{"id":238927,"date":"2025-10-20T16:06:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:06:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/238927\/"},"modified":"2025-10-20T16:06:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T16:06:07","slug":"a-punch-in-the-face-germanys-dash-for-gas-raises-questions-over-climate-targets-fossil-fuels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/238927\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A punch in the face\u2019: Germany\u2019s dash for gas raises questions over climate targets | Fossil fuels"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peering out on a clear day from the windswept dunes that dapple the north-western tip of Germany<\/a>, on a gull-shaped island in the Wadden Sea nature reserve, tourists hoping to spot seals may soon see a dark metal platform rise out of the water.<\/p>\n

The planned structure is one of several fossil fuel projects that Germany is pushing to build despite a legal deadline to stop polluting the atmosphere with carbon emissions in 20 years\u2019 time. The joint Dutch-German venture, which received the green light from regional authorities last month, seeks to extract 13bn cubic metres of gas from just outside a protected area at the marine border between the two countries.<\/p>\n

Campaigners have criticised the project because it will mean drill for gas more than four years after the International Energy<\/a> Agency warned that new oil and gas development was incompatible with its roadmap to stop the planet heating by 1.5C (2.7F). It has also frustrated residents of Borkum, the island closest to the platform, which is striving to end its own reliance on the fuel for heating by 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been seen as a punch in the face,\u201d said J\u00fcrgen Akkermann, the island\u2019s independent mayor, who is working on the geothermal energy plans. \u201cYou\u2019re taking care of it, you\u2019re engaged \u2013 and then you get a gas platform shoved in front of your nose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Europe\u2019s largest economy raced to find new gas providers after Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, ramping up piped supplies from Norway and building liquefied natural gas terminals at speed to import LNG from the US and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

More quietly, it has also sought to drill for more at home. This summer, a court cleared the way for an important but contested cable for the project in Borkum, Lower Saxony, while drilling began at a separate test site in Bavaria. A third gas extraction project in Brandenburg has been delayed after state officials viewed the plans as being too vague to approve.<\/p>\n

Activists say the dash for gas has sped up since a coalition of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union and centre-left Social Democratic party took office in April. The new economy minister, Katherina Reiche \u2013 a former lobbyist for utility companies who until May was the CEO of Westenergie, a subsidiary of E.ON \u2013 is pushing to build 20 gigawatts of gas-fired power plants by 2030, while calling for a \u201creality check\u201d on Germany\u2019s renewable energy plans.<\/p>\n

The economy minister, Katherina Reiche, stands by Germany\u2019s commitment to climate neutrality by 2045, her ministry said. Photograph: dts News Agency Germany\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

Carla Reemtsma, a climate activist with Fridays for Future, said there had been \u201csome wriggle room\u201d under the last government\u2019s Green party-led economy ministry but that the new coalition was \u201cpushing for gas everywhere\u201d. The field near Borkum was relatively small, she added, but would pave the way for more projects with a \u201ccatastrophic\u201d impact on the planet.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re just normalising the destruction of the climate,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Germany\u2019s political enthusiasm to ditch fossil fuels has slumped as high energy prices have helped drive a surge in support for the far right, which has aggressively attacked green policy<\/a> and sold the rollback of climate rules as a solution to the country\u2019s economic strife.<\/p>\n

By Borkum\u2019s beach huts, where Reemtsma and other activists spelled out the words \u201cSTOP GAS\u201d with big red letters in the sand this summer, residents say they are more worried by the threat that industrialisation poses. The quiet island \u2013 which attracted nationwide outrage last year for a festival tradition that involved costumed men beating women with cow horns \u2013 is economically reliant on its nature\u2019s appeal to tourists.<\/p>\n

The Wadden Sea is the largest unbroken system of intertidal sand and mud flats<\/a> in the world, and Unesco has recognised it for wildlife-rich transition zones that include tidal channels, sandy shoals, seagrass meadows and mussel beds.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been confronted with the \u2018not in my back yard\u2019 argument \u2013 that everyone wants gas but nobody wants to be affected by it,\u201d said Akkermann. \u201cBut I always say: this isn\u2019t just any back yard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gas extraction is set to take place outside the protected marine area but the proposals require laying a cable through a rocky reef to connect the platform with an offshore windfarm, which has prompted legal challenges from green groups. In August, the L\u00fcneburg upper administrative court overturned a ruling by a lower court that had paused part of the approval, clearing the way to lay the cable.<\/p>\n

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The decision means the platform can now be powered by clean energy but has led to accusations of \u201cgreenwashing\u201d from NGOs because the extracted fuels will still release large amounts of planet-heating gas when burned.<\/p>\n

A windfarm in the North Sea. The German energy ministry, however, has suggested scaling back the expansion of renewables. Photograph: Daniel Reinhardt\/EPA<\/p>\n

One-Dyas, the company behind the project, said it had taken steps to address local concerns by electrifying the platform and making it low and compact, so that it would be as visible from shore as container ships passing on the horizon. It added that its gas would be cleaner than LNG imports and said that stopping local production should be the last step on the path to carbon neutrality after phasing out coal and imported gas.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe existing infrastructure in the North Sea also makes it a logical place to continue investing in new developments, as long as there is demand for natural gas,\u201d a spokesperson said. \u201cThe inconvenient truth is that there are not yet enough renewable energy sources to meet the growing demand for energy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The German energy ministry, however, has suggested scaling back the expansion of renewables after presenting a controversial report into its energy policy that assumes electricity demand will grow slower than previously thought. The proposals, which green groups argue jeopardise climate targets, include cutting subsidies and building \u201conly as much as we actually need and is economically efficient\u201d.<\/p>\n

The ministry said the security of supply and affordability were just as important as climate protection, but that Reiche stands by the coalition agreement, which commits Germany to climate neutrality by 2045.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the same time, achieving the climate targets is an ambitious and daunting task that must be tackled,\u201d a ministry spokesperson said. \u201cThe federal government is committed to achieving these targets with the political measures at its disposal, while preserving Germany as an industrial location.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peering out on a clear day from the windswept dunes that dapple the north-western tip of Germany, on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238928,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-238927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-environment","9":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}