From the words of the green climate minister, one can read the agony that parts of his party suffer on the subject.

"We do not see approval of the new proposals of the EU Commission," said Robert Habeck, as soon as Brussels had officially announced its intention to declare nuclear power plants and gas turbines to be environmentally friendly technologies.

"Labeling nuclear energy of all things as sustainable is wrong with this high-risk technology."

Ralph Bollmann

Correspondent for economic policy and deputy head of economics and “Money & More” for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Berlin.

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Alexander Wulfers

Editor in the business department.

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As far as nuclear fission is concerned, the Vice Chancellor accurately expressed the position of the new federal government.

It becomes more difficult with natural gas, which is why Habeck formulated more cautiously here.

He merely described the Brussels plans to “include fossil gas in the taxonomy” as “questionable”, with “taxonomy” referring to the EU requirements as to which investments can still be considered sustainable in the future and which cannot.

Habeck wants to appear critical on this topic, but not really criticize it.

After all, he himself approved the coalition agreement with the SPD and FDP, which provides for a massive move into gas-based power generation as compensation for the exit from nuclear and coal-fired electricity.

"That requires the construction of modern gas-fired power plants," says the chapter on phasing out coal, and further: "We are accelerating the construction of modern gas-fired power plants."

At least 23 gigawatts are required

This is not a surprise for those familiar with the matter. Without the expansion of electricity from natural gas, a stable energy supply in Germany with a simultaneous strong reduction in CO2 emissions will be difficult in the next few years, that much is clear to all experts. For example, the Energy Economics Institute at the University of Cologne calculated in December that Germany would need additional gas-fired power plants with a capacity of 23 gigawatts in order to be able to phase out coal as early as 2030.

The Boston Consulting Group even calculates that 43 gigawatts will be needed to replace coal and nuclear power. The three German nuclear power plants still in operation each have an output of between 1.4 and 1.5 gigawatts. Even the largest currently planned gas-fired power plants will not contribute more, many are even significantly smaller. The Federal Network Agency expects an additional 3.6 gigawatts by 2024.

How much the gas is needed to ensure grid stability in a transition period after the nuclear and coal phase-out, that was also clear to the old federal government.

The fact that the former Chancellor Angela Merkel, despite all the criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin, stuck to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project so firmly, despite all the criticism of Russian President Vladimir Putin, had to do with the fact that she felt economically vulnerable at this point against the background of the energy transition.

The expansion is in full swing

What is new about the traffic light government is above all the openness with which it is driving the expansion of gas-fired power plants - even if that has apparently not reached parts of the green base, which is now protesting loudly against the Brussels plans.

Here, too, the energy transition creates new dependencies: The classification of the French nuclear plans as sustainable in terms of climate policy is, so to speak, the price that the supposed transition technology natural gas is also considered worthy of support in Germany.

The dutiful German contradictions are aimed primarily at a domestic audience; they are unlikely to stop the EU Commission's plans.