Germany will reach its 2030 climate targets if it gets to work now, and will use coal for many years – economy minister

Germany’s new economy and energy minister Peter Altmaier said that the country will reach its 2030 climate targets if it starts to work towards them without delay. Addressing a joint press conference with North Rhine-Westphalia’s (NRW) state premier Armin Laschet in Düsseldorf, Altmaier said that the new German government would examine where it stands regarding all its national and European targets, and “see whether or not certain measures are recommendable”. State premier Laschet added that reaching the 2030 goals “is going to be ambitious”. He also recalled the failed coalition talks between the conservative CDU/CSU alliance, the Free Democrats (FDP) and the Green Party, where reaching the country’s 2020 greenhouse gas reduction goal was a focal issue. “The year 2020 – we will work towards it, but it’s not the target date of all efforts, as discussed in the Jamaica talks. So the new coalition has set a different course.” Altmaier said Germany will reduce coal-fired power generation capacities by a certain amount by 2030, but “of course there will still be hard coal and lignite for many years after that.” NRW’s government had approved lignite mining until 2045, added Laschet, and “one could assume that the [coal exit] commission will decide on an earlier date”.

Watch a video of the press conference in German here.

For background, read the CLEW dossier The next German government and the energy transition and the factsheet Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions and climate targets.