Posted on 01/29/2020 5:48:36 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
BERLIN - The German cabinet on Wednesday backed plans to exit coal as an energy source by 2038 as part of efforts by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition to protect the climate and restore its green credentials.
The government is spurring a shift toward renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power with exits from nuclear power by 2022 and coal-fueled power sources by 2038.
“This is not just an exit from coal, it’s an entry into renewable energy,” Environment Minister Svenja Schulze told reporters.
Of the coal exit, she said: “We will cut a quarter of all CO2 emissions in Germany - that is a very important sign, internationally too, that Germany is taking its responsibility here.”
Caught on the hop when a series of unusually hot summers and the impact of Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement caused public opinion to turn, the German government last year introduced a major climate package, which included economy-wide carbon pricing.
Germany aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions to 55% of its 1990 level by 2030. Last year, Merkel acknowledged her coalition’s credibility on climate policy had been hurt by abandoning an earlier 2020 emissions cut target.
As part of the plan, the government has agreed to compensate workers, companies and regional governments as it switches off plants by 2038.
The government has struck a deal worth more than 40 billion euros ($44 billion) with coal-mining regions.
“These regions need us to think about their future too,” said Finance Minister Olaf Scholz, adding that the 40 billion euro package would “ensure the structural change succeeds”.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Being energy dependent on countries that hate you is so cool. But maybe Germans will be so brainwashed at some point they won’t mind at all sacrificing “for the greater good”....to “save the planet” for cultures that actually have kids and will get to enjoy the earth.
Nazis/socialists/fascists still running the place.
So Germany will be without power by 2038...
Gonna be some cold winters in Deutschland.
What happened to all the articles I was reading about “energy poverty” in Germany and the nation coming to its senses?
I assume this means that they will be exiting from natural gas as well, as the emissions output is not substantially different from coal.
Where will they get their energy?
Hydro? Not much room for expansion
Solar? Make hay while the sun shines (only)
Wind? That Prime Mover of the 18th century
They are already chucking Nuclear (one of the greenest energy sources.
That leaves: Buying energy from someone else. Stupid from a national security standpoint, let alone economically disastrous!
That was quite a mental roller coaster ride.
GDP is pretty much the same thing as total energy consumption. Compare the charts, they are near identical. The USA creates 24% of the world GDP and consumes an identical 24% of world energy. Creating wealth without energy consumption isn't possible. If a country makes energy more expensive, they've also made their current standard of living unsustainable. But that suits envious leftists just fine. Misery loves company.
Note the increase in electricity costs in Germany over the past 10 years. from~ 17 cents per kilowatt hour to currently over 42. Simply cannot power a modern industrial society with wind and solar. They have abandoned nuclear as well. Without reliable cheap electricity, there is economic contraction, poverty, social and political instability. Germany makes a catastrophic strategic mistake about every fifty years. Stay tuned. Soon the Germans will be living in interesting times.
Oldeconomy,
Looks like all the doom and gloom proclaimed over Boris Johnson and Brexit is going be even more misplaced than I thought. With Germany’s coal-free plan in place, England can once again be the strongest economy in the area. Going it alone will be aided terrifically with a weakened Germany.
(Now the UK needs to rid itself of the same globalist socialists in its midst.)
The solution to Germany's energy problems!!!
WWII was caused by the French and British trying to deindustrialize Germany after WWI. Now they are doing it to themselves.
Their energy will ALWAYS come from Russia.
Well, in the past, when Germany was energy dependent on a country, it just invaded them and took the energy . . .
Oh, yes! Simultaneously disturbing and amusing.
Invading Russia didn’t work out so well for them in WWII. In fact invading Russia during any time period generally is a huge mistake.
Got to get some money into German wood, whale oil and candle futures.
German voters have a penchant for voting themselves into oblivion. These filthy politicians are doing far more damage to Germany than all the WW2 thousand plane raids combined.
And dark nights.
Yep.
At least the planet will be safe from something.
So fragile, so delicate.
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