20260219 Wirtschaftsministerin gefährdet Wirtschaft

Ministry of Economy endangers economy

Economics Minister Katherina Reiche (CDU) is planning a fossil fuel setback by massively expanding gas-fired power plants instead of renewable energy. To highlight this, we joined many others, such as BUND and Omas for Future, at a Campact protest in front of the Federal Ministry of Economics today. The square in front of her ministry was turned into a scrap yard for renewables. Campact explains the reasons for the protest on the page linked below:

The energy transition has finally gained momentum again under the traffic light coalition government, with record expansion in solar and wind energy. However, Minister of Economic Affairs Reiche is now threatening to slow down this positive development. She is questioning Germany's goal of becoming climate neutral by 2045. ...

Instead of investing in renewables, Reiche wants to build new gas-fired power plants with a capacity of 20 gigawatts. This would make Germany dependent on gas imports in the long term. The new power plants do not even have to be convertible to hydrogen. Katherina Reiche could also stifle the heat transition. She recommends heating with natural gas and wants to keep old boilers running. She wants to abolish the "Heating Act." ...

To protect the climate, we need to switch from fossil fuels to electrical energy. However, the transport sector and heating supply in particular are still too dependent on oil, gas, and gasoline and urgently need to be electrified. To enable millions of new heat pumps and electric cars to operate in a climate-neutral way, we need much more electricity from renewable sources.

And the cheaper this green electricity is, the greater the motivation to switch. To this end, the ambitious expansion of wind and solar energy must not be allowed to grind to a halt now. We must avoid fossil fuel dependencies, for example through the construction of new gas-fired power plants.

The construction of new gas-fired power plants planned by Ms. Reiche would set back the energy transition by at least two decades. According to current figures, we are heading for global warming of 3° — twice the target set by the internationally binding Paris Climate Agreement. It is high time to put the Minister of Economic Affairs in her place.

More pictures of the campaign can be found on Flickr under Campact and in our picture gallery.
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