So Much for Renewables: Leftist Germany Sees Green Push Wrecked by Russia’s War

08 November 2022, Brandenburg, Jänschwalde: Water vapor rises from the cooling towers of
Patrick Pleul/picture alliance via Getty Images
Peter Caddle

Donald Trump’s warning that Germany’s dependence on Russian gas left it vulnerable has been proven — yet again — as the country’s leftist government’s plans to go green have been utterly destroyed by the Ukraine war and its attendant gas shortages.

Any hopes of Germany lowering its carbon emission have quite literally gone up in smoke, recent reports are indicating, with the ongoing energy crisis brought about by Russia’s exit from the EU energy market forcing the country to obtain energy by burning traditional fuels.

While previously the darling of leftist activists in both Europe and the United States for its militant attitudes towards climate change, Germany’s green agenda has up until now been fueled by imports of Russian gas which are used to subsidise its green efforts.

However, with the supply of hydrocarbons collapsing as a result of worsened relations with Moscow, Germany has been forced to burn large amounts of coal in order to keep the lights on, massively increasing its carbon emissions.

Obviously not too pleased at this development, Germany’s ruling Green party government has attempted to offset its increased coal burning by bringing forward a ban on the fuel in one of the country’s largest states, North Rhine-Westphalia.

With the fuel having previously been set to be banned in the state by 2038, it has now been brought forward to 2030, with the German federal climate minister, Robert Habeck, saying that such a move will more than offset the increased burning of coal right now.

However, according to a study seen by Der Spiegel, the earlier ban is set to have very little effect on the environment, with the study noting that any carbon kept in the ground by the sooner ban will be overshadowed by short-term burning due to the fact that the projected need for the fuel is much lower from 2030 on than it is right now.

Overall, the research indicates that around 164 million tonnes of extra carbon is set to be put into the atmosphere as a result of Germany’s current use of coal even when the plan to bring forward the 2030 ban on the fuel is taken into account.

As a result, the scheme has reportedly been labelled as being nothing short of a “sham” by the organisation responsible for the study.

While Germany’s carbon targets had already been left under threat as a result of the closure of various nuclear power plants, the country’s overreliance on Russian energy has now completely collapsed its green agenda, with the country being forced to feed its energy addiction using coal.

With renewable energies completely failing to pick up the slack during a cold and dark November, this has left Germany as one of the worst carbon emitters in Europe, with Die Welt reporting the country as being only behind Poland in terms of EU polluters.

Ironically, the country’s own green agenda is partly to blame for its relapse to some of the worst carbon fuels, with politicians openly refusing to utilise domestic deposits of natural gas — which produces far less carbon when burnt — in favour of investing in green technologies that have done little to help the country over the last month.

While the nation has deposits of the fuel that would be able to fully supply it for at least the next two decades, the German government appears to be showing no sign of reversing course on their policies regarding domestic fossil fuel production, with both the Social Democratic Party and the Greens recently turning their noses up at the possibility of fracking being used in the country.

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