The Swedish climate activist said it would be a "bad idea" for Germany to focus on coal when nuclear power plants were already in place. German politicians looking to extend the running times pounced on the comments.
Certain German politicians rushed to embrace the comments from climate activist Greta ThunbergImage: Jon Super/AP/picture alliance
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Climate activist Greta Thunberg told German public television on Tuesday that she would consider it a mistake to switch off existing nuclear power plants and to focus on coal instead to generate electricity.
"It depends. If you have them already running, I feel it's a mistake to close them and focus on coal," Thunberg said on the "Maischberger" talk show on ARD.
"I personally think it's a very bad idea to focus on coal when [nuclear power] is already in place," the climate activist said.
However, the war in Ukraine and resultant pressures on fossil fuel exports and electricity prices have cast this policy back into question.
The government has agreed to a limited extension of two of the last nuclear plants' running times by just a few months, covering the coldest winter months. But the opposition and one member of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's ruling coalition are lobbying for a longer extension.
Although it's probably an oversimplification to describe the nuclear shutdown as being compensated by a "focus on coal," the government has separately approved the reactivation of several coal- and oil-burning power plants to secure supply in the winter.
Germany also dug new coal mines while it was in the process of shutting down its nuclear power fleet in recent years. That said, the government has also pledged to phase out coal usage by 2030.
Germany's last nuclear reactors, including Isar 2 in Bavaria, were scheduled to shut down at the end of the year but Ukraine has cast this back into questionImage: Armin Weigel/dpa/picture alliance
German politicians pounce on Thunberg's comments
Finance Minister Christian Lindner, the head of the pro-free market Free Democrats (FDP), and the leader of the conservative opposition Christian Social Union (CSU) in Bavaria, Markus Söder, were both quick to welcome Thunberg's comments.
"I welcome the support of Fridays for Future founder Greta Thunberg for the FDP position to keep our nuclear plants on the grid. In this energy war everything that generates electricity must be on the grid. The reasons speak for themselves — economically and physically," Lindner wrote on Twitter.
Lindner's FDP is the only member of Scholz's coalition government that is keen to extend the nuclear plants' running time further. The party's fellow coalition partners — the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and the ecologist Greens — both pride themselves as being the parties that implemented Germany's original nuclear shutdown plans at the turn of the century.
Söder shared footage of part of Thunberg's interview on social media, captioning it simply: "Interesting..." Both the power plants scheduled for a brief extension are in the southern state of Bavaria.
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Tensions within German government
Tensions on the issue were evident within the coalition on Tuesday.
Habeck told news magazine Der Spiegel that if the Finance Ministry wanted the short extension to be approved in time for winter, they "must clear the path for this now."
Habeck's ministry had said the government had agreed to bring the motion through Cabinet by Monday of next week with a view to it being debated in parliament
Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, also of the Greens, told the dpa news agency that the Finance Ministry was refusing to sign a draft law "despite the agreement reached in the last week" to send the proposal to the Bundestag.
Habeck argues that time is running out to conduct repairs at one reactor to enable it to continue operating longer than currently scheduled.
The FDP's Johannes Vogel, meanwhile, said that there was still plenty of time to meet the "fastest timetable proposal" from Habeck's ministry.
Thunberg: Main focus should be renewables, even amid Ukraine war
She said she understood the need to protect people from excessive energy costs, but said people were also "dependent" on power and a system that was not sustainable.
Thunberg said that climate change was not being treated like a global emergency, and said other recent issues like the COVID pandemic had demonstrated that this was possible. She said that even amid crises people could not lose sight of climate change.
"Every war is a disaster. On many levels. But we must be able to focus on different things at the same time," Thunberg said.
Edited by: Rebecca Staudenmaier
Germany and nuclear power — a love-hate relationship
Nuclear power has been celebrated, condemned, and banned in Germany. As energy imports from Russia came to an end, many began calling for it to make a comeback. Here's a look at the history of a love-hate relationship.
Image: Julian Stratenschulte/dpa/picture alliance
It all began with an 'egg'
Germany's first nuclear reactor went online in October 1957 in Garching near Munich. Given its shape, it was nicknamed the "atomic egg" and belonged to Munich's Technical University. It was a landmark in nuclear research and a symbol of a new beginning after WWII. In 1961, Germany began to produce energy for civilian use. Atomic energy was seen as safe and secure.
Image: Heinz-Jürgen Göttert/dpa/picture-alliance
The pushback begins
In the 1970s, opponents of nuclear energy questioned just how clean nuclear power was, seeing as there is no safe storage for spent fuel rods. Thousands of protesters clashed with police during a demonstration against the nuclear power plant Brokdorf, in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein. "Nuclear energy? No thanks," became the rallying cry for German environmentalists.
Image: Klaus Rose/imago images
'Nuclear energy? No thanks'
The danger of nuclear power soon became reality. On March 28, 1979, the plant at Three Mile Island, in the US state of Pennsylvania, had a serious accident. And on April 26, 1986, a reactor at the plant near Chernobyl, in Soviet Ukraine, exploded — causing an unprecedented nuclear disaster. A radioactive cloud spread across Europe. It was a watershed moment for Germany, with rotests gaining steam.
Image: Tim Brakemeier/dpa/picture-alliance
Birth of a new party
In 1980, a new party was founded in West Germany: the Greens. Their members were a mix of left-wingers, peaceniks, environmentalists — and a key contingency, nuclear opponents. The party made entered Bundestag, the German parliament, in 1983. Meanwhile, the Chernobyl accident prompted the creation of an environment ministry in Germany.
Image: AP/picture alliance
Wackersdorf: Tragedy and triumph
The Bavarian town of Wackersdorf was set to get a reprocessing plant for spent nuclear fuel rods, but riots broke out in protest. A number of demonstrators and civil service workers were killed, and hundreds more people were injured. Construction was halted in 1989. The German environmental movement claimed its first major victory — muted by the tragedy of lost lives.
Image: Istvan Bajzat/dpa/picture alliance
Gorleben: Radioactive waste in a salt mine
Meanwhile up north, the town of Gorleben — in the state of Lower Saxony — became a symbol of the fight against nuclear waste. The salt dome there was picked as an interim storage facility for nuclear waste. But already in 1977, a large-scale study revealed that groundwater was seeping in, corroding the barrels holding the waste. This of course posed a major risk of radioactive contamination.
Image: BREUEL-BILD/picture alliance
SPD-Green exit plans
Germany's exit from nuclear power has been marked by flip-flops. The center-left coalition of Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder intended the phaseout of nuclear energy in an agreement with big energy companies in 2001. An individual lifespan was determined for all 19 German nuclear power plants, requiring the last to be shut down by 2021.
Image: picture alliance
Rolling back — then rolling back the rollback
In 2010, the center-right government under Chancellor Angela Merkel revoked the deal and decided to extend the operating lives of Germany's nuclear power plants. But following the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima plant in Japan in 2011, Merkel abruptly announced the end to Germany's atomic era. In July 2011, the Bundestag voted to shut down all nuclear reactors by December 31, 2022.
Image: Michael Kappeler /dpa/picture alliance
Celebrating the end of nuclear energy in Germany
After years of especially intense protest, activists in the German towns of Grohnde, Gundremmingen and Brokdorf celebrated when the power plants there were switched off at the end of 2021. But the search for a safe waste repository continues. The nationwide location for a geologically suitable safe site for high-level radioactive waste is to be determined by 2031.
Image: Julian Stratenschulte/dpa/picture alliance
Should we stay or should we go?
In response to energy shortages due to the war in Ukraine, calls became louder to extend the lifespan of Germany's remaining three nuclear power plants. Green Party Economy Minister Robert Habeck (right) reluctantly agreed to put two of them on standby until mid-April. But FDP Finance Minister Christian Lindner advocated extending all remaining power stations' lifespan well into 2024.
Image: Michael Kappeler/picture alliance/dpa
The chancellor decrees an extension
The dispute between the FDP and the Greens turned into a crucial test for the German governing coalition, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the end making use of his directives authority. In a letter to the finance, economy and environment ministries, he communicated his decision: The three remaining nuclear power plants are to continue operating until April 15, 2023. Parliament may amend the law.
Image: Markus Schreiber/AP Photo/picture alliance
Phase-out completed... or is it?
When the last three reactors were switched off on April 15, 2023, reactions were mixed. Defenders of nuclear energy argue that it could help Germany meet its goal of carbon neutrality by 2045. And two-thirds of Germans surveyed favored extending the lifespan of nuclear reactors. So Bavaria's Premier Markus Söder vowed to seek a way to continue operating the Isar 2 power station.
Image: :Bayerische Staatskanzlei via SVEN SIMON/IMAGO
