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German coal commission details still under intense debate: report

https://www.chemnet.com   May 21,2018 Platts
Debate about framework details for Germany's so-called 'coal phase-out commission' intensified this week ahead of the planned launch later this month and reports of compromise emerging between the economy and environment ministries.

According to the latest draft for the constituting decree seen by German daily Handelsblatt, the 2030 target to cut CO2 emissions by 61%-62% over 1990 levels has been broadened from only coal-fired power plants to include all power plants across the energy sector.

Cabinet is expected to pass the constituting decree Wednesday or May 30 with three former politicians from lignite-coal mining regions set to chair the 23-person strong commission tasked to make recommendations how to phase-out coal.

Under the terms of the coalition agreement, the commission officially called 'Growth, structural change and employment' is set to start work in May and deliver a final date for an exit from coal by the end of the year.

According to Handelsblatt, a provisional deadline for first recommendations by end-October is 'ambitious' and may slip into spring 2019 with the global climate summit in December in Poland and German plans for a 2030 climate change act key dates to consider for the timeline.

The commission will be overseen by the economy and energy ministry and not the environment ministry, Chancellor Angela Merkel said last month.

Energy minister Peter Altmaier already said the coal exit "won't be sudden and abrupt" and will take "several decades."

Chancellor Merkel told lawmakers in the Bundestag this week the way Germany has phased-out its hard-coal mining industry with the last pits only closing this year could be a blueprint for the lignite-mining phase-out.

Power Play Former first ministers of Saxony (Tillich/CDU) and Brandenburg (Platzeck/SPD), home to the East German lignite region, and a former state secretary in the environment ministry from the North-Rhine Westphalia lignite mining region (Heinen-Esser/CDU) are expected to be appointed as co-heads chairing the commission.

Coal (lignite and hard-coal) still contributes almost 40% to German electricity with over 210 TWh generated in 2017 despite first steps to close the oldest units.

Emissions from German power plants dropped 5% last year to 319 million mt of CO2 equivalent (MtCO2), representing a 25% cut over 1990 levels.

Power plant emissions would need to drop below 170 MtCO2 by 2030 to achieve the target based on the 2050 climate change action plan with Altmaier saying coal-fired output would roughly need to be halved by 2030 from today's levels.

Talks to form a coalition with the Greens failed last year mainly over questions how many coal plants to close to achieve the 2020 targets.

In January, the new coalition scrapped the 2020 climate targets, but remains committed to close the gap as much as possible with reports saying Merkel was prepared to accept up to 7 GW closures in talks with the Greens.

Germany's biggest power producer RWE said this week it still expects some closures by 2020 despite the power market currently not pricing in such a tightening in supply before the nuclear exit in 2021/22.
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