Eastern German states reject coal commission’s proposals, renew 60 billion euro-demand

The governments of Germany’s eastern coal mining states have criticised a draft proposal by the country’s coal exit commission for focusing too much on emissions reduction and too little on the economic prospects of people living in mining regions, the weekly newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reports. Reiner Haseloff and Michael Kretschmer, the conservative CDU state premiers of Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony, respectively, said the commission’s proposals could not be accepted as they stand. Haseloff added that Germany’s federal government “does not seem to understand” the costs of creating new economic prospects in coal regions and renewed his conclusion that “we don’t need 1.5 billion but 60 billion euros.”

Find the article in German here (paywall).

See the CLEW article German commission draft suggests coal exit with compensation and the CLEW factsheet Germany’s three lignite mining regions for more information.