Regional SPD association calls for coal exit by 2040

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Germany’s North-Eastern region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania said the government’s stance on climate protection was “way too hesitant”, Dow Jones Newswire reports. “If we as a party want to be taken seriously as far as sustainable energy policy goes, we cannot postpone a coal exit in Germany until the day hell freezes over,” SPD-energy expert Rudolf Borchert told Dow Jones. Borchert said the decision to erase steps to give up coal from Germany’s Climate Action Plan 2050 (following resistance from his fellow party member and economy minister Sigmar Gabriel), was a “fatal signal”. Borchert ’s regional SPD association has proposed a roadmap for ending coal-fired power generation nationwide by 2040, the article says. Borchert demands that its provisions are put into the federal SPD's campaign programme for the 2017 parliamentary elections.

For background read an overview of reactions to the Climate Action Plan compiled by CLEW.