Germany’s prospective next government is stepping back from its predecessor’s ambition to speed up the country’s coal exit to 2030, sticking instead to the original 2038 deadline, reports Clean Energy Wire. Leaked negotiation documents have revealed that many climate and energy policies remain contested in the continuing coalition negotiations between conservatives and Social Democrats. Environmentalists have warned that the provisional agreements could result in a ‘massive step backwards’ for climate protection not only in Germany but also in Europe.

The prospective new coalition government does not wish to pursue the outgoing government’s aspiration to pull the country’s coal exit forward to 2030 from the official 2038 deadline. In leaked documents summarising provisional agreements between the conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the Social Democrats (SPD), the parties said ‘we are sticking to the agreed phase-out path for lignite-based electricity generation by 2038 at the latest.’ The 2030 date is not mentioned in the provisional agreements.

The conservatives and the SPD are in the middle of formal coalition negotiations, and the leaked paper summarised preliminary agreements reached in the first round of talks, which will now be discussed in more detail by senior party leaders in the ‘core negotiating group’, which could still result in major changes. Many of the proposals also still depend on financing.

The draft texts agreed in multiple topic-specific working groups – which include climate and energy and transport, infrastructure and construction – are meant to form the basis for a formal coalition agreement, which the parties aim to present in April or May at the latest.

The draft shows that the parties plan to remain committed to Germany’s climate targets, including the goal of making the entire country climate neutral by 2045. However, the document also revealed that many issues – including the introduction of a speed limit, the dismantling of decommissioned nuclear power plants, as well as the use of carbon capture in all industrial sectors ­ remain contentious.

In a first round of exploratory coalition talks, which preceded the current formal negotiations, the parties had already agreed on expanding renewables, reducing electricity prices for industry and households, and building 20 GW of gas-fired power plants to serve as backup capacity in an electricity system based on renewables.

A factsheet on the results of the exploratory talks can be seen here.