{"id":43291,"date":"2019-01-29T09:29:33","date_gmt":"2019-01-29T14:29:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=43291"},"modified":"2019-01-29T09:29:34","modified_gmt":"2019-01-29T14:29:34","slug":"germany-plans-to-quit-coal-by-2038-but-theres-a-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=43291","title":{"rendered":"Germany Plans to Quit Coal by 2038 &#8216;But There&#8217;s a Problem&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/germany-coal-climate-change-2627316612.html\">Germany Plans to Quit Coal by 2038 &#8216;But There&#8217;s a Problem&#8217;<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In an effort to fight&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/climate-change\/\">climate change<\/a>, Germany announced plans to quit&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/tag\/coal\">coal<\/a>&nbsp;mining and burning by 2038.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All 84 of the country&#8217;s coal-fired power plants will be shut down over the 19-year time frame, a government-appointed commission announced Saturday, according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/world\/europe\/la-fg-germany-coal-power-20190126-story.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s a significant move as nearly 40 percent of Germany&#8217;s electricity comes from coal-fired power plants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;This is a historic accomplishment,&#8221; Ronald Pofalla, one of four commission leaders, announced at a news conference after more than 20 hours of negotiations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/tpc.googlesyndication.com\/safeframe\/1-0-31\/html\/container.html\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;It was anything but a sure thing. But we did it,&#8221; he added. &#8220;There won&#8217;t be any more coal-burning plants in Germany by 2038.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The commission&#8217;s plan provides about $45 billion in aid to coal-producing regions affected by the phase-out. Chancellor Angela Merkel&#8217;s government is expected to adopt the plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&#8220;Good for the economy and climate: The report of the climate\/coal commission is widely supported by business and environmental organizations,&#8221; Economy Minister Peter Altmaier, a trusted advisor to Merkel,\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/peteraltmaier\/status\/1089212287586586624\" target=\"_blank\">tweeted<\/a>\u00a0on Saturday. &#8220;Less CO2, more new jobs. Security of supply and affordability: a strong signal!&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/peteraltmaier\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/pbs.twimg.com\/profile_images\/846387567381663745\/ZLmO76i__normal.jpg\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/peteraltmaier\"><strong><\/strong><strong>\u2714<\/strong><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/peteraltmaier\/status\/1089212287586586624\"><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Gut f\u00fcr Wirtschaft und Klima: Der Bericht der Klima\/Kohlekommission wird von Wirtschaft- und Umweltverb\u00e4nden breit getragen.  Weniger co2, mehr neue Jobs. Versorgungssicherheit und Bezahlbarkeit: Ein starkes Signal!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If the exit goes according to plan,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/renewable-energy\">renewable energy<\/a>&nbsp;will effectively supply 65-80 percent of Germany&#8217;s power in two decades&#8217; time, since the country also pledged to close all its&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/tag\/nuclear\">nuclear<\/a>&nbsp;reactors by 2022, the Times noted.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Renewable energy replaced coal as Germany&#8217;s main power source for the first time last year, accounting for 41 percent of the country&#8217;s electricity, according to&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/us-germany-power-renewables\/renewables-overtake-coal-as-germanys-main-energy-source-idUSKCN1OX0U2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Reuters<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But some environmentalists warned that the commission&#8217;s recommendations are not ambitious enough for Germany to meet its obligations under the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.ecowatch.com\/tag\/paris-agreement\">Paris climate agreement<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">&nbsp;\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Germany Plans to Quit Coal by 2038 &#8216;But There&#8217;s a Problem&#8217; In an effort to fight&nbsp;climate change, Germany announced plans to quit&nbsp;coal&nbsp;mining and burning by 2038. All 84 of the country&#8217;s coal-fired power plants will be shut down over the 19-year time frame, a government-appointed commission announced Saturday, according to&nbsp;The Los Angeles Times. It&#8217;s a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[141,8375,1103,12507,11348,674],"class_list":["post-43291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","tag-climate-change","tag-ecowatch","tag-electricity","tag-lorraine-chow","tag-paris-climate-agreement","tag-renewable-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43291"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43291\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":43292,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43291\/revisions\/43292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}