German officials defended the country’s renewable energy record after Paris criticised Berlin for importing nuclear energy from France following alleged shortages despite rejecting EU legislation on nuclear energy.
France and Germany have repeatedly clashed over the status of nuclear energy in the EU energy ecosystem, with France relying heavily on nuclear, viewing it as a sustainable energy source, while Germany, which disconnected from its grid this year, does not.
Seemingly throwing fuel onto the fire, French Energy Minister Agnès Pannier-Runacher called out Germany’s double standards on Thursday.
“It’s a contradiction to massively import French nuclear energy while rejecting every piece of EU legislation that recognises the value of nuclear as a low-carbon energy source,” Pannier-Runacher told Handelsblatt.
Officials of the German coalition were heavily opposed to her take and tried to turn the tables.
“This is twisting the facts,” Ingrid Nestle, the Greens’ speaker on energy affairs, told EURACTIV. “Germany had secured France’s supply in the last winter when many French nuclear plants weren’t available due to security issues,” she added.
A spokesperson of the German Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Action rejected the idea that Germany had to import energy due to shortages.
“Energy is produced where it’s cheapest within the European power market. Germany did not need to import electricity. Rather, we covered some of our electricity consumption with imports simply because it was cheaper,” the spokesperson told EURACTIV.
Similarly, the ruling SPD also defended Germany’s opposition to nuclear power.
“Renewable energies have a clear advantage over nuclear energy regarding the environmental burden, questions of security, and resource dependence. The [EU’s] legislative framework needs to mirror that,” Nina Scheer, the SPD’s speaker on energy affairs, told EURACTIV.
The feud on nuclear power was triggered after Germany opposed France’s push to have hydrogen produced from nuclear energy exempt from the EU’s planned renewable fuel targets, though a compromise deal that satisfied the French side was eventually struck last month.
The German officials also slammed Pannier-Rumacher’s claim that Germany had a “credibility problem in the fight against climate change” as it was considering the construction of new gas-fired power plants.
“Germany has committed to reaching climate neutrality by 2045,” the Ministry of Economic Affairs told EURACTIV in a dig at France’s plan to reach net-zero emissions only in 2050.
New gas plants would prospectively be powered by hydrogen, the ministry said, while the Greens pointed out that gas as a backup source was beneficial to reaching net zero.
(Nick Alipour | EURACTIV.de)
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Source: euractiv.com
