Germany should stay on green energy path despite Trump, minister says

By Vera Eckert and Tom Käckenhoff

Sticking with growth plans for green energy is the best response to Donald Trump after the U.S. president's "fatal" move to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, German vice chancellor Robert Habeck said on Tuesday.

"We have to bring our own technologies to the fore," said Habeck, the architect of plans to make 80% of electricity green in Germany by 2030, speaking at the Handelsblatt annual energy conference in Berlin.

The move by Trump, a climate change sceptic, to withdraw from the Paris climate treaty was widely expected and further threatens the agreement's central goal to limit a rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, holds a national election on Feb. 23, where Habeck's Greens are trailing in opinion polls as a cost-of-living crisis and an economic downturn has shifted some voters' focus away from climate protection.

Economy minister Habeck said self-reliance through domestic green energy remained the best response to dependency on energy imports and high costs, especially as Russian gas supplies to Europe dwindle following the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

Habeck urged parliament to pass a draft bill giving more digital control of expanding renewable capacity to help rein in rising costs and bring down consumer bills.

Another unfinished plan, a capacity market for power, was also a priority, he said. Otherwise, coal-burning power plants, which offer stable supply, would have to operate beyond the targeted 2030 cut-off date.

The chief executive of power transmission firm TenneT said the new German government needed to take a number of key steps to support the green energy roll-out.

Renewable producers needed to pay a part of grid costs, Tim Meyerjuergens said. Currently, they pay nothing.

Grid operators should also be allowed to raise their fees as they are too low to attract international investors to grids, he added.