Germany’s climate and energy plan submitted to EU “underestimates challenge” – researchers

Germany’s key document laying out its climate and energy policy targets and plans shows that the country “is underestimating the scale and complexity of the infrastructure challenge” of the move to climate neutrality, said non-profit advocacy group and think tank Clean Air Task Force (CATF). With some delay, the government submitted its final version of the updated National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) to the European Commission in August. CATF’s priorities include curbing methane emissions, encouraging the transition to zero-carbon fuels such as hydrogen, and promoting investment into CCS or advanced nuclear energy. Germany’s plans were found to be lacking in many of these issues, said CATF.

“The plan shows promise, with ambitious renewable energy goals, but still indicates that Germany is relying too heavily on imported fossil fuels and a narrow set of clean energy technologies – without the appropriate consideration of cost-effectiveness and reliability that would necessitate support for a broader set of solutions, including nuclear energy, carbon capture and storage, clean hydrogen, and methane mitigation,” wrote CATF.

While Germany shut down its last nuclear power plants in 2023, the government is betting heavily on green hydrogen as a fuel for certain industry production processes and for electricity supply at times of little wind or sunshine. The ruling coalition has recently started a remarkable shift towards allowing technologies to capture and store or use carbon (CCS, CCU), and has put a focus on nuclear fusion research. However, CATF criticised a lack of concrete measures and commitments on CCS in the climate plan. In addition, the organisation said that Germany remained “overly ambitious and optimistic” on the role that hydrogen can play.  

National energy and climate plans outline how EU member states aim to tackle issues such as decarbonisation, energy efficiency and energy security to reach 2030 targets. The final updates were due by the end of June. Germany had submitted its original plan for the 2021-2030 period in 2019, so the update must take into account all major developments since then. For example, the EU has overhauled most of its energy and climate legislation to reach higher climate targets, Germany has since introduced its target of climate neutrality by 2045, the energy crisis has upended the country’s energy supply, and the current ruling coalition has introduced a raft of legislation to speed up the move to net zero emissions.