German utilities urge government to speed up Energiewende policy making

Germany’s government has fallen behind in the transformation of the energy industry triggered by the energy transition, and must now speed up its policy making processes to support the sector in reaching emissions reduction goals, the managing director of the utility association BDEW, Stefan Kapferer, told the group’s annual conference in Berlin. “We are at a standstill, and we cannot afford this,” Kapferer said about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s new government.
By now, industry, rather than the government, has become the main driver of the energy transition, including the exit from coal-fired power generation, Kapferer added. “The industry has already entered the path towards reducing its coal use; this process is well underway.” BDEW’s new president, Marie-Luise Wolff, told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper that the coal exit must not come too late for the country to reach its 2030 climate goals.

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