New test of utilities' nuclear provisions / Less money for climate protection
WirtschaftsWoche
“Expert commission re-calculates nuclear provisions”
The expert commission on financing the nuclear clean-up has commissioned consultancy Warth & Klein to calculate the provisions the big four utilities have made for plant decommissioning and nuclear waste storage, writes Angela Hennersdorf in WirtschaftsWoche. Warth & Klein is tasked to find out whether the assumptions from 2014 on which the provisions are based are still valid, and if cost estimates for nuclear waste storage still hold up. Additionally, the consultancy will test the impact a partial transfer of utility provisions into a state-administered fund would have on the companies' budgets. Warth & Klein prepared the first “stress test” of utilities’ nuclear provisions for the energy ministry in October 2015.
Read the article in German here.
Read a CLEW factsheet on securing utility payments for the nuclear clean-up here.
Spiegel Online
No new debts for accommodating refugees – but less funding for climate protection
Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble is planning a balanced budget without new debts in 2017, despite higher costs for accommodating and integrating refugees, Spiegel Online reports. To achieve this, other areas such as climate protection would receive less funding, the article says.
Read the article in German here.
Handelsblatt
“Rebuke from own ranks”
The Economic Council of the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) has criticised the government’s energy policy harshly, calling for a “European realignment of the energy transition”, Klaus Stratmann reports in the Handelsblatt. Chancellor Angela Merkel's CDU is part of the ruling coalition government. In a paper seen by the author, the CDU's economic council said different rules on national and European levels were leading to inefficiencies. Its members are calling for a competitive auction system for renewables without de minimis limits or regional differences in payments, and Europe-wide auctions for at least 20 percent of future renewable development.
Read the article in German here.
Read a CLEW factsheet on the government’s plans for renewable auctions here.
Federal Environment Agency
“Germany remains export world champion in environmental protection”
Germany produced goods related to environmental protection worth 82 billion euros in 2013, a new report by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) shows. With a 14.8 percent share in global trade of products like air filters, insulation materials and smart meters, Germany was the biggest exporter in 2013. The country exported environmental protection goods worth 50.3 billion euros in 2013. Production in the German solar industry dropped by 50 percent, the paper finds.
Read the press release in German here and download the report in German here.
