International News
Without sacking a single worker, Germany is shutting down its coal industry for good.
Germany has struck a deal to retire its remaining brown coal mines and power plants.
Deep underground in Germany’s Ruhr valley, Uwe Seeger plunges a drill into the black earth just as thousands of coal miners in this region have done before him.
“My grandpa did it like this, we used it like this to destroy the big stones,” he tells Foreign Correspondent.Black coal mines like this one in Essen, which opened its first shaft in 1875, once fired the furnaces that made Germany the economic powerhouse of Europe.But this is no longer a working mine — it’s a museum, set up by Mr Seeger and some other former miners to show tourists how life once was in Germany’s western industrial heartland.That’s because Germany shut down its last black coal mine in 2018.Miners were offered a new job or an early retirement and a centuries-old way of life came to a sudden end.
But Germany is not looking back. A nation that built its fortunes on coal has decided the fossil fuel’s days are numbered.As Australia looks to expand coal exports and build new mines, like Adani’s proposed Carmichael project, Europe’s biggest economy is phasing out its entire coal industry for good.
he successful closure of the black coal industry is now providing a blueprint for how to finish the job.Under what’s known as the Coal Compromise, struck in January 2019, the rest of Germany’s coal industry will soon start retiring their mines and power plants.Corporations have been given nearly two decades to completely shut down and the Government has promised 40 billion euros ($65 billion) to coal regions to ease the transition.This time around the upheaval will largely be felt on the other side of Germany from the Ruhr, where brown coal has provided an economic lifeline for many former East German towns since the collapse of communism.
Pleading for enough time
The gathering protests have angered communities like Spremberg. Once part of the old communist state of East Germany, Lusatia’s textile industry collapsed after the fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification in 1989.
Yet most coal workers support the Coal Compromise as the best hope for the region in dealing with coal’s inevitable demise.Ms Herntier was part of the commission that formulated the Coal Compromise and fought hard for a 2038 exit to allow her community time and money to adapt.The mayor remains optimistic the 40 billion euros will create industries to replace coal jobs. Lusatia is already becoming a hub for renewable energy, with solar fields and wind turbines sprouting up.They are even hoping to attract tourists. Disused mines are flooded to form artificial lakes and developers are surrounding them with houseboats, restaurants and cycling tracks.
A fragile compromise
The next day, Mr Hofinger and hundreds of Ende Gelaende activists break through police lines and snake through a forest under the cover of smoke flares. They storm a giant coal mine forcing it to close.Other activist groups target mines, power stations and railway crossings. For 10 hours, they bring Lusatia’s coal industry to a standstill.
Coal extraction and burning soon resumes but the activists’ message is clear: coal is going to end, so Germany should end it now.But the Government is also depending on a long transition period to carry the support of coal mining communities.
