(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).
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