Heating homes during winter is a fossil fuel guzzler – a major hurdle on the path to climate neutrality. The technologies needed for the shift to climate-friendly heating are available today, but getting them into boiler rooms is proving to be a complicated and highly contentious process. Germany’s tortuous path towards new heating legislation has shown that decarbonising heating, long regarded a niche expert topic, can suddenly erupt into a major national controversy, especially as many people strongly oppose the necessary investments and behaviour changes. In this context, fact-based reporting plays a crucial role in enabling a constructive debate about how the transition can be organised. In our online masterclass for journalists, reporters and editors will share experiences, tips, and lessons learnt from researching and writing about this topic.

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Europe is complicated and even journalists from EU member states sometimes struggle to understand how climate and energy policy is made, and when institutions take key decisions. This timeline flags key European energy and climate reporting events and developments and includes concise background information necessary to jump-start your coverage.

Germany plans to boost the international competitiveness of its prized heavy industry by lowering electricity taxes and expanding existing subsidy schemes. The package of measures worth 12 billion euros in 2024 alone is set to end a months-long dispute within the coalition, and means that economy minister Robert Habeck's proposal for a capped industry electricity price, which raised EU concerns about unfair competition, is shelved. Industry associations welcomed the package and said it would help strengthen Germany as a business location. [UPDATE 13 November: Government agrees package, earlier proposal for industry power price is shelved]

Clean Energy Wire

France and Germany could soon agree on a reform of the EU electricity market, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz have said after their meeting in the northern German port city of Hamburg. A solution in the debate between Paris and Berlin on maintaining competitiveness in Europe while transforming the industry towards climate neutral procedures could still be achieved in October, the French president said at a press conference following the informal two-day meeting between government members of both countries in Scholz’s hometown. “Of course, we have two very different models at the national level,” Macron said. “We’ve discussed this profoundly and in an encouraging fashion and agreed our teams want to work together in the next weeks to arrive at a necessary agreement by the end of the month.” The priority would be “to have a Europe with one coherent strategy,” Macron said, adding that this would currently be needed with respect to the U.S., “which is less dependent and has lower prices.”

Chancellor Scholz said Germany and France agreed on climate action targets, even if they pursued different approaches to achieve them. The fact that France bets on nuclear power and Germany instead aims for 100 percent renewables and a massively expanded power grid “is no reason for antagonism but simply represents two different decisions,” Scholz argued. He added he was “confident” that a solution for the EU power market reform could be found quickly. “And this is most likely if Germany and France develop it together.” The chancellor added that both countries had drafted a strategy to reduce bureaucracy in the European Union that will allow policy decisions to take effect faster and more comprehensively.

Germany and France must focus on “simple stuff” on the way to climate neutrality by 2050: leaving gas and coal, establishing greater energy efficiency, renewable power sources and nuclear energy. “Everyone says that,” the French president argued, adding that a strategy that excludes one of these elements could not succeed. “It would be a historic mistake to think in the short term here and decide for either renewables or nuclear power. This would not work.” Bringing emissions down in the most cost-efficient manner and simultaneously creating “a free market for low-CO₂ electricity production” should now be the focus, Macron said, adding that the two leaders agreed that “we don’t want subsidies for energy-intensive production.”

The statements by the two government leaders came one day after another joint press conference in Hamburg, in which both Macron and Scholz underlined the need for greater industry cooperation and hailed aircraft manufacturer Airbus as a role model for future projects between the two countries amid the EU's efforts to move towards climate neutrality.

Clean Energy Wire

Effective climate action in Germany and Europe will require sustained economic growth to demonstrate that a more sustainable way of living is possible without giving up prosperity, German chancellor Olaf Scholz has said in a speech at the country’s Sustainable Development Council (RNE). “Our task is to enable growth without destroying the planet,” he said at the RNE’s annual conference, arguing that only a capable and competitive economy would allow Germany to conduct the investments needed for transforming the economy while maintaining a leading position, and serve as a role model at a global scale. “The countries of the global South will not let us tell them to forego growth in order to save the climate.” The significant reduction in poverty around the world over the past 30 years could primarily be traced back to economic development and growth. “And that’s why it is so important that we here in Europe develop the requisite technologies, try them out and show the whole world: it works,” Scholz said, adding that Germany especially had to greatly speed up its efforts to roll out renewable power installations.

The chancellor said the “classic industrialised states” historically are responsible for a large part of greenhouse gas emissions – “even if countries like China by now have giant emitters themselves.” He stressed that Germany has tripled its contributions to international climate action funding to 6 billion euros since 2014 and that industrialised countries would likely raise up to 100 billion euros. However, “we also expect countries that traditionally have not been donors to contribute to international climate finance in the future,” he added.

Clean Energy Wire

About one in four companies classified as small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Germany has compiled its own sustainability report in recent years, technical certifier TÜV has found in a survey. More than half of all companies with 250 to 1,000 employees and a little less than a quarter of companies with 50 to 249 employees had made such a report, the survey of 500 companies revealed. The largest share of companies (41%) compiling their own sustainability report was found in the industry sector, followed by energy generation, construction and transport (about 30% each). Only about two-thirds of the companies that did write about the sustainability aspects of their business also published their report, even though these “serve as an important instrument to document, evaluate and initiate environmental and climate measures,” TÜV head Joachim Bühler said. The European Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) would soon oblige some 15,000 companies across Germany to compile sustainability reports and have them certified by third parties. “The task now is to establish an open market for certification to avoid bottlenecks in capacity and high costs for small and medium-sized companies,” Bühler said. According to the survey, only 42 percent of SMEs have so far dealt with the requirements of the directive, and 57 percent have not yet done so.

Sustainability reports are meant to inform about the measures a company is taking with respect to environmental and climate matters as well as the social and economic impact of its business activities. According to the TÜV survey, the vast majority of companies said that reporting could improve their energy efficiency, reduce raw material use and cut waste. At the same time, the reports could help improve the company’s image and compliance with regulatory requirements. Renowned reporting standards, such as that by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), could help make sustainability reports a “reliable source of information for investors” and other stakeholders to assess the impact a company has in environmental and climate action, Bühler said.

Clean Energy Wire

Germany must set a good example worldwide when it comes to construction with timber, agriculture minister Cem Özdemir said during the "Charter for Wood 2.0" dialogue on 10 October, a public event held jointly with the construction ministry (BMWSB). "We are the world's fourth largest economy: if we’re successful, we will act as role models, but if we don't succeed, then no one will go down that path either," Özdemir said. Germany's government recently announced its timber construction initiative aimed at reducing emissions from the construction of buildings. "What we're trying here in Germany is very important because there is an seemingly infinite volume of construction works worldwide," construction minister Klara Geywitz remarked, adding there is a strong trend towards urbanisation and the global population is on the rise. "If we continue constructing as we are – with the current CO2 output – then we will miss the climate targets we have agreed upon."

Timber is considered a particularly sustainable construction material as it sequesters CO2 throughout its lifetime. It is also a suitable material for serial and modular construction. Around seven percent of Germany’s annual greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from the construction sector, which has repeatedly missed its emission reduction targets in the past years. A large-scale transition to using wood for building construction in "timber cities" could avoid more than 100 billion tonnes of GHG emissions by the end of the century, a 2022 report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) found. "In the face of the climate crisis, we can't afford to do without wood," Özdemir said.

Associated Press: Von der Leyen, Costa and Kallas endorsed for the EU’s top jobs

European Union leaders have agreed on the officials who will lead the EU’s powerful executive branch. News agency AP explains who they are and what they do.

European Commission: The Strategic Agenda for 2024-2029

EU agrees new strategy based on strengthening democracy, security, and competitiveness. 

E3G: EU leaders signal stability in the green transition with new top jobs and agenda

All three “top jobs” nominees are experienced in seeking compromises, promoting European solutions to challenges, and driving the green transition, says think tank.

Euractiv: Far-right win in France would pose unprecedented challenge to EU’s Franco-German engine

Rassemblement National seeks to reassure nothing will change in Franco-German relationship if a far-right prime minister takes over in France, following fears that the EU’s engine could grind to a halt.

International Energy Agency: More than 1 in 5 cars sold worldwide in 2024 set to be electric

Global electric car sales are on track to reach about 17 million units this year, transforming the auto industry and the energy sector, IEA says.

Eurostat: EU's natural gas supply decreased more than 7 percent in 2023

Brown coal supply down by 24.2% to 222 840m tonnes and hard coal supply down by 20.4% to 130 437m tonnes, while renewables grow more than 12% across the bloc, preliminary data shows.

E.ON: Electrolysers can relieve pressure on the electricity grid

Devices installed in proximity to renewables reduce need for curtailing in Germany, trials by energy company have shown.

World Ressources Institute: Canada's 2023 Wildfires released 4x more carbon than global aviation

Roughly 7.8 million hectares of forests burned in Canada in 2023 — more than 6 times the annual average since 2001. This amount of tree cover loss produced roughly 3 billion tons of carbon dioxide, according to an analysis.

Rock Tech: Canadian company to receive up to €100 mln in direct grants for its German Lithium refinery

Funding to be provided by the state of Brandenburg and the German railway authority to build and operate "Europe’s first lithium converter with a capacity of 24,000 tonnes of lithium-hydroxide-monohydrate per year," the company says.

Le Monde: France's first small nuclear reactor project

Small-scale model by start-up Jimmy Energy designed specifically to supply low-carbon heat as part of a local network, reports Le Monde.