“Lignite: The endgame has begun“

A new draft of federal environment minister Barbara Hendricks’ contentious Climate Action Plan 2050 says that there would be no new coal-fired power plants or expansions of existing open pit mines, writes Michael Bauchmüller in Süddeutsche Zeitung. “With this, the lignite endgame begins,” writes Bauchmüller. The new draft calls on the federal government to lobby for a floor price for auctioned EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) carbon certificates on the European level. It also includes emission-reduction targets for the individual sectors - which had been cut from earlier drafts. The Climate Action Plan 2050 is currently in consultation between federal ministries. It is not clear if it will be ready to be approved by the cabinet this week.

Read the article in German here.

For background read the CLEW article Ministry avoids concrete targets in weakened Climate Action Plan.