Renewable energy sources produced a record share of power used in Germany in the first half of 2017. But the country is still not on target to reach its climate goals.
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The German BEE renewable energy association reported on Sunday that the share of wind, hydro and solar power consumed in the electricity, heating and transport sectors climbed from 14.8 percent in the first half of last year to 15.2 percent in the same period in 2017.
The biggest increase was seen in the electricity sector, where the share of end energy consumption generated by renewables rose by 2.4 percent to 35.1 percent. This was offset by a drop of 0.4 percent in the transport sector, in which renewables provided just 5.1 percent of energy consumed.
In the case of heating, 13.6 percent of energy used came from renewables, a rise of just 0.3 percent compared with the same period in 2016.
In view of the overall minimal increase, BEE acting managing director Harald Uphoff said that Germany's transition to renewables was much too slow.
"It is only with a much greater commitment to the spread of renewable energy sources - for electricity as well as for heating and transport - that we will be able to meet the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and reach the renewable-energy targets demanded by the EU," he said. "Climate protection and economic development must no longer be seen as mutually exclusive."
He called for prices to be put on CO2 production to ensure an equal playing field for renewables in the electricity and heating sector, for the removal of caps on clean electricity production and for an end to support of heating based on fossil fuels.
Uphoff said that the minimal increase in the use of energy from renewable sources confirmed BEE's "sceptical prognosis" with regard to Germany's hopes of achieving the target set by the EU of 18 percent renewables in end energy consumption by the year 2020. In April, BEE predicted that at the current speed of transition, Germany would reach just 16.7 percent by that time if no political intervention occurred.
Remote goals
Germany's goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels by 2020 is still more remote, according to BEE; it predicts that the cut will be 30 percent at most.
Germany's transition to renewables, or Energiewende, was launched in 2010 in the wake of the Fukishima nuclear accident, with the country aiming to phase out its nuclear power plants by 2022.
Use of energy from renewable sources has anyway been rising steadily over the last twenty years, in part due to the Renewable Energy Act (EEG) which was reformed this year to cut renewable energy costs for consumers.
Up to 85 percent of electricity has come from renewable sources on certain sunny, windy days this year in Germany.
Germany aims to reach the proportion of 80 percent renewables for gross power consumption by 2050.
40 years of German anti-nuclear action
Germany's anti-nuclear protests gave birth to the most influential Green Party in the world, also sowing the seeds of the German energy transition. And the fight goes on.
Image: AP
A movement is born
Germany’s anti nuclear movement got its start in the early 1970s, when protestors came out in force against plans for a nuclear power plant at Wyhl, close to the French border. Police were accused of using unnecessary force against the peaceful demonstrations. But the activists ultimately won, and plans for the Wyhl power station were scrapped in 1975.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
Civil disobedience
Following the success of civil disobedience in Wyhl, similar protests were held in Brokdorf and Kalkar in the late 70s. Though they failed to prevent reactors being built, they proved that the anti-nuclear movement was a growing force.
Image: picture-alliance / dpa
No to nuclear waste
Gorleben has seen fierce protest against the nuclear industry ever since plans to store nuclear waste in a disused salt mine there were first announced in 1977. The site is a sparsely populated area close to the then-border with East Germany. Yet locals quickly showed they weren't going to accept radioactive material close to their homes without a fight.
Image: picture-alliance / dpa
People power
From the beginning, the German anti-nuclear movement brought together church organizations, farmers and concerned local residents - along with student activists, academics, and peace protestors who saw a link between nuclear power and the atom bomb. Being at the frontline of the Cold War meant the threat of nuclear war loomed large in many German minds.
Image: AP
Breaking into mainstream politics
In the late 70s, anti-nuclear activists joined with other environment and social justice campaigners to form the Green Party. Today, this is a major force in German politics and probably the most powerful Green Party in the world. They won their first seats in the German federal parliament in 1983.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/C. Pfund
Worst fears realized
In 1986, a reactor meltdown hundreds of miles away in Ukraine hardened public opinion against nuclear power in Germany. The Chernobyl disaster released radioactive fallout across Europe. In Germany, people were warned not to drink milk, eat fresh meat or let children play on playgrounds, where the sand might have been contaminated.
Image: picture-alliance / dpa
End to nuclear becomes law
In 1998, the Green Party came into German federal government, as the junior partner in a coalition with the Social Democrats. In 2002, the "red-green" government passed a law banning new nuclear power plants and limiting the lives of existing plants so that the last would be switched off in 2022.
Image: picture-alliance / dpa
Keeping the pressure up
Even with an end to nuclear power finally in sight, the anti-nuclear movement still had plenty to protest about. Many activists, including in the Green Party (with leaders Jürgen Tritten and Claudia Roth pictured above in Berlin in 2009) wanted nuclear power phased out far faster. Meanwhile, the German movement continued to join international calls for a global end to nuclear power.
Image: AP
Stop that train
Then there was still the question of what to do with nuclear waste. By 1995, containers of radioactive material were coming back from reprocessing abroad for storage at Gorleben. Over the years, transport of these "castors" has regularly been met with mass protests, including clashes with police.
Image: dapd
New lease of life for nuclear
Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Party had always opposed the law limiting the life of Germany's nuclear power plants - so after the party came to power in 2009, it effectively scrapped it by prolonging the lives of power plants - a major setback for the anti-nuclear movement.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/D. Ebener
Fukushima changes everything
In 201,1 the meltdown of a Japanese nuclear reactor saw Merkel's government make a rapid about-face. Within days of the Fukushima disaster, it passed a law to shut down the last of Germany's nuclear power plants by 2022. The phase-out was back on, and eight reactors were shut down that same year.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
The fight goes on
Since the grassroots action of the 70s, Germany's anti-nuclear movement has seen the country commit to ditching nuclear altogether. It's also helped push forward a shift to renewables, making Germany an international example in the fight against climate change. But the protests go on. This week, activists stopped the first boat carrying nuclear waste.