Another 20 years needed for responsible lignite exit – Saxony state premier

The country’s lignite phase out needs another 20 years to avoid a “harsh structural break” for Germany’s coal regions – like it happened at the time of German reunification, Saxony’s state premier Michael Kretschmer told Leipziger Volkszeitung in an interview. “We have the opportunity and the money to design the structural economic change in a responsible way,” Kretschmer told the newspaper.
Greenpeace Germany’s energy expert Anike Peters criticised Kretschmer’s comments. About 8,300 people currently work in coal mines and power plants in the eastern German region Lusatia, she wrote in a statement. “Between 1989 and 1995, about 60,000 people lost their jobs in six years in the lignite business alone.”

Read the interview in German here.

For background, read the factsheet When will Germany finally ditch coal?