Coal commission members “create joint knowledge base”

Members of Germany’s coal-exit commission used their second plenary meeting on Friday, 13 July to hear presentations about the “tasks, framework conditions and structural policy challenges” that are to form the basis for their decision-making in the coming months. After speaking to participants of the 6-hour meeting, Tagesspiegel Background reported that many members of the commission had heard “nothing new” and that there were split views on the presentation of worker representative Rüdiger Siebers (Vattenfall), who described the atmosphere in eastern German lignite mining region Lusatia as “bad” regarding a coal exit. Climate economist Ottmar Edenhofer, the designated director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research (PIK), called for a floor price in the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) to prevent other countries from emitting more once Germany exits coal.

Find background on Germany’s coal exit commission here and running updates on the commission’s work here.