A secure energy supply and the fight against the climate crisis are two sides of the same coin, emphasized Lang. “Anyone who plays the two off against each other knowingly jeopardizes our ability to act and the freedom of future generations,” warned the co-party leader. “Nobody can afford to pretend that the climate can wait.”
In January 2019, the coal commission planned to phase out coal by 2038. In their coalition agreement, the traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP agreed to strive for an accelerated phase-out of coal-fired power generation in order to meet climate protection goals. “Ideally” this would be achieved by 2030, according to the agreement. This goal was repeatedly called into question recently because of the energy crisis and the extended reserve maintenance of coal-fired power plants.
Referring to the Russian head of state and his war in Ukraine, Lang told Funke Medien that Germany was well on the way to “actually becoming independent of the energy supplies of the war criminal Vladimir Putin”.
The Greens politician rejected calls for the promotion of shale gas in Germany, as FDP leader Christian Lindner had confirmed on Saturday. Fracking is of no use “in the current situation,” said Lang. “It would take years to develop such deposits.” By then, however, Germany would be “at a point with the renewables that would make further investments in fossils unnecessary”.
The way out of the energy crisis is sun and wind, assured Lang. “And we can achieve 100 percent renewable electricity generation by 2035.”
In a leading motion for the Green Party Congress that became known last week, it was said that the dependence on Russia for energy policy is weakening Germany and Europe and reducing the ability to “do business sustainably, i.e. in harmony with the planetary boundaries and the freedom of future generations”. “The consistent political conclusion from this is the accelerated phase-out of coal as early as 2030.”
