{"id":58933,"date":"2020-01-18T12:17:15","date_gmt":"2020-01-18T04:17:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=58933"},"modified":"2020-01-18T12:17:17","modified_gmt":"2020-01-18T04:17:17","slug":"germany-agrees-plan-to-phase-out-coal-power-by-2038","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=58933","title":{"rendered":"Germany agrees plan to phase out coal power by 2038"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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A lignite power plant near Halle in eastern Germany
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\u00a0BERLIN, Jan 18\u00a0(NNN-AGENCIES)\u00a0—\u00a0<\/strong>The German government and regional leaders have agreed on a plan to phase out coal-fired power stations by 2038, involving compensation of about \u20ac40bn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The end date for burning brown coal (lignite) – the dirtiest type of coal – could be brought forward to 2035, depending on the progress made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany has more than 250,000 workers in renewable energy sectors – far more than in the coal industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coal is a big driver of global warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u20ac40bn compensation will target four German states which have lignite mines and coal-fired power plants: Saxony-Anhalt, Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Brandenburg.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Much of the money will go into new infrastructure projects for coal-dependent areas and retraining workers for new jobs there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mines and utilities will also get compensation for the lost production. The compensation for closing coal-fired power stations in western Germany is set at \u20ac2.6bn, and for those in the east at \u20ac1.75bn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are some fears that the shutdown could trigger electricity shortfalls, as nuclear power is being phased out within two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government will draft a law this month for exiting from coal, which it hopes to get passed by parliament in mid-2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Coal currently powers about one-third of Germany’s electricity, and more than half of that relies on burning lignite. Germany is the world’s biggest lignite producer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Germany has embarked on something really big. And I’m sure that we’ll manage this,” said Finance Minister Olaf Scholz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said “we’re the first country to be finally exiting from nuclear and coal”.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2017 consumption of lignite in Germany was 44% of the total in the EU, followed by Poland (16%), the Czech Republic and Greece (both 10%), Bulgaria (9%) and Romania (7%), the EU’s Eurostat agency reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that year, 359m tonnes of lignite was delivered to power plants in the EU, producing electricity and heat, along with 150m tonnes of hard coal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Germany aims to generate at least 65% of its electricity from renewables – that is, carbon-neutral sources – by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The exit from coal consumption is part of the EU’s drive to cut greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to global warming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the 28 EU states aim to become carbon-neutral by 2050 – that is, carbon emissions should be balanced by carbon-reduction measures such as tree-planting. Poland, however, relies heavily on coal and has a temporary exemption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement nearly 200 countries agreed on wide-ranging measures to curb emissions, after scientists warned that global temperatures must not rise more than 2C above pre-industrial levels. — NNN-AGENCIES
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A lignite power plant near Halle in eastern Germany \u00a0BERLIN, Jan 18\u00a0(NNN-AGENCIES)\u00a0—\u00a0The German government and regional leaders have agreed on a plan to phase out coal-fired power stations by 2038, involving compensation of about \u20ac40bn. The end date for burning brown coal (lignite) – the dirtiest type of coal – could be brought forward to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[209],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58933"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58933\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}