Outgoing German economy minister warns next govt against creating new energy dependencies

Germany’s outgoing economy minister, Robert Habeck from the Green Party, has warned that the next government must not create new energy dependencies and should instead forcefully pursue the expansion of renewable power. “Fossil fuel dependencies, besides their negative climate effects, are also a security risk for Germany and Europe,” Habeck said ahead of an EU energy minister meeting in Brussels.

He argued that this was true for fossil fuel imports from Russia as well as from the US, where the new administration under president Donald Trump has taken an aggressive stance towards trade policy with Europe and other partners and also signalled its openness for closer ties with Russia despite the latter’s ongoing war on Ukraine. “Looking at what the US and Russia are doing, it would be wrong to replace one dependence with another,” Habeck cautioned. Europe ramped up its liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports from the US after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. “Expanding renewable energy sources is the answer to become independent of governments who don’t mean well with Europe and Germany,” he added.

Habeck rejected comments from Social Democrat (SPD) politician Dietmar Woidke, state premier of Brandenburg in a coalition with the pro-Russia Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), who earlier this month said he would be “glad to have normal economic relations with Russia” and import Russian oil again after a possible peace agreement. “We have every reason to not trust the Russians. And also to see a dependence on America as a threat,” Habeck argued. The likely next coalition government of the conservative CDU/CSU of chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz and the SPD includes the parties that were in power when Germany’s energy dependence on Russia developed. “There were enough warning voices by European partners and by the Americans. I’m concerned that the lesson we learned in 2022 can be forgotten,” Habeck added.

Likewise, he rejected the idea that the defunct offshore gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea could see a revival as part of a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine. “Talking about the potential use of Nord Stream 1 or Nord Stream 2 is going completely in the wrong direction – we have to support Ukraine.” Moreover, Habeck stressed also that nuclear power would expose Europe to energy dependence on foreign powers. “Europe is still getting nuclear material from Russia. I argued many times that we should include uranium in the sanction package, but nuclear countries argued against it.”

He added a European energy union based on renewable power was the best pathway to reduce energy dependence from abroad and achieve low prices for the European economy. With a view to the likely next German coalition government’s negotiations, he said that “climate action currently is being treated as an afterthought,” but that the Greens’ influence on a massive spending package proposed by the CDU/CSU and the SPD kept climate spending on the table to a limited extent.