Germany's opposition Green party unveiled Monday a 10-point plan to end electricity generation from coal within 20 years, a key plank of its campaign heading into next year's general elections. "We aim to introduce the end of the coal era in Germany, irreversibly and reliably in the coming parliamentary term," running to 2021, Green lawmakers wrote in the proposal, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
As the smallest party represented in parliament, the Greens have been mooted as a potential kingmaker to Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives after the general election expected in September or October 2017. Coal currently accounts for 40 percent of the energy mix in Europe's top economy and has been the focus of determined protests by environmental activists in recent years.
Germany has not moved decisively away from coal even as it has trumpeted its "Energiewende" (energy transition) policy of ditching nuclear - a core Green demand finally accepted by Merkel in 2011 after the Fukushima disaster - and subsidising renewables. Sticking with coal has kept CO2 emissions high even as Germany took a leading role in pushing for the Paris climate accords last year.