Climate protection projects: Why Habeck is suddenly picking up the pace

With the Russian attack on Ukraine, Economics Minister Habeck had to revise his agenda. Security of supply suddenly came first. Now he wants to get back to the ambitious climate targets.

This is probably not how Robert Habeck imagined the energy transition. As Economics and Climate Protection Minister, he started with a clear goal: to get away from fossil fuels – and in a hurry. The goal was climate neutrality by 2045.

Then Russia invaded Ukraine and turned off the gas tap – and a completely different kind of energy transition began. Habeck put decommissioned coal-fired power plants back on line, had liquid gas terminals built in record time and bowed to the Minister of Trade in Qatar – in the hope of natural gas deals, um to secure the supply in this country.

“It was a chain of difficult decisions,” Habeck says ARD Capital Studio. “Actually, the decision I find most problematic is turning coal power plants back on line. Because that will undoubtedly fuel the other crisis of our time, global warming. That was the right decision, I would say. But of course a bitter decision.”

Crisis mode instead of energy transition

Many climate activists see things very differently. The name Lützerath became synonymous with the dispute over the use of coal. The place that had to go so that lignite could continue to be mined in the Rhenish mining area. Habeck points out that the deal with the energy company RWE is good for climate protection. Although RWE can burn more coal in the short term, it will take the coal piles in NRW off the grid as early as 2030 – eight years earlier than planned. That could not prevent the protests in Lützerath.

For Habeck, 2022 was a year of crisis mode instead of the planned energy transition. Now, in 2023, Habeck wants to get back to the start. Drive forward the green conversion of the energy supply and the economy. And with a view to overcoming the crisis, also picking up the pace.

“There is a different moral from the year 2022: Germany has shown in a great joint effort how strong we can be if we want it,” said Habeck. “If we take over this now to also combat global warming, then we will quickly recoup the additional CO2 emissions in the next few years.”

Habeck wants to strengthen the role of the state

Habeck now wants to transfer the much-vaunted “LNG speed” to the green energy transition. Last year he launched a series of acceleration measures: for faster approval procedures, for example through simplified environmental assessments, with specifications for the federal states on how much land they have to make available for wind power.

The expansion of renewables is now in the “overriding public interest”, which makes objections from citizens less promising. In addition, there are ambitious targets for the construction of wind turbines, offshore wind farms and solar systems. The aim is now to triple the pace of expansion.

Habeck not only wants to transfer the pace of the crisis, but also permanently strengthen the role of the state. He should become an important industrial policy actor and tax a lot of money in order to support the production of wind turbines and photovoltaics in Germany on the one hand and to promote the climate-friendly conversion of the steel or cement industry on the other. In addition, there are considerations in the Ministry of Economics that the state should participate in the development of a hydrogen network.

Habeck describes this with terms such as “transformative supply policy” or “changed market design”. However, critics fear that Habeck’s industrial policy will result in permanent subsidies running into the billions.

Changed environment also in the EU

From the point of view of the climate and energy policy spokesman for the Union faction, Andreas Jung, Habeck’s green industrial policy is too dirigiste: “For a climate-neutral industrial country, we need to ramp up innovation and not a race for subsidies. That’s why we have to focus on research and development, a reform of corporate taxes, including competitive ones Energy prices and an initiative for skilled workers. You should first and foremost rely on market forces and not on government intervention.”

But also at EU level, the Green Deal and the associated industrial strategy aim to advance the energy transition and the restructuring of the economy through subsidies and regulation – for example with the decision not to allow any new combustion cars in the EU from 2035. And Europe is struggling to find an answer to the US Inflation Reduction Act, which could use a lot of money to withdraw climate-friendly investments from the EU. There is therefore still a threat of a transatlantic subsidy race for climate-friendly industries.

The changed environment suits Habeck perfectly. For him, the crisis mode of 2022 could become a blueprint for the energy transition: driving the conversion forward with funding and speed. First a step back – but then two steps forward.