Preview 2024: Germany enters EU election year with heavy climate policy baggage

The German government has to fund a wide range of its ambitious climate and energy transition projects for 2024 with considerably less money than initially planned. A ruling by the country's highest court on the constitutionally enshrined limit to new debt pushed the coalition of chancellor Olaf Scholz to introduce cuts in many areas and raise the national CO2 price and other levies during an economic slowdown and in a year marked by several important elections in Germany and across the EU. Against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions and a domestic surge in far-right populism, the government coalition faces an uphill battle in the new year to achieve its goals - while a record output in renewable power and historically low levels in coal production offer hope that faster progress is possible.

This preview looks at key expected events and developments across different sectors relevant to Germany's energy transition and how these relate to climate and energy policy in Europe and beyond. Read the preview here.

Climate adaptation must shift from strategy to action, social justice key – think tank

Germany made dealing with the consequences of climate change more binding in 2023, and it must now use this momentum to step up implementation, says Christian Kind, adaptation head of programme at think tank adelphi. Spreading the costs in a socially just way should be a priority, Kind told Clean Energy Wire. Policymakers throughout Europe need to ensure that standards determining how homes or cities are built or maintained account for a changing climate and minimise the impacts of wildfires, droughts and heatwaves. Read the interview here.

Preparing a fast expansion of renewable power will be a key challenge for governments across Europe in 2024, says Sarah Jilibert-Schabram of the Franco-German Office for the Energy Transition (DFBEW). France and Germany both have stated their support for producing more installations in Europe, which comes with the challenge of ensuring that the rollout of wind and solar power is not slowed down or becomes much more expensive, she warns. Read the interview here.

The German government must be on guard in 2024 to ensure it can meet its increasingly distant target of having 15 million electric cars on the road by 2030, says Wiebke Zimmer, deputy executive director of clean mobility think tank Agora Verkehrswende. Measures such as ending tax rebates on diesel fuel could help the climate as well as the tight budget, Zimmer told Clean Energy Wire in this interview, adding that the social aspects of the shift to clean mobility will be a focus at the EU level in the new year. Read the interview here.

The German government must stop relying too much on giving out subsidies for climate action from 2024, and instead tackle the country’s system of fossil fuel taxes, says energy analyst Andreas Schröder from commodity intelligence service ICIS. Programmes such as electricity price rebates for industry or state support for new chip manufacturers to set up factories in Germany are just too costly, and appropriately taxing fossil fuel use or electricity a better way to reach the same goals, he argues. At the EU level, the elections in June look set to bring a shift towards right-wing parties, which could make ambitious climate policy more difficult in the coming years, says Schröder. Read the interview here.