Task force to decide report on economic perspectives for coal regions

At a meeting in the Rhenish lignite mining region, Germany’s coal exit commission debated first proposals on how to cushion the effects of an exit from coal-fired power generation in affected regions. A draft interim report, seen by the Clean Energy Wire, the task force says that the goal is to create at least as many “future-proof” new jobs, as are affected by job losses in the coal industry. This did not just include jobs in the energy industry itself, but also industries with especially high energy needs. “The success of the energy system transformation in the context of global challenges will depend on the question […] of whether developments such as the accelerated phase-out of coal-fired power generation can be implemented fairly and without uncontrollable structural breaks,” says the preamble. The 1.5 billion euros earmarked in the current federal budget to support mining regions could only be “a first step” and support programmes had to be designed for decades. The measures to support affected regions have to be closely linked to the task force’s future recommendations for climate and energy policy, so the report will be updated over the course of the coming weeks, until the commission is due to present its final report at the end of the year. According to German media, the interim report could be decided tomorrow, 25 October.

Find background in the article Commission watch – Managing Germany’s coal phase-out and the factsheet Germany’s three lignite mining regions.

The Clean Energy Wire will publish an article on the topic later today.