SPD deputy chair says Germany’s coal exit a “question not of ‘if’, but ‘how’”

The Social Democrats’ (SPD) deputy chair Ralf Stegner has said that as far as he is concerned, the German coal exit is not a question of “if” but “how.” At the debate forum“Sustainability and climate protection: What roadmap do the parties have?”, organised by NGOs Climate-Alliance Germany, VENRO and Deutscher Naturschutzring in Berlin, Stegner said Germany had to implement the necessary measures to “make sure we meet our climate goals”. Stegner did not say by when he saw an end to coal-fired power production feasible. However, he stressed that his native northern German region of Schlewsig-Holstein, with its large wind power industry, showed that “renewables can be the foundation of structural economic change.”

See the CLEW factsheets When will Germany finally ditch coal? and German onshore wind power - output, business and perspectives for background.