“Enough of this trench warfare”

By conceding to both government and nuclear plant operators' positions, Germany’s constitutional court has made a pragmatic judgement in one of the country’s most ideological disputes of the past decades, writes Jürgen Flauger for Handelsblatt. But the court’s ruling must have an impact beyond the nuclear phase-out, he argues. “Energy policy making has to rid itself of this ideological trench warfare,” he writes, adding that disputes around solar power, natural gas from Russia and especially the “number one climate killer” - coal plants - are equally ideological. “It is high time we formulate a binding exit plan for brown coal as well, a plan that takes environmental concerns into account as much as it respects economic interests of plant operators,” Flauger says.

Read more on the role of energy providers in the Energiewende in the CLEW dossier Utilities and the energy transition.