Germany should abandon goal of phasing out coal-fired power plants by 2030, finance minister says

Germany should abandon its goal of ending operations at coal-fired power plants by 2030 if it cannot guarantee enough cheap electricity. German Finance Minister and leader of one of the coalition parties Christian Lindner said this today in an interview published by the Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper. The liberal politician said it was desirable to boost investment in renewables and gas production in Germany.

In the interview, Lindner indirectly criticised the subsidies his government colleague, Economy Minister and leading Green Party figure Robert Habeck, is planning for industrial companies. They are intended to help businesses cope with the consequences of the transition to a low-emissions economy. Lindner said that in the end, companies or citizens would have to pay for the subsidies anyway.

„Simply put, energy is expensive when it is scarce. That is why this is not the right time to shut down power plants,“ the finance minister said in the interview.

He said Germany should „give up the dream“ of taking coal-fired power plants offline by 2030 if there is not enough affordable electricity.

The Social Democrats, Greens and liberals agreed in their coalition agreement to seek to bring forward the end of coal-fired power generation from 2038 to 2030, Deutsche Welle reports.

Lindner said delaying the end of coal-fired power generation would probably have no impact on the environment. According to Lindner, the emissions allowances Germany did not use could be used by another EU member state, such as Poland. He said EU rules allow this.

Environmentalists and representatives of the other governing parties criticised Lindner’s remarks. A Green Party spokesperson said the German government was still working to bring forward the end of coal use in the energy sector. Matthias Miersch, deputy head of the Social Democrats’ parliamentary group, said the government must prepare measures to enable faster growth in the use of renewables.

According to the German statistics office, coal accounted for a third of the electricity generated in Germany in 2022. It was the largest source of electricity last year.

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