Berlin: The German cabinet on Wednesday agreed on a draft bill that would provide billions of euros in aid for regions affected by a planned phasing-out of coal use by 2038.
The German states North Rhine-Westphalia, Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt still have thousands of people employed in the coal industry. Germany’s government decided in January that the country should be coal-free by 2038 in order to achieve its climate goals.
German Economy Minister Peter Altmaier said the government was keeping its promises and would not leave its citizens out in the cold.
“We want to keep and expand jobs, secure the quality of life of people living in the regions and at the same time, pull out of using coal as an energy source in order to contribute to protecting the climate,” Altmaier said on Wednesday.
He added that the end of coal in the affected regions needed to be turned into a path towards new opportunities.
The draft bill is set to suggest providing up to 14 billion euros ($15.5 billion) “for particularly significant investments” in regions that currently rely heavily on lignite mining.
The bill would only come into effect after a law to phase out coal has been passed.
“The phasing out of coal is the condition under which the state will provide support for the regions,” the draft bill says.
The draft law for pulling Germany out of coal use is set to come in the coming weeks, and should be passed by the end of the year. This law will clarify when which coal plant will be taken off the grid.
Apart from the aid money that is not pinned to any specific project, the government will also invest in research institutions, agencies, streets, public transport, railway networks and digital infrastructure in the affected regions.
The plan foresees creating up to 5,000 jobs in agencies and other institutions by 2028.
The draft bill also breaks down exactly how much aid each affected region is set to receive.
The parliamentary leader of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Soeren Bartol, said the government would not “leave (the people) to their fate” after lignite production ends. The SPD is the junior partner in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition government.
“The people in the Lausitz region and central Germany and the Rhine regions can rely on us,” he added.
Environmentalists and the Green Party however criticized the plans as insufficient.
“The government is undermining climate protection goals with this law. Instead of using the mining areas in the coal regions to expand renewable energies and CO2-free energy production, the government is giving out money without rhyme or reason,” said Oliver Krischer, parliamentary leader of the Greens.
Greenpeace head Martin Kaiser also said the German government was handing out a “blank cheque” worth billions of euros from taxpayers without clarifying when, where
and how coal plants would be shutdown.
“Linking (the law) to climate goals is absolutely essential,everything else is irresponsible,” Kaiser said. — dpa
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