Climate policy: Coal phase-out in the East: Warning of “de-democratization”

Actually, says Saxony’s DGB Vice Daniela Kolbe, the conference on the turnaround in the Böhlen culture center this Thursday should be “positive”. The project of the same name, supported by trade unions, has been running since 2021 and is intended to involve employees in structural change in the lignite regions. It was about the generation of renewable energies from mining dumps, youth participation in structural change and the integration of refugees.

However, Kolbe added, “besides creating, one shouldn’t forget to fight.” The unions are determined to fight when it comes to compliance with contracts, specifically: the agreements on the coal phase-out. According to the law passed in the Bundestag in 2019, the mining and generation of electricity from coal should end in 2038. In the meantime, however, politicians and mining companies have for that Rhenish area agreed to bring the phase-out forward to 2030. The same is now being demanded for the mining areas in eastern Germany, i.e. south of Leipzig and in Lusatia. The Greens parliamentary group in the Bundestag passed a resolution to this effect, which met with harsh rejection from works councils and trade unions. According to Stephanie Albrecht-Sullak from the mining union IG BCE, he is simply “wrong”.

Proponents of faster exit argue on the one hand with reasons of climate protection. Michael Kellner, Green State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics and connected to the conference in Böhlen via video, noted that since the decision to phase out by 2038 there has been the climate judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court. In addition, climate change is accelerating noticeably: »When the world changes, politicians have to react.«

At the same time, electricity from coal is becoming less and less profitable because the prices for green electricity are falling, while certificates for the very high carbon dioxide emissions in coal-fired power plants are becoming more and more expensive. There is a risk that energy companies will pull the ripcord well before the legally agreed phase-out date. The announcement by the energy company EnBW that it will shut down its block in the Lippendorf power plant, not far from Böhlen, as early as 2028 proves that the concern is justified. An “uncontrolled exit” would be the result, warned Kellner: “We can’t want that.”

The unions consider the argument to be harmful. The date set in the law goes back to a compromise in the coal commission, Kolbe reminded. It led to “people who love coal starting to think about what a world without it might look like”. However, this change in attitude and the resulting structural change would need »certainty that the agreements will also work.«

Matthias Lindig, head of the works council at the coal producer Mibrag, emphasized that companies, employees and local politicians had prepared their scenarios for a transformation plan that would end in 2038: “But if this plan falters, the plans will too of the companies to falter.« As a result, deep-rooted concerns would be awakened in the area: those of a structural break like in 1990, when opencast mines and power plants were closed in no time at all and tens of thousands became unemployed almost overnight.

These specifically East German experiences, which younger people also shared, should not be neglected, warned Ines Kuche from the Verdi trade union and appealed to the Thuringian-born waiter to ensure that this perspective is taken into account in federal political decisions. Lindig emphasized that one had to learn from the mistakes of history: “This time there has to be a structural change and not a structural break.” Daniela Kolbe also warned against a kind of race between the districts and the temptation to portray the East Germans as “idiots” because they, unlike the miners on the Rhine and Ruhr, “not manage” an exit by 2030. She reminded that the phase-out law for Lausitz and Leipzig Revier provides for the power plants to be shut down between 2035 and 2038, i.e. later than in the west. All planning was based on this brand.

If the earlier exit were to be enforced over the heads of those affected, it would have fatal consequences, according to widespread fears. Stephanie Albrecht-Sullak warns of a loss of “acceptance and credibility of politics”, Ines Kuche warns of a “de-democratization” in the infirmaries: “The tendency to say: none of this is any longer our concern.” In which, according to polls in eastern Germany, the AfD is already the strongest party in federal elections, the prospects are bleak.