the country was unlikely to reduce primary energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020. The commission included several recommendations in the short assessment, and renewed its call for a general price on carbon emissions.

Find the commission’s evaluation in German here.

Find background in the CLEW factsheet Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions and climate targets article Experts call for CO2 price to retain Energiewende’s credibility.

Note: The Clean Energy Wire will publish an article on this story later today.