Germany’s energy policy looks like mission impossible

‘The donkey goes on to the ice until it breaks’ – German proverb [image credit: evwind.es]

Too much coal = severe EU emissions penalties. Too much gas = high dependency on Russian supply. Too much renewable power = grid instability and exorbitant costs. Nuclear is being phased out. The conundrums are mounting for German energy policymakers trying to satisfy the demands of industry, the general public and the eco/climate lobby.

Germany has in recent years polished its “green” image abroad, but the country was only recently forced to admit it will miss a self-imposed 2020 climate target, reports Phys.org.

With Berlin set to miss the next decade’s goals too unless lawmakers take bold action, here are some reasons why carbon reduction has proved tricky even for a wealthy country with an environmentally conscious electorate.

Car-land

The car industry is a pillar of German economic prosperity, juicing export profits and employing 800,000 people.

After a long rearguard action in Brussels against tougher emissions limits on Volkswagen, Daimler or BMW’s fleets, Berlin remains reluctant to follow Britain and France in setting a cutoff date for new combustion engines.

Even the “dieselgate” emission cheating scandal has failed to dent politicians’ cosiness with the car, as leaders warned against measures that could harm ordinary drivers, such as bans from city centres for the most polluting vehicles.

Conservative transport minister Andreas Scheuer recently blocked plans for a nationwide speed limit on the country’s famed Autobahn motorways, which the environment minister had proposed to slash both pollution and road deaths.

Nuclear phase-out

After Japan’s Fukushima disaster in 2011, Angela Merkel took one of the biggest political decisions of her chancellorship in 2011, setting 2022 as the date for all German nuclear plants to be shut down.

Although widely welcomed at the time, especially by the decades-old anti-nuclear movement, the step overturned planning for electricity supply in a power-gobbling economy.

Germany has built up renewable energy sources like wind, solar, bio-fuels and hydroelectric power, accounting for 38 percent of consumption last year and headed for 65 percent by 2030.

But some constant supply is needed to balance out fluctuations in naturally-generated power.

For now, electricity storage remains expensive and a project to build high-voltage energy links from north Germany’s vast offshore wind farms to the industrial south is making only inching progress.

The obstacles have seen Berlin turn to Russian gas as an alternative, as well as razing entire villages to make way for open-cast mining of cheap but highly-polluting brown coal.

Long goodbye to coal

Ministers, industry, experts and unions spent months hammering out a “coal compromise” released early this year, calling for the fuel to be abandoned by 2038.

The four states most vulnerable to the resulting social upheaval—with areas especially dependent on coal mining—will be supported through the transition with 40 billion euros ($45 billion) of public money.

Full report here.
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Talkshop note – the original headline of the report was:
‘Speed bumps on German road to lower emissions’