Merkel confronts energy industry with policy overhaul

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, Tuesday announced an ambitious plan to reduce greenhouse emissions by up to 40 percent by 2020, an initiative welcomed by environmentalists but harshly criticized by the energy industry, a powerful lobby.

Merkel also ruled out any change to the government’s nuclear policy before the next election, scheduled for 2009, that calls for the industry to be phased out in the next 12 years. As part of the emissions-cutting plan, Merkel said she intended to require energy producers to increase efficiency by 3 percent each year and improve conservation.
“This is about putting in place a long-term energy policy until 2020 for the environment that includes energy efficiency and energy security,” Merkel said after an energy summit meeting attended by the biggest electricity, natural gas and coal companies in Germany.

Merkel has made the reduction of greenhouse gases one of the hallmarks of her domestic and foreign policy, and conservation is a central theme in her party’s program, which was published Monday. The policy is part of Merkel’s efforts to shed the image of the Christian Democratic Union party as uninterested in green issues and to project a modern and centrist image more palatable to an environmentally conscious younger generation normally aligned with the Greens.

Sigmar Gabriel, the environment minister and a Social Democrat, said the current strong economic growth in Germany should allow the companies to invest in more energy efficiency equipment that could save consumers as much as €50 billion, or $68 billion, a year. Consumers in Germany pay among the highest energy costs in the European Union, according to the Federation of German Consumer Organizations.

Annette Schavan, the technology minister and a conservative, said the state would provide at least €1.5 billion for research and development projects to expand renewable energy.

International Herald Tribune