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Dear Germany, please keep your nuclear reactors online

 
Germany is in danger of missing its 2030 climate target, despite all its efforts. Exiting nuclear power will only increase its carbon emissions further. This must be prevented. An open letter from leading international experts to all Germans.
 

During the recent election campaign, there was talk of young Germans being disappointed with all political parties for not being resolute enough on climate protection. Young people are right to be concerned.

A draft government report of this summer forecasts that, based on August 2020 policies, your country will fall far short of its 2030 climate target of reducing emissions by 65 per cent on 1990 levels by 16 percentage points, and will only achieve 49 per cent. It is very hard to believe that the measures adopted subsequently will close all of this gap.

However, Germany is not taking full advantage of all the options open to it. The elephant in the room is that it is carbonising its energy system by phasing out nuclear power. And this at a time when decarbonising electricity production is the main strategy for delivering net zero emissions.

At the end of 2021, three of its remaining six nuclear reactors, Gundremmingen-C, Grohnde and Brokdorf, are scheduled to be permanently shut down. One year later, the last three, Neckarwestheim-2, Emsland and Isar-2, will be closed. This loss of 8 gigawatts of low-carbon power generation, currently providing 12 per cent of Germany's electricity, two decades early will inevitably lead to around 60 million tonnes of additional carbon emissions each year. This is because more fossil fuels will have to be burned to provide the required replacement power. This will increase national emissions by 5 per cent on the 1990 baseline.

Your country can ill afford such an unnecessary setback at a time when its emissions are already rising sharply after the pandemic: in 2021 they are projected to stand at only 37 per cent below 1990 levels, still 3 per cent above the 2020 target of a 40 per cent reduction (which has effectively been missed). Renewable energy roll-out and the construction of North-South transmission lines are also currently delayed, while the recent steep rise in natural gas prices is encouraging more coal burning.

You could still reach your 2030 climate goal. You could yet change course and adjust your order of priority to exit coal before nuclear. All it would take is a Climate Emergency Ordinance, with an amendment to the Atomic Energy Act, that would reinstate the 2010 agreed lifetime extensions for the power plants to between 2030 and 2036.

Are your politicians brave enough to implement this concrete change, which would unequivocally have a positive impact on emissions, on your behalf, at this critical moment in the climate crisis? This emergency measure - a simple postponement of the nuclear exit - would rightly earn the respect of the younger generation and the generations yet to come.


Prof. Wade Allison
Physicist, University of Oxford, UK

Dr. Simon Friederich
Chair, Ecomodern, Germany

Prof. Joshua Goldstein
Political scientist, American University, US

Malcolm Grimston
Energy analyst, Imperial College London, UK

Johannes Güntert
Vice-chair of supervisory board, Citizens' Energy South Baden, Germany

Dr. James Hansen 
Climatologist, Columbia University, US

Prof. Rafaela Hillerbrand
Philosopher of science, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany

Rainer Klute

Chair, Nuklearia, Germany

Dr. John Law 
Founder, Clean Energy Revolution, UK

Mark Lynas 
Environmentalist and author, UK

George Monbiot
Environmentalist and author, UK

Prof. Kalypso Nicolaidis
Political scientist, European University Institute, Italy

Rauli Partanen
Founder, Think Atom, Finland

Prof. Steven Pinker 
Cognitive scientist, Harvard University, US

Iida Ruishalme
Biodiversity analyst and blogger, Switzerland

Amardeo Sarma
Vice-chair, Ecomodern, Germany

Theo Sommer
Former editor-in-chief, Die Zeit, Germany

Robert Stone
Documentary film-maker, US

Prof. Geraldine Thomas
Molecular biologist and director of the Chernobyl Tissue Bank, Imperial College London, UK

Tea Törmänen
Head of international affairs, Ecomodernists, Finland

Liza Tóth

Co-founder, Saving Our Planet, France

Myrto Tripathi
Founder, Voice of Nuclear, France

Dr. Anna Veronika Wendland
Historian and author, Germany

Dr. Ludger Wess
Journalist and science-writer, Germany

Julie Wornan

Co-founder, Saving Our Planet, France

The original text of this letter in German is available here.

An earlier version appeared in The Financial Times on 27/09/21.