"German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that the plan “combines independence, affordability and climate protection…It is not just extreme weather events around the world that demonstrate how urgently we need to do more to protect the climate,” he said. “If the situation in the Strait of Hormuz determines whether people can still afford their daily commute to work, that is not a good state of affairs.”
If there’s been an upside to the Middle East War, it’s that it’s been a giant advertisement for renewable energy. Not just cheaper, cleaner, & better, crucially it means energy-independence, too.
Smart move by Germany. Their industrial and manufacturing base is getting clobbered by China because they stuck with the dying fossil fuel paradigm for too long. Every other EU nation has committed to ending fossil fuel use, hopefully this further accelerates their efforts, too.
Actually renewables have accounted for 58% of Germany’s electric usage so far in 2026. That’s five times what it was twenty years ago.
Edit: source
Sure is. how do they heat their homes? How much natural gas do they burn through a year as a country? Way to cherry pick only electrical consumption. We both showed valid statistics.
Electrification is the key to replacing natural gas for heat. But there’s no point in doing that until the grid is renewable. Burning natural gas in a home is about twice as efficient as using a power plant and then powering a heater.
So yes, the grid isn’t the full picture, and I shouldn’t have put the two statistics together like they contradict one another, but Germany is making very rapid progress in the places they need to.