East German state premiers warn of national coal exit

A cross-party alliance of eastern German state premiers has warned the federal government that a quick coal exit would have grave consequences for the region’s economy, public broadcaster MDR reports on its website. In a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel, the heads of government of Germany’s former communist states say that more than two decades after the country’s reunification, east Germany still suffered from a “nearly area-wide structural economic weakness”. They said the situation would be exacerbated by ending lignite mining and coal-fired power production, which employed tens of thousands of people in the region, the MDR writes.

Read the article in German here.

See the CLEW interview with Green MP Baerbock for background on Germany’s coal use.