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SPD plans: Against a faster coal phase-out - for a speed limit

Too much coal power endangers the goals of the traffic transition. Nevertheless, Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz wants to stick to the agreed coal phase-out by 2038. Doubly devastating: This leaves hardly any CO2 budget for the transportation sector - and the overall balance of e-mobility stagnates. After all: A speed limit would be set.

Double trouble: Sticking to the coal phase-out until 2038 would leave hardly any CO2 budget for the transport sector. | Photo: Zukunft Erdgas/Kai Bublitz
Double trouble: Sticking to the coal phase-out until 2038 would leave hardly any CO2 budget for the transport sector. | Photo: Zukunft Erdgas/Kai Bublitz
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Johannes Reichel

The SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, like his long-time competitor Armin Laschet (CDU), has spoken out against a faster exit from coal-fired power generation and wants to stick to the agreed scenario until 2038. The Vice Chancellor and SPD Finance Minister explained this in the ZDF summer interview. "Germany has signed a contract, which ends coal-fired power generation by 2038 at the latest," Scholz said, reaffirming this during a campaign visit in Lusatia. However, he calls for more ambitious expansion targets for electricity production and criticizes that approval processes, for example for wind turbines, take too long. For this, the Green chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock sharply criticized him: "A coal exit in 2038 is not compatible with Germany's climate target. If Olaf Scholz sticks to it, he is deliberately accepting that Germany will miss its contractually agreed climate target," Baerbock told dpa.

Coal consumes the budget - electricity for electric cars remains dirty

Scholz's insistence could be problematic because a successful transition in transport and energy relies on a rapidly increasing share of renewable energies. A recent study by the think tank Energy Brainpool indicated that German brown coal and hard coal power plants alone would consume large parts of the German climate budget if the agreed exit scenario remains. Even in the best case, 39 percent of the budget would be used for coal power plants, in the worst case even 73 percent. This would leave hardly anything for other sectors such as buildings, industry, and transport. They should emit a total of no more than 1,100 million tons of CO2, which corresponds to less than three years of pre-pandemic consumption. Experts therefore demand that the coal exit be reconsidered. "Anyone who declares the 1.5-degree target in the election campaign cannot seriously stick to the coal exit in 2038," criticized Oliver Geden from the Foundation for Science and Politics.

Light and shadow: At least a speed limit would be set

At least the SPD, unlike the CDU candidate Laschet who vehemently votes against a speed limit, is now also embracing the measure of a speed limit of 130 km/h on highways: The quick measure to reduce emissions and accident numbers, long demanded by Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD), has been included in the official election program.

What does that mean?

In dishonest unity with the Union, the FDP, and of course the AfD, which denies man-made climate change but remains indisputable, the SPD wants to stick to the coal exit, perhaps due to old comradeship with coal miners or election tactics. But it is not honest politics if you want to meet the 1.5-degree target and aim for climate neutrality by 2045, along with a 65 percent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2030 compared to 1990. How this is supposed to work remains Scholz's secret. All serious experts agree that coal-fired power generation must end by 2030 for Germany to have any chance of meeting its goals. A ranking of the largest CO2 emitters in the EU sees three German coal-fired power plants in the inglorious top places, right after a large Polish plant.

This is also highly relevant for the transport sector because the mobility transition only works electrically – and only if the electricity is produced renewably, it benefits the climate. Sector coupling strikes here mercilessly and does not allow a mental decoupling of the areas, no matter what was agreed with the coal industry, which has been lavishly subsidized for decades. Incidentally, the lost jobs in renewable energies due to the energy transition negligently delayed by the black-red coalition are always talked about far too little. Those who genuinely want the transport and energy transition should exit coal as quickly as possible, in any case well before 2038. But who knows, maybe the market with CO2 certificates will regulate this anyway. And who knows, maybe Olaf Scholz knows this – and is counting on it. After all, he is the Finance Minister.

Translated automatically from German.
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