“Structural change can wait”

Delays in approving the Climate Action Plan 2050 are the reason projects for structural change in eastern Germany’s lignite mining regions aren't yet receiving funding, writes Kurt Stenger in the socialist newspaper Neues Deutschland. The 2016 federal budget specifically allocates four million euros for the “support of measures for the structural adaptation in lignite mining regions.” The federal government said that none of this had been paid out yet due to the recent debate over the Climate Action Plan - now agreed on, as well as unfinished preparatory work, writes Stenger. “The urgently needed support was put off due to months-long internal wrangling among certain ministries,” writes Stenger.

Read the article (behind paywall) in German here.

For background read the CLEW article Coal exit dispute delays Germany’s Climate Action Plan and the CLEW factsheet Germany’s Climate Action Plan 2050.