Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) proposes that an independent commission of experts decide on a further extension of the lifespan of the three nuclear power plants.

The minister contradicted the Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD), who had previously called for an end to the debate.

"We don't need any political arguments or dogmatism now, we need a professional answer to the question of how we can ensure a stable and affordable energy supply and at the same time achieve our climate protection goals," he told the FAZ. "If we don't want to discuss it politically, then we have to clarify it scientifically.”

Corinna Budras

Business correspondent in Berlin.

  • Follow I follow

In doing so, Wissing wants to revive a debate within the coalition that the Chancellor initially ended last autumn with a word of power.

Accordingly, the three remaining nuclear power plants will go offline in mid-April.

This worries Wissing, because his department will only be able to meet the statutory climate protection goals with many more electric cars.

The carbon footprint of e-cars is deteriorating

According to calculations by the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), the CO2 balance of electric cars also deteriorates significantly when the nuclear power plants are switched off and, in addition to electricity from wind power and solar systems, primarily coal-based electricity is used for charging.

"In the transport sector, we can't do anything to protect the climate with electromobility if we use coal-fired electricity for charging," says Wissing.

“We are currently organizing the ramp-up of electromobility.

If people realize that e-cars are not only expensive, but also bad for the climate, the transformation will become a fiasco.”

Wissing criticized the fact that Germany had not progressed quickly enough with the expansion of renewable energies.

"We can't just opt ​​for coal as a bridging technology now, because that's the only way that we haven't blocked.

That doesn’t fit with climate protection.”

The SPD politician Bas had cited "high risks" of nuclear power with reference to France and told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung: "Let's not fool ourselves: if we were to buy new fuel rods now, the old nuclear power plants might still run for 20 years." The energy transition had been blocked for far too long "because we relied on Putin's cheap gas and oil".

A further extension of the term "would slow down the necessary transformation again".