To protect Germany’s green transition, accept coal and nuclear power, says Veronika Grimm
The quicker the crisis is over, the sooner the country can decarbonise, argues the German economist
RUSSIA’S ATTACK on Ukraine has forced Germany to rethink its energy policy. Until February, the plan was to ambitiously expand the use of renewables while phasing out nuclear energy by the end of 2022, and then coal-fired power by 2038. Natural gas was to be used as a bridging technology—both in industry and in the power sector, so that gas-fired power plants could complement intermittent renewables. In the short term, that is now difficult to imagine. But in the medium term there is no alternative.
This article appeared in the By Invitation section of the print edition under the headline “To protect Germany’s green transition, accept coal and nuclear power, says Veronika Grimm”
From the October 1st 2022 edition
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