Deciding to turn off all nuclear power plants within a few years as a response to the Fukushima accident was probably the biggest mistake the German government made in the last decade, and one of the reasons we're reliant on coal so much right now. The decision was purely emotional as well, as unfortunately much of the environmental politics here is. It's sad that we lost our position as one of the leading countries in Europe regarding renewable engergy (baring smaller Skandinavian countries with lots of natural energy resources) and are now a laggard that's reliant on brown coal for our energy needs.<p>Addendum: I'm not against turning off nuclear power plants (I think we should eventually), I just don't agree with the time frame we chose for this. Letting plants run for a few more years wouldn't significantly increase cumulated accident risk and would have a significant effect on our CO2 emissions.
By 2038. That's incompatible with the Paris agreement.<p>As a reaction to ongoing protests the government has started a so-called Climate Cabinet, that's working on plans to reduce GHG emissions sufficiently to limit warming to below 2°. They're supposed to present their results in about a month.<p>Incidentally, Friday's For Future is calling for a global climate strike on September 20th. Probably there is a demo in your city too. Join if you can.
Great news, but 19 years. Man.<p>Things take time, I get that. But we're getting close to human lifespans there.<p>The world in the year 2000 was such a different place in so many ways. It's difficult to imagine what 2038 looks like.<p>Nineteen years ago, top end computing hardware was something like a Pentium III. Windows XP had not yet been released.
Oh stop and for a moment think at the effort to rebuild all our homes to highly energy efficient standards. Replace all conventional heating systems with heat pumps. Redesign cities to remove sprawl and car-centered lifestyles in favor of public transport, disseminated centers. Reorganize consumer supply chain around home delivery and less wasteful routes.<p>I see plenty plenty GDP coming from all this work, perhaps the only problem is that it wouldn’t land in the pockets of the current lobbyist crop
Finally. The coal plants in germany were pretty unfortunate considering how much EU cares about the environments (even if some people don’t agree with it that much)
More Coal stats: <a href="https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/corporate/pdfs/energy-economics/statistical-review/bp-stats-review-2019-coal.pdf" rel="nofollow">https://www.bp.com/content/dam/bp/business-sites/en/global/c...</a> PDF<p>Germany best coal reserves have depleted; 20 years is a long time.
On the other part of the world -> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/climate/coal-adani-india-australia.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/15/climate/coal-adani-india-...</a>
So now will Germany depend on Russian gas, coal power imported from Poland and nuclear power imported from France? Can an industrial nation depend on imported electricity? For me this looks like pipe dream. I can guarantee, after this insanity Germany will have most expensive electricity in EU (after much richer Denmark as it is now): <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Electricity_price_statistics" rel="nofollow">https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php...</a><p>Edit: typos
This is potentially good news for Europe, as I am sure Germany will force other countries to follow suit. Most likely using a diktat given via the EU commission.
In 2016, nuclear + coal made up 30% of their energy production (including exported energy) so that’s a pretty big chunk to replace in 20 years.<p><a href="https://energytransition.org/2017/01/renewable-energy-production-stagnates-in-germany-in-2016/" rel="nofollow">https://energytransition.org/2017/01/renewable-energy-produc...</a>