Germany burns too much coal

Germany is seen as a world leader in the fight against climate change. Thanks to investments in renewable energy sources, wind and solar power now provide a third of electricity, more than double the share of the United States. Germany's goal of reducing carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2020 is more ambitious than in Europe as a whole or in the US

Following the US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement, Chancellor Angela Merkel has pledged even greater determination in this direction. “We can't wait until the last person on Earth is convinced by the scientific evidence for climate change,” she explained.

But there is another, alarming side to German history: the country still gets 40 percent of its energy from coal, more than most other European countries. And a lot of it is lignite, the dirtiest kind of coal. As a result, Germany is likely to lag behind the 2020 target.

This dependence on coal is partly a side effect of Germany's abandonment of emission-free nuclear power, and partly because the government fears alienating voters in the German coal nation. During the summer election campaign, Merkel largely avoided this issue.

However, suddenly the policy changed. Merkel is trying to form a new government, and the Green Party, one of three potential coalition partners, insists that coal-fired power plants will start shutting down and that 20 of the dirtiest of them all at once. It wouldn't solve the problem, but it would put Germany on track for massive emission reductions, and it's the only way to get the 2020 emissions target back in sight. To meet the requirements she set.

This is not just a political moment. German unemployment is at an all-time low and thousands of new jobs have been created in renewable energy, making this an opportune time to help coal miners and coal-fired power plant workers do other jobs. The electricity market, for its part, is congested, so the loss of coal-fired power plants in the short term will not lead to a significant increase in electricity prices for consumers.