Australia could follow Germany’s coal phase-out model – commentary

Australia faces similar challenges to Germany when it comes to phasing out coal and might want to follow Germany’s example by setting up a commission to work out an exit deal, write Frank Jotzo and Andreas Löschel, directors at the Australian-German Energy Transition Hub, in a commentary in the Sydney Morning Herald. “Perhaps it is time for an Australian coal commission. It gives a chance of molding lasting consensus, if representation of interest groups is broad,” the authors write. Löschel is also the head of the German federal government's Energiewende monitoring expert commission.

Germany's coal exit commission proposed earlier this year that Germany phases out coal by 2038 at the very latest, but the ensuing political decision-making process in the Energiewende's home country is far from being finished.