What the BBC described as “Germany’s dirty secret” is really not much of a secret at all. Most school children in Germany know that lignite, a form of coal, is still being mined across the country. That’s because in Germany, discussions about energy are factual, balanced and open. We know the score. The British public are deprived of such an honest debate. The press stir up hysteria about climate change and about the “vast” subsidies being paid for renewables whilst neglecting to mention the subsidies fossil fuels and nuclear power plants receive – not to mention the terrible impact these industries have on wildlife and the environment and the deadly affect they are having on human existence.
The truth about the lignite story is that there really is no story to tell. The minor upturn in coal production right at the end of the graph featured in the BBC’s article ignores the fact that Germany’s CO2 emissions have fallen by some 20% since 1990 and that German energy consumption has been falling for the past two decades. Germany is, as the article states in its opening, very much still a “world leader” in the battle to reduce emissions. The article fails to mention the fact that between 2002 and 2012 Germany installed enough capacity from renewables to increase electricity supply by over 92 terawatt hours to 136TWh – equivalent to over one-third of Britain’s electricity needs for one year.
It isn’t just Germany that is leaving Britain behind in renewable energy production. Over the last 10 years enough renewable energy sources have been installed in Spain to generate 50% of the country’s electricity needs and they are now looking to upscale that figure to 100% by 2020. Not only is this pumping cleaner energy into Spanish homes but this growing industry has also provided a buffer against the impacts of the economic crisis – a lesson there for a certain Mr. Osborne.
Now to put this in the British perspective. In 2012 all nuclear reactors in this country produced some 64TWh of electricity and received vast subsidies in the process. Rather than talk about “Germany’s dirty secret” we could so easily be talking about “the nuclear industry’s dirty secret”. The money that has been wasted on new plants that produce no more than a trickle of energy has been widely discussed in Germany but never in Britain. Alternatively we could speak of “fracking’s dirty secret” and discuss the extremely high levels of methane this process of gas extraction pumps into the atmosphere or how it pollutes local water supplies.
There is cause for some hope, however. A recent comment piece in the Telegraph talked about how investment in solar energy could soon overtake the money being pumped into fossil fuels and it is undoubtedly government funding and leadership that is needed. It was this major investment initiated by the German Green Party between 1998 and 2005 that kick-started a whole new energy sector and created millions of jobs and no emission energy.
Though such stories are encouraging, we have to keep challenging world governments to invest in energy supplies that have longevity and will protect the environment and humans alike. The world is not flat, we can fly to the moon. There are so many possibilities out there – all we need is the political will to make them a reality.
Jurgen Huber, Co-Chair of West Central London Green Party