“The government should now devote all of its energy to quickly taking the necessary decisions for securing an affordable and climate-friendly energy supply in the short and long-term,” its chief executive, Kerstin Andreae, told the Handelsblatt business daily.īut Greenpeace criticized the decision, saying recent suspected attacks on gas pipelines and rail infrastructure highlighted the risks to Germany's nuclear reactors.
Germany's energy industry lobby group BDEW welcomed the temporary delay in phasing out nuclear power. In addition to temporarily extending the lifetime of Germany's nuclear plants, Scholz said his Social Democrat-led government will propose "ambitious" legislation to increase energy efficiency, enshrining in law a plan to end coal use in western Germany by 2030 and building new power plants that can burn hydrogen. Climate activists such as Sweden's Greta Thunberg, and others, have argued that it's a mistake for Germany to switch off its existing nuclear plants if that means burning more planet-heating fossil fuels.Įxperts say the nuclear power plants are mainly needed to maintain grid stability at times of high electricity demand - including from neighboring France, whose own nuclear reactors have faced a series of problems this year. Successive German governments have committed to ending the country's use of nuclear power by the end of the year as part of its transition to safe, renewable energy.īut the war in Ukraine, which has resulted in a sharp cut in natural gas supplies from Russia to Europe, prompted Germany to reactivate old coal and oil-fired power plants.
Some Free Democrats had even called for three other nuclear plants that were shut down last year to be powered up again in the face of high energy prices and possible blackouts.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democrats had suggested all three - including the Emsland reactor in the northwest - should stay online, even beyond April if necessary.
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