Germany: The Coal War | People and Power

A country that has relied on coal as an energy source for hundreds of years has had enough.
Germany has declared the industry must end.
The country's last black coal mines were closed in 2018, and now Chancellor Angela Merkel's administration has decided to phase out all remaining brown coal mines and coal-fired power plants.
Highly polluting and a major source of carbon emissions, most of the latter are in the east of the country, lingering remnants of the communist era. Under what's called the Coal Compromise, the government, mining and energy companies and unions have all agreed to phase out the industry by 2038 in return for a $60bn injection of government funds.
But the pact is controversial. While everyone accepts the industry's demise is inevitable, there's still fierce disagreement about the pace of change. Tens of thousands of people in eastern Germany still rely, directly or indirectly, on coal for their livelihoods, and community leaders have only agreed to a deal that will allow them time to readjust and provides funds to kick-start replacement industries.
But environmentalists are demanding coal's immediate end, which they say is necessary if Germany is to honour its commitments under the 2015 Paris Agreement.
"We don't have any time to waste. We can't wait another 18 years," says Daniel Hofinger, part of a newly formed direct action movement now putting pressure on the government to act faster. With both sides digging in their heels, battle lines have been drawn.
In a film that says much about the challenges the world must make to deal with climate change, reporter Eric Campbell travelled to Lusatia in the former East Germany, as a mass protest action was about to get under way.
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[@dsmdsmarchief1660]

Those kids cannot calculate!, they do not understand that you first have to create enough other reliable electricity production and after that one can close down a brown coal power plant.

[@Project2457official]

Yes, but we already have nuclear, which is the reliable energy source. The problem is uninformed public opinion is shutting down nuclear plants when they are clearly superior and beneficial to the environment. Coal has to go...now. Or else we will continue taking on more and more climate debt.

[@libertysprings2244]

It is more complicated than it seems because stopping fossil fuels locally just causes more imports of fossil fuels from other countries. For example California restricts local oil drilling but imports a lot of oil from Saudi Arabia and Canada. They would have to ban imports as well to make any real change. Otherwise the problem just moves around.

[@juanblanco7594]

All these people who hated coal in 2020...will you use coal to stay alive in winter of 2022/3?

[@ericrobinson7184]

Good for these young people, they got their priorities straight, we need a billion more like them. Power to the People

[@granterickson7588]

They just shifted their carbon production from local to Russia and in doing that crated a weaker country. Enjoy :)

[@davemyers4466]

Thank you.

[@garylines5755]

Windmills take a lot of copper to install .I didn't know Germany had copper mines . Not to mention all the steel , chemical plants . Cement factories , roads , heavy equipment . These bird killing monstrosities don't just grow out of the ground . Without government subsidiaries they are not economic . Maybe people should just use less .

[@karlsonkopfspalter3127]

it´s actually the other way round. Germany subsidises coal because it´s not economic. Try to keep up, please

[@freddiebozwell7049]

I bet they have the latest I phone from China though!

[@Manish_Kumar_Singh]

People protesting should set an example by not using electricity from coal. Work hard and set your own personal solar panel + little wind-mill. It's tough but better than this nonsense of storming a barren coal pit, not effective either.

[@Project2457official]

Well that is a dumb response. "Make your own power" Actually people NEED electricity in the modern day to live...woah what? And guess what, they want renewable electricity that isn't emitting all the particulate matter possible and giving people lung cancer and a plethora of health detriments.

[@andrebertolini5914]

First world problems looks so silly

[@codybayansands7855]

Romans 13:8 [ Love Fulfills the Law ] Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. john 13:34, matthew 22: 37-40 mohamed was a man why do we listen to his reachings???

[@davidmcclellan9495]

Coal use it till its gone then move on

[@phoque121]

The UK is a small country, and it took them 300 years to use most of their coal (it's not even all of their coal: if they digged deeper, they still would find some more). Now imagine all the gigantic unexplored reserves that remain in other places 😬

[@Project2457official]

This is a stupid take. We need nuclear.