Increasing international competition in the transition to a more sustainable economy will require tight-knit cooperation among EU countries and a tough stance on defending the bloc from unlawful trade subsidies abroad, the economy ministers from Germany and France have stressed in a joint statement. Following an announcement by the EU Commission to open investigations into Chinese state support for electric vehicles, the ministers Robert Habeck and Bruno Le Maire reiterated their countries’ determination to cooperate on key industrial, energy and climate policy. They vowed to use their combined strength to better position Europe in the international race for creating a successful and competitive low-carbon economy.

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

The European Union should set up a joint transport infrastructure and storage facilities for CO₂, said the German Green Party in its draft programme for the EU elections on 6-9 June 2024. The Greens, a party traditionally sceptical towards carbon capture and storage (CCS) or use (CCU), said that there will be unavoidable carbon emissions in certain sectors such as cement, which should in the future be captured during the production process. Where necessary, such technologies should receive support, writes the party. "We want to create a uniform regulatory framework for this throughout Europe and develop an integrated European infrastructure - including joint European CO2 storage facilities," says the draft. In addition, the Greens aim to strengthen ways to take carbon out of the atmosphere. These include natural sinks such as forests or peatland, but also technologies like direct air capture. "The EU – like Germany – needs clear targets for achieving negative emissions," says the draft.

Years of protest against industry plans to use CCS as a lifeline for coal power made the technology a no-go issue for German politicians. Yet the country's target of climate neutrality by 2045 reopened a debate on the issue of combatting unavoidable CO2 emissions, for example in cement production. Parties, including the Greens, are realigning their official stance, and the government coalition wants to agree on a carbon management strategy before the end of the year to define CCS guidelines.

The Greens also call on member state governments to introduce a per capita payment to redistribute emissions trading revenues to citizens to ensure a socially just transition. The party proposes to set up a "European programme to decarbonise industry", which uses so-called "carbon contracts for difference" (CCfDs) to support companies that invest in cleaner technologies.

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Germany plans to use green hydrogen (H2) to decarbonise its industry, but the country faces high costs and technical hurdles when importing of hydrogen-based fuels via ships, according to a report by think tank Agora Energiewende and Hamburg University of Technology. The import of hydrogen made from renewables via pipeline from neighbouring regions represents the cheapest option at less than 1 euro per kilogram of H₂ (€/kg H₂), says the report. Maritime imports of derivates made with so-called ‘green hydrogen’ – such as ammonia or synthetic methane, for which CO₂ is added to the hydrogen – come at a higher price of 2-5 €/kg H₂. However, these fuels could also be burned directly, cutting out the need to extract the hydrogen again in Germany.

The report shows that the production of synthetic methane, ideally using CO₂ captured directly from the air, brings a set of hurdles to overcome. For example, many of the technologies are not mature yet and will take a long time to implement, while other hydrogen import options could turn out to be much cheaper. There are also regulatory uncertainties regarding the global market of CO₂, says the report.

Germany has decided that import infrastructure for liquefied natural gas (LNG), which companies have been setting up in reaction to the halt of pipeline gas from Russia, should be "hydrogen-ready". Projects like that of Tree Energy Solutions (TES)bet on synthetic methane flowing through its pipes at some point, because it means that Germany could continue to use the current natural gas infrastructure. In the report, Agora Energiewende warns that this approach could "slow down the conversion of methane grids to hydrogen."

BR

The record rainfalls triggering deadly floods in Libya and Greece dwarf the precipitation that caused Germany’s 2021 flood catastrophe, and are a grim reminder of the need to act on and adapt to climate change, said German climate researcher Mojib Latif in an interview with public broadcaster BR. “In the past week, we’ve measured rainfall volumes never seen before in Europe,” Latif said. “At times, this has been multiple times the volume we’ve seen in the Ahr Valley flood,” the researcher said, pointing to Germany’s worst floods catastrophe in decades that killed 135 people in the region and dozens more across Europe in 2021. The heavy rains that fell “in a very, very short time” in the Mediterranean had become “a sort of Medicane” that can be attributed to climate change, the researcher from the GEOMAR marine research institute stressed. Latif said Europe has been complacent with respect to the damages expected from global warming for too long and needed to adapt quickly. “I think this is beginning to change now,” he added. “We’re starting to see that climate change not only means higher temperatures, but especially more extreme weather, more potential for damage and above all a gigantic challenge for people’s health.”

The storm that hit several countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region had triggered unprecedented floods in northern Greece and killed more than 5,000 people in Libya alone. The damages from torrential rains and floods, but also from forest fires, droughts, and storms have risen across Europe in the past years, leading the EU to call for a revision of disaster response funding that is starting to become overstretched by the number of incidents occurring in a short span of time. European countries are struggling to adapt to the fast-mounting challenges of a heating climate and are seeking strategies that allow to better cope with the effects natural disasters have on health, food production and economic stability.

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Colombia has become an important supplier of hard coal to Germany, substituting for Russia, the government has said in an answer to a parliamentary inquiry by the Left Party. Between January and May, the South American country’s share in imports rose to 15.6 percent, making it one of the most important suppliers together with the U.S. and South Africa. In total, Germany imported some 2.6 million tonnes of coal from Colombia in the first five months of 2023. Already in 2022, imports had tripled compared to the previous year, reaching around 5.7 million tonnes. Imports from Russia previously accounted for about half of hard coal supplies to the country but were abruptly ended due to sanctions imposed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Left Party criticised imports from Colombia on grounds of allegations against operators of the El Cerrejon mine. This mine that is key to the country’s hard coal exports and is owned by Swiss-based Glencore has been accused of severe environmental damage and human rights violations, said the Left Party.

Amid the war in Ukraine, Germany re-started some of its old coal-fired power plants to maintain supply security after the loss of Russian fossil fuel imports, particularly gas. The country is still heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels, and ceased mining its own hard coal in 2018. Offically, the country aims to exit coal by 2038 at the latest, although the current government has said it aims to already do so by 2030.

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.