Yeah but seems that no one gives a fuck. US and China are still the greatest polluters and don’t seem to care, Europe besides still seeming to want to do something, is not ready to press this both especially now with the Ukraine war so, yeah, we are pretty fucked up.
The US passed the largest climate bill in human history last fall, Europe is now getting a plurality of its energy from carbon-free sources (and growing rapidly), and China’s continuing to make progress too. And the reason that’s all happening is because of all the people who care, who’ve been pushing for change this past decade.
It’s not enough, but it’s a huge step in the right direction-- and it’s proof we can accomplish even more if we keep standing together.
Germany is building coal plants, pretty much the rest of Europe is transitioning away from fossil fuels at a breakneck pace.
(And to be fair, Germany’s also investing heavily in clean energy and has made huge progress on that front. They just made the incredibly stupid decision to shut down their remaining nuclear plants before they had enough clean energy sources to make up for the power difference, which is why they’re temporarily using coal as a stopgap.)
Just checked: Apparently the last one got finished 2020, an 1GW block in Datteln.
The newest list I could find is from the BUND, 2016, the Datteln one is the only one that got built. If there were more projects the BUND would definitely have kept updating that list, they’re tree-huggers, of course they would.
And frankly speaking a certain number of new plants were sensible even with the end of the technology already being a decided thing: Old ones are way less efficient than new ones so it’s better to have the last ones to shut down be highly efficient ones, producing more energy for the CO2 they emit.
My bad, I mixed it up with them increasing coal consumption / expanding existing coal mines. The overall point stands though that even as stupid as shutting down all the nuclear plants was, Germany’s still on a good path long-term when it comes to fighting climate change-- and the rest of Europe is making impressive progress, too.
Germany “making progress in investing in clean energy” is the understatement of the milennium. Without the cash injection brought about by the German feed-in tariffs wind and solar still would be completely uncompetitive instead of (in many circumstances) cheaper than fossil and nuclear.
And, then, well, we had 16 years of a conservative government trying their darnest to fuck up the transition.
The only thing that the black-yellow coalition really screwed up completely was the extension of the exemptions from the EEG.
And allowing Bavaria to de facto outlaw wind energy. And not building nearly enough transportation capacity, especially north-south. Killing the domestic solar industry (though that’s more of a “we don’t need to jobs” issue, China is producing plenty of panels). Not doing nearly enough on the consumption side, *broadly gestures at the state of rail infrastructure*. Allowing coal plants to operate way longer than necessary. The list is quite long indeed, following the general scheme of “let’s listen to BMW and huff truck exhaust instead of listening to MunichRe telling us about god’s next great flood and them being unable to back the damages”.
The AusglMechV came 10 years after the EEG was passed, and yes legislation often needs adjustment it just so happened that it was passed by Red-Green and adjusted by Black-Yellow because that’s who was in government when it was done.
What I was specifically talking about was the EEG pushing enough money into the industry to get it up and running, bringing down the price in terms of Euro/MW drastically. It’s no coincidence that what 15 years or so into the EEG you saw windmills sprouting in countries without comparable laws: They had become price-competitive.
The basic main part of the EEG had to be shouldered by the “normal” population.
Electricity being expensive for the consumer was part of the plan to induce demand for more efficient fridges etc. Yeah the Greens aren’t a particularly left party they don’t care about chips falling where they happen to fall. A PDS/Green government wouldn’t have used market regulation but direct state action and spent probably about as much, just from more equitable sources.
that doesn’t seem right at all? I mean progress is slow because things in Europe and the US are much less centralized. But just gaving a look and compare between Europe and the US, and other countries should make you understand that things are just better. Granted not good enough but nothing is gonna happen instantly. China is another thing.
Yeah but seems that no one gives a fuck. US and China are still the greatest polluters and don’t seem to care, Europe besides still seeming to want to do something, is not ready to press this both especially now with the Ukraine war so, yeah, we are pretty fucked up.
The US passed the largest climate bill in human history last fall, Europe is now getting a plurality of its energy from carbon-free sources (and growing rapidly), and China’s continuing to make progress too. And the reason that’s all happening is because of all the people who care, who’ve been pushing for change this past decade.
It’s not enough, but it’s a huge step in the right direction-- and it’s proof we can accomplish even more if we keep standing together.
Europe is building coal plants rn
Germany is building coal plants, pretty much the rest of Europe is transitioning away from fossil fuels at a breakneck pace.
(And to be fair, Germany’s also investing heavily in clean energy and has made huge progress on that front. They just made the incredibly stupid decision to shut down their remaining nuclear plants before they had enough clean energy sources to make up for the power difference, which is why they’re temporarily using coal as a stopgap.)
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Just checked: Apparently the last one got finished 2020, an 1GW block in Datteln.
The newest list I could find is from the BUND, 2016, the Datteln one is the only one that got built. If there were more projects the BUND would definitely have kept updating that list, they’re tree-huggers, of course they would.
And frankly speaking a certain number of new plants were sensible even with the end of the technology already being a decided thing: Old ones are way less efficient than new ones so it’s better to have the last ones to shut down be highly efficient ones, producing more energy for the CO2 they emit.
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My bad, I mixed it up with them increasing coal consumption / expanding existing coal mines. The overall point stands though that even as stupid as shutting down all the nuclear plants was, Germany’s still on a good path long-term when it comes to fighting climate change-- and the rest of Europe is making impressive progress, too.
Germany “making progress in investing in clean energy” is the understatement of the milennium. Without the cash injection brought about by the German feed-in tariffs wind and solar still would be completely uncompetitive instead of (in many circumstances) cheaper than fossil and nuclear.
And, then, well, we had 16 years of a conservative government trying their darnest to fuck up the transition.
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And allowing Bavaria to de facto outlaw wind energy. And not building nearly enough transportation capacity, especially north-south. Killing the domestic solar industry (though that’s more of a “we don’t need to jobs” issue, China is producing plenty of panels). Not doing nearly enough on the consumption side, *broadly gestures at the state of rail infrastructure*. Allowing coal plants to operate way longer than necessary. The list is quite long indeed, following the general scheme of “let’s listen to BMW and huff truck exhaust instead of listening to MunichRe telling us about god’s next great flood and them being unable to back the damages”.
The AusglMechV came 10 years after the EEG was passed, and yes legislation often needs adjustment it just so happened that it was passed by Red-Green and adjusted by Black-Yellow because that’s who was in government when it was done.
What I was specifically talking about was the EEG pushing enough money into the industry to get it up and running, bringing down the price in terms of Euro/MW drastically. It’s no coincidence that what 15 years or so into the EEG you saw windmills sprouting in countries without comparable laws: They had become price-competitive.
Electricity being expensive for the consumer was part of the plan to induce demand for more efficient fridges etc. Yeah the Greens aren’t a particularly left party they don’t care about chips falling where they happen to fall. A PDS/Green government wouldn’t have used market regulation but direct state action and spent probably about as much, just from more equitable sources.
I just forgot this, this is just the top of the cake
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that doesn’t seem right at all? I mean progress is slow because things in Europe and the US are much less centralized. But just gaving a look and compare between Europe and the US, and other countries should make you understand that things are just better. Granted not good enough but nothing is gonna happen instantly. China is another thing.