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Angela Merkel
Photo: Yoan Valat / dpa
Is Germany getting out of coal too quickly?
Chancellor Angela Merkel sees little chance of preventing nuclear energy from being classified as a green technology in the EU.
"Germany has not given up its resistance," stressed Merkel in an interview published on Wednesday with the Reuters news agency with a view to a draft by the EU Commission to recognize nuclear energy as sustainable.
The EU is wrestling with the question: Can nuclear energy be considered sustainable?
But given the path taken by the EU of a so-called delegated act based on the taxonomy regulation, the proposal could only be rejected if 20 EU members voted no. "That is a very high hurdle and is unlikely to be the case," she added, referring to the 27 member states. "The process itself can only be stopped with difficulty if the EU Commission presents something."
The background to this is a struggle within the EU over what is known as taxonomy. The aim is to give technologies a label as sustainable and harmless, so that financial flows are increasingly directed towards green technologies. For France, nuclear energy is one of them because it hardly produces any C02, while Germany is against it because of the unresolved issue of disposing of nuclear waste. 129 non-governmental organizations from Europe had asked the likely next Chancellor, Olaf Scholz (SPD), in an open letter not to classify nuclear energy as sustainable.
The Executive Chancellor Merkel emphasized that the EU Commission knew that there was a cross-party opinion in Germany that nuclear energy should not be classified as being “equally clean” with wind and solar energy. For France, for example, nuclear power is a bridging technology. "We say that for us natural gas has to be classified as a bridging technology," emphasized the Chancellor in return. In addition, the EU Commission is smart enough to know that in the end an overall strategy for the climate protection program “Fit for 55” will be necessary. "You won't want to create an unpleasant advisory climate through various legislations."
At the same time, Merkel defended the exit from nuclear energy that had been carried out in her chancellorship.
She is skeptical about a global revival of technology.
"It is of course true that we now have the very ambitious and challenging task of creating the energy turnaround by phasing out coal and nuclear energy," said Merkel.
"But it is also true that it will pay off for our country if we do it right."
Merkel doubts the renewed interest in nuclear energy
Merkel doubted that there would really be a new, broad interest in nuclear energy because of the fight against climate change. In France this is different because there are state holdings in energy companies. But private investments in nuclear power plants are limited worldwide, stressed the Executive Chancellor. "The reactors under construction often have significant cost increases and long delays," added Merkel. In addition, the permanent storage of the radioactive waste has not yet been clarified. "And the kilowatt hour prices for nuclear energy will definitely not be lower than the kilowatt hour prices for offshore wind energy," emphasized Merkel.
Germany will completely phase out nuclear power by the end of 2022.
In view of the climate crisis, some politicians are questioning this and calling for the climate-damaging power generation from coal to be abandoned more quickly.
This should happen in Germany by 2038 at the latest.
muk / Reuters
