Germany burns more coal and gas: reverse energy transition

Created: 07/12/2022 17:33

By: Georg Anastasiadis

Despite many sunny days, the share of renewable energies in German electricity consumption stagnated in the third quarter of 2022. A comment by Merkur Editor-in-Chief Georg Anastasiadis.

© Marcus Brandt/dpa/Klaus Haag

The climate-damaging energy sources coal and gas have recently been consumed more in Germany than before.

There is nothing to be seen of the much-cited energy transition, the opposite is the case.

A commentary by Georg Anastasiadis.

This balance should make every climate protector in the Federal Ministry of Economics, which has been green for a year, blush in the face: almost half of the electricity consumed in Germany - exactly 45.5 percent - had to be generated in the third quarter of 2022 with the climate-damaging energy sources coal and gas.

Their share rose sharply compared to the previous year (gas even doubled!) because Germany shut down all but three of its nuclear power plants, while the share of renewables stagnated – despite the extraordinarily sunny summer.

So this is what the much-vaunted German energy transition looks like: Energy is more expensive here than almost anywhere in the world and is increasingly endangering the industrial location, while at the same time more fossil fuels are being burned and the climate targets are being missed by a bang.

Who in the world should please follow this example?

The myth of the German pioneering role in climate protection is nothing more than German hubris - hardly different than with migration and the one-love armband that has become famous.

Activists would achieve more if they supported the continued operation of the nuclear power plants

Pondering this energy-political aberration would also be worthwhile for the mostly young revolutionaries of the "last generation", who cling to streets, airports and motorways for comparatively small CO2 savings through 9-euro tickets and a 100-speed limit.

They would achieve more for the climate if they advocated a - temporary - continued operation of nuclear power plants;

then it would certainly be possible to find a compromise for society as a whole, including a speed limit (maybe not 100, but maybe 130 kilometers per hour) and a cheap ticket.

But even more important to the activists than saving the climate is the anti-nuclear ideology, in the spirit of their green masterminds.

George Anastasiadis