“Germany’s energy transition has delivered sobering results”

The Energiewende’s economic costs are high but its contribution to reducing climate change is moderate, according to the German Council of Economic Experts’ Annual Report. “Given the global effect of greenhouse gases, a global approach to climate policy is needed, or at least an EU-wide approach,” the executive summary says. “So far, Germany's energy transition has delivered sobering results […] This experience reveals the drawbacks of a purely national approach to climate policy.”
The council, which was set up to evaluate government economic policy, said it is against a policy-induced coal exit, arguing it would be better to let market signals via the EU ETS decide which power stations should be switched off first. One of the five experts, Peter Bofinger, argues there is no contradiction between the energy transition and the ETS, which is “characterised by an oversupply of certificates.”

Find the report’s executive summary in English here and the entire report in German here.