Germany plans to decommission its nuclear power plants by 2020. Now its finance minister wants the EU to reward the nation with a lower emissions reduction target.
German Finance Minister Michael Glos wants the European Union to allow Germany to emit more greenhouse gases in exchange for decommissioning its nuclear power plants.
Glos, a member of the conservative Christian Social Union, outlined his argument in a letter to Germany Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel, who belongs to the center-left Social Democratic Party. In the letter, which was obtained by the German business daily Handelsblatt, Glos urges Gabriel to press the issue before the European Commission.
"Allowances for added emissions as a result of the nuclear phaseout need to be factored into the EU's broader Emissions Trading Scheme," writes Glos, according to Handelsblatt.
Glos gives the example of Sweden, which agreed to phase out nuclear power in the late 1990s. Sweden was rewarded by the EU with permission to emit 4 percent more greenhouse gases from 1990 to 2012.
(Source: Spiegel Online)
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