Percorso:ANSA > Nuova Europa > Energy > Protests in Germany as cabinet passes coal exit law

Protests in Germany as cabinet passes coal exit law

By 2038 all coal-fired power plants and coal mines inactive

30 January, 12:59
(ANSA-AFP) - BERLIN - German ministers signed off a law to end coal electricity generation that demonstrators and environmentalists say does too little, too late. The 202-page draft, under the clunky German title of "Kohleverstromungsbeendigungsgesetz" (KVBG) lines up an inching exit from coal by 2038 at the latest. By that date, all coal-fired power plants and coal mines in Germany should be inactive. Outside Chancellor Angela Merkel's office, marchers brandished signs reading "Shut off the coal plants NOW" and "Smash (power company) RWE". In a slight concession to pressure from the streets, notably the "Fridays for Future" youth movement, the exit timetable could be stepped up to 2035 based on reviews planned for 2026 and 2029. "What the government is doing is setting in motion a huge and fundamental transformation in our energy supply," Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters in Berlin. That was true "even if some elements of this law are of course debated in the public sphere and criticised," he added. (ANSA-AFP).

© Copyright ANSA - All rights reserved