There is no shortage of money and big words in the Rhenish lignite mining district. “We will make this region an international pioneer for climate protection,” says North Rhine-Westphalia’s Minister of Economic Affairs, Andreas Pinkwart. That sounds ambitious, as the area between Cologne and Aachen has so far been known primarily for huge open-cast mining holes, climate-damaging power plants and the dispute over the Hambach Forest.
One thing is certain: Germany wants to take the last coal kilns off the grid by 2038 at the latest, and the operator RWE has already shut down the first blocks in the Rhineland. The new federal government wants to “ideally bring this phase out to 2030”, so it is in the coalition agreement. The previous government had already promised the affected areas, employees and energy companies subsidies or compensation in the billions.
Shortly before Christmas it became clear what worries an early exit would cause in Europe’s largest lignite mining area. Municipalities such as the Aachen city region, together with chambers of industry and commerce, submitted a critical position paper to the federal and state governments.
Those 14.8 billion euros that the federal government promised the Rheinische Revier alone should not only have an effect “when jobs have already been lost,” warn the signatories, “and the young and educated people have started exploring the region to leave”. This is already tricky enough with the end date of 2038. “If the exit were brought forward again, we would be very concerned about the future of our region.” In the Rhineland, around 9,000 jobs are still directly linked to lignite, plus a few thousand employees at service providers and suppliers.
Local authorities complain that it takes ten years to develop a new industrial park
North Rhine-Westphalia has already distributed the money to certain areas of focus. For example, almost three billion euros should flow into transport routes and a good 1.5 billion euros into hydrogen projects. The municipalities complain that the results have so far been sobering. “The positive effects of the structural change in the Rheinische Revier are currently not visible on site.” The federal government, it says in the paper, is investing primarily in areas such as infrastructure, “in which this has always been possible”. On the other hand, companies have hardly any access to funding because the federal government is interpreting state aid law too strictly. Yet companies in particular could create new jobs.
The Federal Ministry of Economics cannot understand the criticism “in general terms”, as it replies when asked. Funding programs for the coal regions have “got off to a very successful start,” according to the new minister, Robert Habeck, but there are constitutional limits. Accordingly, the aid may not finance companies directly, but only “business-related infrastructure”, research or services of general interest. Issues related to the right to additional aid are still being clarified with the Commission in Brussels.
However, the municipalities also report practical problems, for example when designating new areas. “At the current pace, the development of an industrial park from the first planning to the settlement takes up to ten years”, they complain: “much too late” to lure companies into the district in time to phase out coal.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs in Düsseldorf praised improvement upon request: They are currently strengthening authorities such as the Cologne District Government, which have to approve many projects, with additional employees. The state is also holding out the prospect of a so-called special planning zone in the district, so that municipalities can identify economic areas more quickly in the future, companies can settle in as unbureaucratically as possible and renewable energies can expand more quickly. For example, new traffic routes should be ready for operation “this decade”. And up to 50 structural change managers are to relieve the municipalities from now on.
A lot of research funding, little hope for non-academics, says the DGB
Meanwhile, concrete hope rests on the first initiatives that have received millions in funding from the federal and state governments: for example, a platform at Forschungszentrum Jülich that is working on producing alternative fuels or chemicals from green electricity and CO₂ emissions from industry. Or at an innovation center in Meerbusch near Düsseldorf, which is intended to attract international start-ups to the area.
A study that the state commissioned from the Institute of German Economics (IW) dares to take a more abstract look into the hopefully better future. In it, the researchers forecast the economic impetus that the many billions in funding in the Rhineland could trigger. For this purpose, the IW used statistical empirical values from other regions as well.
The result: In the most likely scenario, almost 27,000 new jobs could be created in the area by 2038. The IW takes into account employment that is initially created in construction, for example, and subsequently when companies use new, subsidized machines, for example. “It can be possible to more than compensate for the loss of added value and employment,” concludes Minister Pinkwart. “A coal phase-out in 2030 can also be successfully cushioned in this way.”
The researchers see an advantage in the fact that large areas of more than 100 hectares can be made available for new purposes in the area. “In West Germany there are hardly any more large industrial areas,” says Hanno Kempermann, who heads the Sectors and Regions division at IW Consult. “This area potential should really be used to create something big here.” Brandenburg provides an example with the new Tesla factory in Grünheide, which is of course controversial among environmental associations.
The German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) regards the structural change in the Rhenish Revier with mixed feelings. “Furthermore, the process is very much geared towards promoting science,” says Anja Weber, Chairwoman of the DGB in North Rhine-Westphalia. “There is nothing wrong with that in itself.” According to the trade unionist, more new jobs are needed, even for people without a university degree. Weber’s demand is similar to that of the municipalities: “First create new jobs before the old ones are dismantled.”