Merkel’s parliamentary group leader says 2038 coal exit depends on secure supply

The parliamentary group leader of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative party CDU, Ralph Brinkhaus, told newspaper Welt am Sonntag in an interview that the German coal exit commission’s proposal to stop using coal by 2038 ultimately depends on a secure power supply. “If it is in danger, we should have the liberty in our political process to put things on hold and clarify this issue,” Brinkhaus said, adding that “dogmatism is not what we need here.” However, he said the general path of ending coal-fired power production should not be challenged as it represents a “broad societal consensus that something needs to be done regarding the climate.”

The coal exit commission’s final report that proposes to shut down the last plant no later than 2038 says that the agreement will be subjected to several reviews in order to gauge the effects of the country’s 2022 nuclear exit and other interventions in the energy system, such as the expansion of renewables or the decommissioning of coal plants. According to the report, the last coal plant could also be taken off the grid before 2038 if conditions permit.