Parliament green-lights nuclear storage search law / Artificial sun

The new law for finding a permanent nuclear repository in Germany aims “to offer proof that an enlightened society can find a place for the waste that nobody wants to have,” Michael Bauchmüller writes in a commentary for Süddeutsche Zeitung. But for this to be the case, “things need to be different from Gorleben,” he explains. [Gorleben, Germany’s temporary nuclear storage site, has been the theatre of vibrant resistance by locals for decades.] “Of course, affected citizens will protest against any final repository,” Bauchmüller writes. The state now needs to ensure the search will be conducted patiently and transparently. “This experiment can fail at many stages. But if it succeeds, the whole society will benefit from it,” Bauchmüller writes.

Read the commentary in German here.

German chancellor Angela Merkel has defended diesel cars as environmentally friendly, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports. “Diesel cars are as good for climate protection today as they were yesterday and the day before yesterday,” Merkel said during an election campaign rally in Saarland. The chancellor said it was “perfidious” of the Greens “and partly also of the Social Democrats” to tell people otherwise “because one company did not play by the rules.” German authorities in the past endorsed diesel cars as a climate-friendly alternative due to their lower emissions. Sales figures of cars equipped with the technology have fallen in the aftermath of Volkswagen’s “dieselgate” scandal, referring to the company’s practice of manipulating emissions values of their diesel cars.

Read the article in German here.

For background, see the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers and the CLEW factsheet Facts on the German state elections in Saarland.  

Power prices for German households increase on average by 4.4 percent this spring, price comparison website Verivox told Clean Energy Wire. According to Verivox, 70 regional power suppliers will increase their prices, resulting in additional costs of about 54 euros for average households with a power consumption of 4,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) annually. By contrast, five suppliers were lowering prices, Verivox added.
Prices are set to rise in every German state, tabloid Bild writes on its website. But especially regions served by utility E.ON, comprising about twelve million households, will see prices rise - in some regions by more than 14 percent, Bild explains. According to the report, energy suppliers say the increase is due to a higher renewables surcharge, although wholesale power prices have fallen.

Read the article in German here.   

For background, see the CLEW factsheet What German households pay for power.

A group of scientists including Hans Joachim Schellnhuber of  the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) are proposing a “carbon law” to halve anthropogenic CO₂ emissions every decade, aimed at achieving zero net emissions by mid-century. In an article in Science, the authors say this law would be applied to all levels in all sectors and countries and span innovation, institutions, infrastructure and investments. They are proposing concrete measures for countries and multilateral institutions in four phases until 2050.

Read the article in English here.