Lusatia to suffer most from quick coal exit – report

While the German economy as a whole would hardly suffer from phasing out lignite, coal regions in the Rhineland, central Germany and especially Lusatia in the east of Germany, are likely to see rising unemployment and people moving away, according to scenario calculations by the Leibniz-Institut for Economic Research in Halle (IWH). An accelerated coal exit by 2035 would considerably lower average income in the coal regions. According to the IWH’s model, up to 2,500 people could leave Lusatia in search for new jobs, the researchers who say. The model does not include any state measures as discussed in Germany's coal commission. The researchers said, they did not assume that new jobs could quickly be created through state measures in these regions.