Germany to scrap coal by 2050

Germany will announce its climate action plan for 2050 by the middle of next year and is aiming to end coal-fired power generation, Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said on Monday.

World leaders agreed a historic international climate deal in Paris at the UN climate summit on Saturday to drive the transition from fossil fuel energy production to a low-carbon green economy to reduce carbon emissions and limit global warming.

Germany’s development of renewable energy has been praised in recent years but it has yet to confirm its plans to scrap coal power which will be needed in order to meet its own ambitious climate targets.

Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks said: "It is completely clear that we need to exit fossil energy sources by the middle of the century."

The German government is scheduled to confirm a climate action plan for mid-century by the summer of 2016 and will give further details on scrapping coal power, according to Hendricks.

More than a quarter of Germany’s electricity was generated by renewable sources in 2014 but a phase-out of nuclear power has increased its reliance on brown coal which is cheaper than low-emission gas-powered plants.

Coal covered about 44 per cent of electricity generated in Germany last year.

Germany is aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent compared to 1990 levels by 2020, and by 80-95 per cent by 2050.