German minister questions 2030 coal phase-out plans

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner made clear his opposition to the coalition’s flagship plan to phase out coal by 2030 in an interview on Tuesday, rejecting his government’s key pledge because Germany’s efforts would be meaningless if other EU countries were free to increase emissions under the bloc’s current rules.

Lindner’s public questioning of his government’s move to “ideally” bring the phase-out forward from 2038 to 2030 has cast shade on the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

“This date does nothing for the climate anyway since the CO2 emissions saved in Germany are allowed to accrue additionally in Poland, for example, due to European rules,” Lindner argued in an interview with Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger.

“As long as it is not clear that energy is available and affordable, we should end the dreams of phasing out coal-fired power in 2030,” he added.

What Lindner is openly hinting at is the perceived failure of one of the EU’s most prestigious climate projects – the EU ETS. Under this scheme, closing one or more coal-fired power plants does not automatically reduce the number of emission allowances in circulation if the government does not ask the European Commission to cancel them in time.

Germany’s poor track record in this regard has indeed led to other EU countries being able to increase their carbon emissions.

Germany implemented a time-consuming system that requires two independent expert opinions to determine how many allowances need to be deleted. This convoluted process has caused Germany to miss the Commission’s notification deadline before.

But Lindner rejecting the coalition’s coal exit deadline has not found many supporters.

“It would not be good for Germany as a business location to unravel the agreed coal phase-out,” Michael Hüther, Director of the German Economic Institute, said on Deutschlandfunk.

This suggestion “does not stabilise investors’ expectations. At some point, you have to stand by something,” he added.

“The federal government should quickly clarify how [energy] security in Germany is to be organised in the medium and long term”, Kerstin Andreae, head of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (BDEW), added, RND reported.

Others have interpreted Lindner’s statement as a jab at his Green coalition partner, which, despite favouring the phase-out, has recently questioned Lindner’s strict adherence to his party’s election pledge to adhere to the federal budget’s debt brake.

(Kjeld Neubert | Euractiv.de)

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