Atomic fission was once the future in Germany. That was before the emergence, in the mid-1970s, of the world’s most enduring anti-nuclear movement
Then came the downer. Just before midnight on December 31st, after months of dithering, the European Commission circulated a draft energy “taxonomy” that labelled natural gas and nuclear fission as sustainable, with conditions. The taxonomy, which must be finalised and then approved by the. But if the aim was to please everyone by finding room for all but the dirtiest fuels, it failed in Germany.
. Unlike environmental groups in some other countries, says Jan-Henrik Meyer at the Max Planck Institute for Legal History and Legal Theory, Germany’s Greens emerged directly from the anti-nuclear campaign. Its precepts guided their actions in state parliaments as well as the national one, culminating in a decision by an-Green coalition in 2000 to abandon nuclear for good. In 2010 Angela Merkel partially reversed that decision.
Many Germans deny that scrapping nuclear has made emissions higher than they would otherwise have been. Emissions from power generation have fallen, even as nuclear plants have closed. Moreover, they argue, renewables would not have grown so quickly had nuclear been preserved. “There was a clear connection between the exit from nuclear and the entry of renewables,” says Simon Müller, Germany director at Agora Energiewende, a think-tank.
Germany is unlikely to try to overturn the commission’s proposals, which would require a big majority ofcountries. But it will not be deflected from its anti-nuclear, pro-gas course: the commission has no direct say in countries’ energy choices. As theworks on laws to realise its ambition to go carbon-free by 2050, and fears of a winter energy crunch grow, these new-year spats herald bigger rows.
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