Renewables levy to fall from 2022 – think tank / Difficult G7 talks
Agora Energiewende / WirtschaftsWoche
Due to the introduction of auctions for renewables support, Germany’s renewables levy (EEG-surcharge) will not increase from 2020, and will then decrease from 2022, according to a forecast by think tank Agora Energiewende,* reports Christian Schlesiger in WirtschaftsWoche. Earlier calculations had suggested the levy would peak in 2023. “We see that the auctions work, but not in the short term,” Patrick Graichen, head of Agora Energiewende, told WirtschaftsWoche. The think tank’s calculations, seen by Clean Energy Wire, forecast the levy at 2.66 cents per kilowatt hour (ct/kWh) in 2035 (6.88 ct/kWh in 2017).
Find the article in German here.
For background read the CLEW factsheets Germany ponders how to finance renewables expansion in the future, Defining features of the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) and Balancing the books: Germany's "green energy account".
*Like Clean Energy Wire CLEW, Agora Energiewende is a project funded by Stiftung Mercator and the European Climate Foundation.
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
The German government expects difficult negotiations in climate and trade policy with US President Donald Trump at the G7 summit in Taormina, Italy, reports Henrike Roßbach in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “In terms of trade and climate, the communiqué will turn out quite weak – despite long nights,” writes Roßbach. The leaders of the Group of Seven are scheduled to talk about climate at the end of the first day of the two-day summit.
Read the article in German here.
Also read the CLEW article International climate community pins hopes on Merkel to sway Trump and an interview with Greenpeace’ Jennifer Morgan: "Merkel's experience, credibility make her key in swaying Trump".
Federation of German Industries (BDI)
The leaders of the G7 must fully commit to climate protection and the implementation of the Paris Agreement, and industry “needs more than a minimum consensus”, said Dieter Kempf, president of Federation of German Industries (BDI), in a press release. “No country is an island. The United States must not sideline itself when it comes to climate protection and free trade,” said Kempf.
Read the press release in German here.
Also read the CLEW article International climate community pins hopes on Merkel to sway Trump and an interview with Greenpeace’ Jennifer Morgan: "Merkel's experience, credibility make her key in swaying Trump".
Deutsche Welle
Germany’s foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel expects China to relax its new rules on electric cars, reports Deutsche Welle. The talks on softening the ambitious e-car quota were "on the right track," Gabriel said during a visit in Beijing. The details were still unclear on the deal struck between Beijing and Berlin, according to Deutsche Welle.
Read the article in English here.
For background on German manufacturers' struggle to shift to decarbonised mobility, see the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.
National Observer
To make meaningful progress on climate change, fossil fuel money had to be taken out of politics to make it a non-partisan issue, German political scientist Arne Jungjohann said at a clean energy discussion in Ottawa, writes Elizabeth McSheffrey in National Observer.
Read the article in English here.
acatech
Resilience strategies for energy systems could help better compensate or prevent blackouts, German National Academy for Science and Engineering (acatech), Leopoldina and Union of the German Academies of Sciences and Humanities said in a joint paper. The authors make several recommendations on how to make the energy system more resilient, including better monitoring, diversifying methods of power generation, building more energy storage, and more intensive participation of citizens.
Die Zeit
For the upcoming coalition talks in Germany's northernmost state Schleswig-Holstein, policy positions by the Green Party and the Free Democrats (FDP) differ most when it comes to the power sector, said regional FPD leader Wolfgang Kubicki in a joint interview with Green state energy minister Robert Habeck in German weekly Die Zeit. “We don’t think it makes sense that people here pay for power that is not delivered and that cannot be transported,” said Kubicki. Habeck said that the state did not have too much excess wind power, but that it needed to use it in all sectors and with the help of technology like storage and power-to-gas – instead of turning off turbines. “We need to take the bull by the horns, not retreat,” said Habeck.
Read the interview (behind paywall) in German here.
For background read the CLEW article Wind power course at stake in election in "cradle of Energiewende" and the CLEW dossier Vote2017 - German elections and the Energiewende.
Handelsblatt
The pivotal mistake by the auto industry was not diesel technology itself, but holding on to it for too long, writes Grischa Brower-Rabinowitsch in an opinion piece in Handelsblatt. German carmakers had not focused on new propulsion technologies early enough and “worked themselves into a dependence on the diesel over the past decades, which has now become a threat to the whole sector,” writes Brower-Rabinowitsch.
Read the opinion piece (behind paywall) in German here.
For background on German manufacturers' struggle to shift to decarbonised mobility, see the CLEW dossier The Energiewende and German carmakers.
