“We have to think regionally”

German regions need to intensify their cooperation when it comes to implementing the Energiewende, Roland Jäkel, head of the trade association Lower Silesia in Saxony, said in an interview with Sächsische Zeitung. “Politicians won’t create new jobs in Lusatia,” Jäkel said with regard to a pending end of the traditional mining region’s lignite industry. Policy could only “set the course” for an economic transformation, while it was up to businesses to decide whether to create new jobs, he explained. Regional business associations should therefore strengthen common efforts to manage regional consequences of the national energy transition, Jäkel said.

For more information, read the CLEW factsheet Local stories from Germany’s energy transition and the CLEW factsheet German federalism: In 16 states of mind over the Energiewende.