Climate Protection Minister Habeck is aiming for an earlier phase-out of coal in the East as well. He does not want to touch the law, the minister is relying on market forces. However, the structural change should happen more quickly.
The federal government wants to expand the scope for state funding programs in the former coal regions and thus accelerate structural change. Direct investments in company settlements are now also to be made possible. Funds should also be available, for example, for the establishment of the solar industry, said Economics and Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) at the East German Economic Forum in Bad Saarow, Brandenburg.
Earlier phase-out of coal in the East too?
With regard to the East German coal mining regions, a paper from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Protection stresses that the legally agreed phase-out of coal-fired power generation by 2038 remains in place. “The federal government will not make any political efforts to change this legal deadline.” A possible market-driven phase-out before 2038, as well as measures by the states and mining regions, remain unaffected.
The background is a reform of the European emissions trading system, which is intended to make climate-damaging coal-fired power generation increasingly unprofitable. The ministry also refers to the ongoing expansion of renewable energies and the planned construction of new gas-fired power plants that are to be converted to hydrogen – and the legal possibility of bringing forward the phase-out of coal to 2035.
The paper states: “In the event that coal-fired power generation is no longer profitable well before 2038 and the phase-out also comes earlier in the eastern German coal regions, it is important to prepare the transition as well as possible now.”
For the Rhineland region, politicians and the energy company RWE have agreed to bring forward the phase-out of coal by eight years to 2030.
At the beginning of 2023, Habeck said that an exit brought forward to 2030 in the east would also have to be agreed by consensus. “This will not be decided par ordre du mufti, but it must be seen as a good plan in a broad alliance.”
Federal government wants to provide more targeted help
The federal government is supporting structural change in the coal regions with billions of euros in funding. Many public projects and infrastructure investments have already begun in the coal regions, the paper says. However, there has so far been a lack of opportunities to specifically promote innovations and investments by companies, for example in the area of transformation technologies.
That is now set to change: in the future, the federal government also wants to support direct investments in company settlements – for example, the development of production capacities for the manufacture of batteries, solar panels, wind turbines or heat pumps is mentioned. This should strengthen the local economy, reduce structural dependence on fossil fuels and accelerate the transformation of the industry.
Habeck said that financial aid had previously been tied to the development of infrastructure. With the new opportunities, the federal government is now responding to a request from the regions. Companies want to settle here and there is money that is not being spent – “because the twelfth bus shelter is not needed. There is money there, there are companies there. Now we are bringing it together.”
Funding periods for financial aid are to be made more flexible, according to the ministry. Unused funds from a project should therefore be able to be spent up to three years after the end of a funding period. In addition, the federal “STARK” program is to be expanded in coordination with the states. In order to improve the transport infrastructure in the mining areas, planning should begin on rail projects that have already been approved, including the expansion of the Berlin-Görlitz route.
Source: Stern
