German minister defends CO2 cut plan

摘要

Germany’s economy and energy ministry plans to keep its proposed system to reduce CO2 emissions in the electricity sector in place beyond 2020 if it is implemented, and reiterated its position that the system will not lead to power plant closures. But the ministry concedes in a letter to leading CDU-CSU parliamentary group that it is open to discuss “adjustments” to the proposed system. And it is open to alternative proposals on how Germany can reach the target of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by 40pc by 2020 relative to 1990 levels as long as these alternatives have a lesser impact on wholesale power prices and the economy than the current proposal.