“The end of the energy transition?”

The pro-fossil fuel stance of the new governing coalition in Germany’s most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) “could be a harbinger for a nationwide U-turn on the country's bold transition to renewable energies”, Marc Etzold and Cordula Tutt write in Handelsblatt Global. Andreas Pinkwart, energy minister of NRW’s conservative-economic liberalist CDU-FDP coalition, “wants to tear up many aspects” of Germany’s energy transition, arguing the aim was to “make sure that it works according to market economy rules”.  A CDU-FDP coalition also seems conceivable on the federal level after September’s election, Etzold and Tutt say, and Pinkwart makes it clear that “our policy in NRW is also our policy at the federal level”. This prospect causes concern among the traditionally CDU-FDP-friendly energy companies as they had ”pinned their hopes” on renewables since Germany’s nuclear exit had been decided, the authors say.

Read the article in English here (behind paywall).

For more information on German federal elections and the Energiewende, see this CLEW dossier.