Energy sector can reach German climate target, other sectors aren’t doing their bit – industry association

The energy sector could achieve a 40 percent CO₂ reduction by 2020 if an extra five gigawatt (GW) of brown and hard coal-fired power stations were shut down in the next years, industry association BDEW says. The energy association finds in its analysis that due to an increase in renewable power and a decrease in the use of hard coal the energy sector would reach a 38 percent reduction anyway by 2020. To fill the remaining gap, coal plants could be compensated to go offline. The compensation could be determined by a bidding process, the BDEW suggests. “It’s obvious, the energy sector is contributing its share, in contrast to other relevant areas, such as in particular the transport sector,” BDEW chairman Stefan Kapferer said in a press release.

Read the BDEW analysis in German here.

See the CLEW article Germany heads for "spectacular" 2020 climate target miss - study for background.