Germany’s climate policy is increasingly becoming a laughing stock abroad. As we have already reported in our article “The world’s stupidest energy policy“, the Wall Street Journal has already expressed its criticism. Now the “Neue Züricher Zeitung” also reports on the absurd procedure in the Reinhardswald near Kassel.
Ancient forest to make way for wind farm
The Reinhardswald forest in northern Hesse is also known as the fairytale forest. It is one of the largest contiguous forest areas in Central Europe. A large part of the Reinhardswald is a kind of primeval forest where there has been no human intervention for many years. This part contains centuries-old trees, as well as a historical animal park. The area is around 200 square kilometres and is known for its biodiversity, from red deer to rare wild cats and lynxes. The fairytale forest is therefore also marketed for tourism. Tourists from all over the world admire the old forest worth seeing.
Just a few months ago, new trees were planted in the Reinhardswald to save the climate
Last autumn, the management of the upcoming Documenta World Exhibition planted oak trees in the Reinhardswald to save the climate, to great media interest. Now large areas are being cleared to build a wind farm there. Eighteen wind turbines with a height of 240 metres are planned for this wind farm. It took just half a year from planting new trees to save the climate to clearing large areas of forest. Yet the wind turbines are now also supposed to contribute to climate salvation. Climate policy could not be much more contradictory.
Fairytale forest must give way to free us from Russian gas
The clearing work in the Reinhardswald has already begun despite massive outrage among the population and conservationists. According to the Ministry of the Environment, we need the wind farm to free us from Russian gas supplies. Another contradiction, because when the new traffic light government came to power, gas-fired power plants were supposed to replace the nuclear and coal-fired power plants that had been shut down. This decision, too, did not even last half a year.
Climate protection decisions of the new government have an extremely short half-life
The government now wants to replace Russian gas with liquefied gas from the USA and Qatar. The gas will be transported by special tankers that emit huge amounts of CO₂. In order to bridge the time until the liquefied gas supply works, the running times of the coal-fired power plants that have been approved for shutdown are to be extended or they are to be put in reserve so that they can step in if there is a bottleneck. As a result, CO₂ emissions will inevitably continue to rise. However, the government is still unconditionally sticking to the nuclear phase-out, even though these power plants emit practically no CO₂. A climate protection policy can no longer be contradictory, or absurd, as the NZZ calls it.
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