“Secure energy supply first”
Haseloff crosses the coal exit
01/19/2023 5:22 p.m
In order to make the evacuation of the village of Lützerath easier to digest for the Greens, the phase-out of coal is to be brought forward to 2030. Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister refuses. First of all, the energy requirement has to be secured, says Haseloff. He accuses the old federal states of endangering the climate goals.
Saxony-Anhalt’s Prime Minister Reiner Haseloff insists that coal-fired power generation in East Germany should not end until 2038. The CDU politician does not want to follow the goal anchored in the coalition agreement by the Ampel parties on the initiative of the Greens, “ideally” to phase out coal nationwide by 2030. It is about first securing the energy requirement and “creating sufficiently qualified replacement jobs,” he told the “Stern”.
“The year 2038 is mentioned in the coal phase-out law. These regulations are the result of professional considerations, taking into account many aspects,” said Haseloff. However, the law mentions “2038 at the latest” and an exit by 2035 is to be examined. For North Rhine-Westphalia, an agreement between the federal and state governments and the energy company RWE now provides for the end of coal-fired power generation by 2030. The Greens negotiated the coal phase-out, which was brought forward eight years, as a compromise with climate activists in the dispute over the evacuation of the village of Lützerath.
“Energy transition cannot only take place in the East”
Haseloff justified his refusal with the fact that his state, along with Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Brandenburg, is one of the pioneers in the expansion of renewable energies and accused the West of doing too little for the energy transition. “We have saved Germany’s ecological balance here. 60 percent of all the carbon dioxide that has been saved in Germany since 1990 has been saved by East Germans,” said the Prime Minister. “If the West had saved anywhere near as much carbon dioxide, we would have far fewer problems reaching the climate targets.” He added: “Energy transition cannot only take place in the East.”
In addition, Haseloff opposed narrowing the debate to coal as an energy source when it came to reducing emissions, even though total electricity production is only responsible for 30 percent of all emissions. “The other 70 percent of emissions are negligently hardly talked about. Where is the mobility turnaround? When will the construction turnaround come?” he said.