Scepticism over achieving climate goals casts shadow over coal commission’s first meeting

As Germany’s coal commission prepares to convene for the first time on Tuesday, environmental groups are criticising the government’s slow action on combatting climate change, writes Malte Kreutzfeldt in the taz. Organised by environmental groups like Greenpeace and BUND, over a thousand climate activists demonstrated in Berlin on Sunday, two days before the first meeting of the coal-exit commission.  The activists want a coal-exit date of 2030 at the latest. “It is high time for us to exit coal,” said Martin Kaiser from Greenpeace. Martin Wolf, president and CEO of German electric utility RWE, warned that a coal phase-out by the end of next decade is not possible, however. “Whoever wants to exit coal too quickly will have to pay more for it,” he said. Economy minister Peter Altmaier agrees that Germany will not be able to cease using the fuel by 2030, but environmental groups remain unconvinced.

Read the article in German here.

For background, see the factsheet Germany’s coal exit commission and the article Germany starts coal exit talks in bid to improve patchy climate record.