Utility support for the German Climate Package
70 local utilities co-signed a letter of support to the Minister of Economics indicating support for the new Climate Package
“Rostock wind power turbines and power lines” by Vattenfall is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
In 2015, the German government approved a policy plan that would increase carbon taxes, with significant impacts on national coal mining operations. In response, 70 local and regional utilities, wrote to the then Minister of Economics, Sigmar Gabriel, offering their support for this plan. Many of these utilities operated generation that competed with coal and were therefore interested in supporting policies that restricted coal use.
In this context, the co-signed letter represents an adaptation strategy. The letter also recommended financial support for coal regions that would be negatively affected by the policy At the same time, many unions, coal companies, and coal-dependent municipalities were engaging in resistance coping strategies opposing the proposed decarbonisation policy. In the end, coal phase out policies have advanced in Germany, with significant attention to the impacts on coal regions in transition.
Further reading
Some German utilities applaud minister’s coal levy plan. Read more.
Funding
The CINTRAN project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 884539. The sole responsibility for the content of this website lies with the authors and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of CINEA or other EU agencies or bodies.