The European Union announced itself as a potential early climate champion in 2018 by pledging to reach climate-neutrality by 2050. Yet, rules and regulations are needed to bring emissions down sufficiently to make ‘climate neutrality’ a feasible reality. A lot of work has been done but much is still on the agenda. Politics clashes with policy, continuing to influence what degree of legislative ambition can be pursued. [UPDATES to May '25]

Tageszeitung (taz)

A meeting of Germany’s state ministers for transport has not produced an agreement on securing future funding of the country’s new nationwide public transport ticket, newspaper Tageszeitung (taz) reported. Half of the costs caused by the “Germany Ticket,” which arose from an initiative to support commuters in the energy crisis and currently is priced at 49 euros per month, could be financed through state budgets, the minsters agreed. However, the federal government has yet to greenlight funding of the other half. “There must be a way to continue funding and put it onto a sustainable footing,” the state ministers said in a joint statement seen by the newspaper. In 2023 and 2024, both the states and the federal government support the ticket with 1.5 billion euros each. However, the current scheme lacks funding for rising costs for staff and energy that add to the current calculation, with federal transport minister Volker Wissing so far ruling out any additional transfers from his ministry’s budget. Carina Konrad, MP for Wissing’s pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), told taz that “funding a safe, affordable and clean public transport system is a duty of the states.” Oliver Krischer, Green Party transport minister from North Rhine-Westphalia, said chancellor Olaf Scholz should take the initiative and find an agreement with the states at a meeting on 6 November. Ramona Pop, head of consumer protection organisation vzbv, said it would be a “particularly damaging signal for the transport transition” if funding for the ‘Germany Ticket’ remains hanging in the balance. “Those who want people to switch to public transport have to make it affordable and reliable,” she argued.

The nationwide ticket that allows use of buses, regional trains and other public transport options so far has not led to a significant reduction in car use, said a report by the Technical University of Munich. Data collected via surveys and smartphone apps show that only one in five new subscribers have used their car less. However, the measure has generally been well received by citizens, with one in three saying they are interested in using the scheme.

dpa / Stuttgarter Zeitung

Germany has added 50 percent more new wind power capacity in the first nine months of 2023 than in the same time period last year, reports news agency dpa in an article published by the Stuttgarter Zeitung. Preliminary figures seen by dpa show that 518 new turbines were constructed between January and September, corresponding to an additional 2.4 gigawatts capacity. Most of the expansion occurred in the German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with Lower Saxony and North Rhine-Westphalia, all northern states, following. However, 316 old turbines were shut down since January, leaving a net increase of 202 installations, with newer ones being much more efficient.
Part of the reason for the uptick is the increased rate of approval for new turbines, the agency reported. The first nine months of this year saw the approval of 976 turbines across the country, equivalent to an capacity increase of 77 percent. According to the Fachagentur Windenergie, who provided the data, there have never been so many approvals during the time period in previous years.

Despite more approvals, the wind industry has said the country’s autobahn operator are sabotaging the roll-out of wind turbines by refusing the necessary permits to transport parts. Southern states are also slow to grow their wind industries, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently referring to their expansion as depressing.

Clean Energy Wire

France and Germany could soon agree on a reform of the EU electricity market, French president Emmanuel Macron and German chancellor Olaf Scholz have said after their meeting in the northern German port city of Hamburg. A solution in the debate between Paris and Berlin on maintaining competitiveness in Europe while transforming the industry towards climate neutral procedures could still be achieved in October, the French president said at a press conference following the informal two-day meeting between government members of both countries in Scholz’s hometown. “Of course, we have two very different models at the national level,” Macron said. “We’ve discussed this profoundly and in an encouraging fashion and agreed our teams want to work together in the next weeks to arrive at a necessary agreement by the end of the month.” The priority would be “to have a Europe with one coherent strategy,” Macron said, adding that this would currently be needed with respect to the U.S., “which is less dependent and has lower prices.”

Chancellor Scholz said Germany and France agreed on climate action targets, even if they pursued different approaches to achieve them. The fact that France bets on nuclear power and Germany instead aims for 100 percent renewables and a massively expanded power grid “is no reason for antagonism but simply represents two different decisions,” Scholz argued. He added he was “confident” that a solution for the EU power market reform could be found quickly. “And this is most likely if Germany and France develop it together.” The chancellor added that both countries had drafted a strategy to reduce bureaucracy in the European Union that will allow policy decisions to take effect faster and more comprehensively.

Germany and France must focus on “simple stuff” on the way to climate neutrality by 2050: leaving gas and coal, establishing greater energy efficiency, renewable power sources and nuclear energy. “Everyone says that,” the French president argued, adding that a strategy that excludes one of these elements could not succeed. “It would be a historic mistake to think in the short term here and decide for either renewables or nuclear power. This would not work.” Bringing emissions down in the most cost-efficient manner and simultaneously creating “a free market for low-CO₂ electricity production” should now be the focus, Macron said, adding that the two leaders agreed that “we don’t want subsidies for energy-intensive production.”

The statements by the two government leaders came one day after another joint press conference in Hamburg, in which both Macron and Scholz underlined the need for greater industry cooperation and hailed aircraft manufacturer Airbus as a role model for future projects between the two countries amid the EU's efforts to move towards climate neutrality.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz and French president Emmanuel Macron held an informal meeting aimed to nurse the crucial Franco-German axis for Europe’s industrial transformation on the way to climate neutrality. In Hamburg, northern Germany, the leaders visited European aircraft manufacturer Airbus’s plant and praised the French-German joint venture as a model for future industry cooperation amid the “ecological transition” that could create new European champions. The get-together, which included ministers from both countries, followed months of difficult negotiations between Berlin and Paris about the role of nuclear power in EU climate policy plans and came ahead of a crucial EU energy ministers’ meeting that could result in a decisive reform of the bloc's electricity market rules.

The parties of Germany’s government coalition suffered heavy losses in two state elections in economically strong Hesse and Bavaria in western and southern Germany, while populist parties including the far-right AfD celebrated significant gains. The Conservatives (CDU/CSU) successfully defended their leadership in both states, but many voters turned their back on chancellor Olaf Scholz’s federal coalition parties, the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Free Democrats (FDP). While the success of the AfD can largely be attributed to voters’ rejection of immigration, the result is likely to also trigger a debate about the federal government’s approach to climate and energy policy, and signals that the room for finding compromise on emissions reduction efforts might be shrinking in the country, activists fear.

Journalists! Mark your calendars – or rather let us do it for you.

Europe is complicated and even journalists from EU member states sometimes struggle to understand how climate and energy policy is made, and when institutions take key decisions. This timeline flags key European energy and climate reporting events and developments and includes concise background information necessary to jump-start your coverage.

Germany plans to boost the international competitiveness of its prized heavy industry by lowering electricity taxes and expanding existing subsidy schemes. The package of measures worth 12 billion euros in 2024 alone is set to end a months-long dispute within the coalition, and means that economy minister Robert Habeck's proposal for a capped industry electricity price, which raised EU concerns about unfair competition, is shelved. Industry associations welcomed the package and said it would help strengthen Germany as a business location. [UPDATE 13 November: Government agrees package, earlier proposal for industry power price is shelved]