“EU package will lead to coal exit”

The EU Commission’s “winter package” on energy policy has been criticised by politicians and environmental organisations, but it does contain “some positive surprises,” writes Verena Kern for klimaretter.info, based on an assessment by think tank Agora Energiewende.* These include a binding goal to improve efficiency by 30 percent by 2030 compared with the business-as-usual scenario, as opposed to the previous non-binding 27 percent target, as well as a 550-gram-per-kilowatt-hour CO₂ emission-limit for power plants in capacity markets. “This will lead to a coal exit. Coal-fired power plants aren't capable of fulfilling this limit,” said Patrick Graichen, head of Agora Energiewende.

Find a short presentation by Agora Energiewende in German here and read the Klimaretter article in German here.

Find German reactions to the EU energy package in this CLEW article.

*Like the Clean Energy Wire, Agora Energiewende is a project funded by Stiftung Mercator and the European Climate Foundation.