Fossil fuel exit is key to resilient and affordable German energy supply – NGOs
Clean Energy Wire
In view of the global energy crisis, leading environmental NGOs say accelerating the energy transition across all sectors is Germany's best bet for achieving greater resilience and energy independence. In a joint paper issued by the Deutscher Naturschutzring (DNR), an umbrella organisation representing environmental groups, the signatories lay out an 11-point plan to improve resilience, including the further expansion of renewable energy and an accelerated transition to renewable heating systems and building efficiency.
The paper also calls on the EU to reject a recent liquefied natural gas (LNG) trade deal with the United States as well as new long-term fossil fuel import deals with other countries, arguing that these create dependencies and make Germany and the EU vulnerable to coercion. Consequently, Germany should stop building new gas-fired power plants without a decarbonisation roadmap committing to green hydrogen.
“Gas-fired power plants may only be built if they are demonstrably needed and will be operated with green hydrogen from 2035 onwards,” the paper states.
Germany is particularly exposed to energy price shocks given its heavy reliance on imported fossil fuels – a vulnerability underscored by the 2022 gas crisis following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The current energy price shock caused by the US and Israeli war on Iran and attacks on energy infrastructure in the Persian Gulf region has revived debate about the pace of Germany's shift to renewables and the role of gas as a transition fuel.
A rapid electrification of road transport and the massive expansion of rail and public transport as well as the electrification of industry are also essential, the groups said. Germany must also avoid over-reliance on biomass, which the groups describe as an "ecologically risky pseudo-solution" that is not easily scalable, competes with food security, and risks creating new import dependencies.
Rather, the environmental groups call for an adoption of a circular economy that would massively reduce Germany's dependence on imports of fossil fuels and critical raw materials. The NGOs also demand a rapid and socially responsibly phase-out of fossil fuel subsidies and enforcement of the polluter-pays principle, arguing that such subsidies “distort prices, promote climate-damaging structures and hinder the transition to an independent, sustainable energy system”.