Germany Pledges for the First Time to Phase Out Coal, Oil and Gas

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Germany has long promised to become climate neutral. Now it is saying how: without fossil fuels. The German government has just committed for the first time to an explicit phaseout of coal, oil and gas by 2045. Previous pledges covered only “carbon neutrality,” but the new road map spells out a “transition away” from fossil fuels in black and white, The Guardian reports. And it comes in the middle of a fierce debate over the country’s green policies.

What the Road Map Says

The plan was presented by Carsten Schneider, the environment minister. The main points:

• Electricity: The share of renewables in power generation is to rise from about 55 percent today to 80 percent by 2030. That requires an additional 12 gigawatts of onshore wind and a solar target of 215 gigawatts by 2030.
• Coal: The coal exit by 2038 at the latest was reaffirmed, with the option of bringing it forward to 2035.
• Methane: Emissions of the greenhouse gas, which is about 80 times more potent than CO₂, are to fall 30 percent by 2030, in line with the global methane pledge of 2021.
• Goal: By 2045, Germany is to be climate neutral and free of fossil fuels.

One figure from the environment ministry, cited by Solarserver, shows the scale of the task: in 2024, fossil fuels still covered 65 percent of Germany’s energy consumption, and imports cost about €76 billion. “We must overcome the dependency on fossil energies, and we can overcome it,” Mr. Schneider said. The road map, he added, is an economic strategy as much as a climate strategy.

Praise, With Reservations

Climate campaigners see progress, but also contradictions. Andreas Sieber of 350.org called the plan a “notable shift” because the fossil fuel phaseout is now an explicit goal. At the same time, he criticized the economics and energy ministry for pushing the expansion of gas plants: “The economic ministry keeps sabotaging the transition away from fossil fuels.”

Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s former climate envoy, called for faster electrification of transport and heating: “A road map is only the starting line.” The environmental group Deutsche Umwelthilfe pointed out that the government is at the same time working to overturn the E.U. ban on new combustion engine cars from 2035.

The fight over heat pumps shows how contested the issue is. After the heating law of 2023, the far-right Alternative für Deutschland made it a campaign issue, and the rules were watered down earlier this year. Even so, heat pumps now make up about half of all new home heating systems.

Third Major Industrial Nation

Germany is the third major industrialized country to publish such a road map, after France and the Netherlands. All participants at an international conference in Colombia in April had committed to doing so. Britain, which takes over the G20 presidency in December, has yet to publish its plan. So has Austria, which has set itself the goal of climate neutrality by 2040.