No new lignite mines in Brandenburg, parties agree in state govt coalition talks
Der Tagesspiegel
There will be no new lignite mines nor expansions of existing ones in Brandenburg, the three parties in negotiation for a new state government coalition have agreed, reports Der Tagesspiegel. Neither will any villages in the eastern German federal state be resettled due to mining activities, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Green Party and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have decided. The freeze on new lignite mines was the Green Party’s most central demand during the coalition talks. State premier Dietmar Woidke (SPD) said it would be important to give the region a future and prospects and stressed that the expansion of wind energy in the state would continue in the coming years, with the target of reaching 10,500 megawatts (MW) by 2030.
In Brandenburg, a decade-old left-wing coalition between the SPD and the Left Party came to an end due to its poor performance in elections in September. The SPD, CDU and Green Party are now in coalition talks in the mainly rural and lignite-dependent state, which faces significant structural changes as a result of Germany's planned exit from coal-fired power generation by 2038.
