GHG Daily
1/14/2016
Berlin-based think tank Agora Energiewende wants Germany to be off coal by 2040, and it knows how to make that happen, according to a paper released yesterday morning. In order to meet the country’s climate commitments of reducing German greenhouse gasses by at least 55 percent by 2030, at least 70 percent by 2040, and by 80-95 percent by 2050, “there is no alternative to the phasing out of coal power [in] Germany,” the paper says.
In the Jan. 13 paper, the group laid out an 11 point proposal to reach this goal:
- Germany should convene a "Round Table on a National Consensus on Coal" this year.
- Develop an incremental, legally based plan to phase out coal power by 2040.
- Discontinue construction of coal-fired power plants.
- Determine a cost-efficient decommissioning plan for existing coal power plants.
- Do not develop any additional national environmental policy regulations for coal-fired power plants beyond the phase-out plan.
- Discontinue development of additional lignite mines and relocation of affected communities.
- Finance the follow-up costs of lignite open-pit mining with a special levy on lignite.
- Create a “Structural Change Fund” to ensure a sound financial basis for structural change in impacted regions.
- Ensure security of supply over the entire transformation period by monitoring the phase-out.
- Strengthen European Union emissions trading and the prompt retirement of CO2 certificates set free by the coal phase-out.
- Ensure the economic competitiveness of energy-intensive companies and the German economy as a whole during the transformation process.
