This deserves a serious answer.
Germany started in a terrible place for renewable energy action. It's not very windy, it's not sunny, it's quite densely populated and heavily industrialised.
Germany started in a terrible place for renewable energy action. It's not very windy, it's not sunny, it's quite densely populated and heavily industrialised.
https://twitter.com/isaboemeke/status/1332769445463293952
I remember my parents in the UK worrying about milk and mushrooms because of events in far-off Ukraine. I don't blame Germans for saying no to nuclear in the late 1980s-90s. It wasn't the right decision, but you can't exactly dismiss their fears as unreasonable.
Germany could have gone the climate denier path to protect its interests.
But it didn't. It tried - at substantial financial cost - to do something new and amazing: to run a modern economy on renewables. It's hard to overstress how ambitious that was in 2004.
But it didn't. It tried - at substantial financial cost - to do something new and amazing: to run a modern economy on renewables. It's hard to overstress how ambitious that was in 2004.
Today, it averages 48% renewables. The plan is to go further, to get to 100%, and we have no reason to think that plan will fail just because it isn't complete.
If a big, industrial, developed nation without much hydro can do that, there are few excuses for climate inaction.
If a big, industrial, developed nation without much hydro can do that, there are few excuses for climate inaction.
German leadership has been consistently in favour of international action, willing to set itself targets and supporting policy. It hasn't even gone protectionist (generally Germany is a pro-free-trade voice in the European Commission, albeit not for entirely altruistic reasons).
If Germany hadn't done that, the option of cheap renewables might not be on the table today. And however you feel about nuclear, the option of cheaper renewables is a good thing. So, I'll drink to German leadership, because I honestly can't believe how far it has brought us.
*Goes back to afternoon occupation of trying to adjust heatpump settings by reading the manual, which is of course in German*
Still a bloody difficult language though.
Still a bloody difficult language though.
Also, for anyone responding that Germans and German policy this last 20 years haven't been perfect: give yourself a golden star and congratulate yourself on your own consistently perfect decisions. Which - for me anyway - include doing Twitter on a Sunday, so there's a thing.
I am off to play with the two year old. She currently identifies as a bear and can play Jenga, hide-and-seek and a game of her own invention called "I Farted", which leads to literal roflmao.
I will have an alcoholic drink.
I will have an alcoholic drink.
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