GERMANY'S energy revolution has gone sour, as have its efforts to cut carbon dioxide emissions.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's "Energiewende"
policy aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent between 1990
and 2020, mostly by closing coal-fired power plants and boosting
renewable energy. Yet in 2013 coal burning soared to its highest level for more than 20 years. Then last week economy and energy minister Sigmar Gabriel said he will slash wind and solar subsidies by a third, to cut rising energy bills.
Merkel is also shutting down Germany's
nuclear power plants, its largest source of low-carbon energy. This
means emissions, which had fallen by 27 per cent by 2011, are now on the
rise.
"The Energiewende is moving emissions in
the wrong direction," says Roger Pielke Jr of the University of Colorado
in Boulder. He calculates that Germany will have to more than double
renewables' contribution to energy from 17 to 38 per cent to reach the
40 per cent target.
"It seems highly unlikely that Germany can
hit the reduction target by 2030, much less 2020," says Pielke, who
says nuclear is "the best tool available for reducing CO2 emissions."
The problem is made worse by a continued slump in the price of European Union permits to emit CO2, which act as a tax on dirty fuels like coal. The low cost has allowed coal plants to restart.
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