Finance ministry rejects CO2 price plans / Solar power bicycle lane

It was “tactically unwise” for social democratic environment minister Svenja Schulze not to coordinate her initiative for a price on CO₂ emissions better with finance minister and party colleague Olaf Scholz, writes Jan Drebes in an opinion piece in Rheinische Post. “Now the project is almost politically dead before it could even be put in writing,” writes Drebes. He adds that “an additional levy on petrol and heating oil” sends the wrong political signal and that the government had other instruments to reduce CO₂ emissions. “It is difficult to communicate that an SPD minister of all people is now striking out against consumers while her party is still reluctant to send a clear message to the coal industry,” writes Drebes.

Read the opinion piece in German here.

For background, read the CLEW article German env minister plans CO₂ price concept to boost climate action.

The German Social Democrats (SPD) have made climate policy one of the key topics during a special conference ("debate camp") following defeats in two state elections in which the federal government coalition party suffered major voter losses, Michael Schlieben writes for Zeit Online. An influential inner-party group wants to make climate and environmental policy a central strength of the SPD for the next years and work towards an “ecologic-social transition” backed by billions of euros in state investments, he writes. “The Green Party would certainly like all of this,” Schlieben writes with a view to the many voters that swapped their SPD vote for a Green one in the latest elections. However, others in the traditionally worker-affiliated party are wary when it comes to adopting green policies and fear a “tackling of lignite” would betray loyal voter groups. The SPD’s internal dissent about the level of ambition in climate policy is also illustrated by environment minister Svenja Schulze and finance minister Olaf Scholz and their inconsistency over the introduction of a CO2 price in Germany, the article says.

Find the article in German here.

Germany energy company E.ON has said it has reached the first “major decisions” in the planned integration of former rival company innogy into its own company structures. In a press release, the company said it would continue to run by the name E.ON in the future and leave the regional structures of innogy largely intact. The latest decisions will be implemented once the merger of the two companies that had come as a surprise to many observers in March 2018 have been approved by regulatory agencies.

Find the press release in English here.

For background, read the CLEW article RWE and E.ON overhaul power sector - German reactions to innogy deal, the dossier Utilities and the energy transition, and the factsheet Germany’s largest utilities at a glance.

Banning older diesel cars from inner cities will only worsen the air pollution problem and carbon emissions in the long run and should therefore be avoided as much as possible, Gerd Landsberg, head of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (DStGB), said in an article by the Rheinische Post. Diesel engines in many respects were still better from an environmental perspective than other combustion engines, he argued with a view to the latest driving bans announced to take effect 2019 in the two cities Cologne and Bonn. “The government urgently has to modify the federal emission law (BImschG) and ensure that driving bans are not introduced if limit values are not exceeded by more than ten microgrammes per cubic metre on the annual average,” Landsberg said, adding that this would prevent driving bans in up to 50 cities. If people swap diesel for petrol engines "we’ll soon be debating particulate matter and CO2 emissions,” he said.

Find the article in German here.

For background, read the factsheet Diesel driving bans in Germany – The Q&A.