4d ago

German gas drive fuels fears of climate backsliding

www.france24.com German gas drive fuels fears of climate backsliding

Germany's conservative-led government has launched a drive to rapidly build more gas-fired power plants, fuelling fears about climate policy backsliding and sparking unease even within its own ranks.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/46214865

Plans to build more gas plants are not new, and the previous government also wanted to expand capacity, but the new targets are around double those of the past.

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German gas drive fuels fears of climate backsliding

www.france24.com /en/live-news/20250813-german-gas-drive-fuels-fears-of-climate-backsliding

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The new German targets are very bad. What's really disturbing is that Germany's new government is following a global trend with this policy.
In 2024, global gas demand rebounded by 2.8%, spurred by China, Russia and the USA
Gas consumption also grew in Canada, in Asia (especially in India, Indonesia, South Korea, and Taiwan), in the Middle East (especially in Iran and Saudi Arabia), and in Africa (especially in Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt). On the contrary, rising carbon-free power generation reduced gas consumption in Japan (-3%) and Australia (-4%), while lower LNG exports reduced gas consumption in liquefaction plants in Qatar.
A new report reveals that a surge in long-term liquefied natural gas contracts from China -the world's third largest gas consumer behind the US and Russia- is prolonging South-East Asia's fossil fuel dependency.
This provides quite a bad broader picture.
- Yep. There were like 15 years of half assed trying and as soon as the smallest bit off difficulty occurs, everybody just gives up. Climate protection is over, fuck the future.
- A lot of western countries are following usa lead, when they started denouncing their environment policy and started to increase their gas production/consumption other western countries just blindly followed (pro-usa idiots really don't like facing facts)
  
  We've got a new, conservative government in Germany since the beginning of 2025, replacing a (more or less) progressive one. The green party is no longer part of the government. We can elect stupid politicians all by ourselves, we don't need the USA for that.
  
  Thats true, stupidity isnt limited by borders, but without trump in the office, realigning green policy would be unthinkable
  
  @Anonymaus@feddit.org
  A lot of western countries are following usa lead
  The comment and the data on the linked sites say that gas demand has spurred by China, Russia, and the USA.
  Did China and Russia also follow the US lead? Or did they increase their gas consumption independently?
  
  Russia and china do not fall under the western countries category, my previous comment was meant for western countries and how the majority of them realigned their green policy, after usa changed theirs
  
  So Russia and China, number 2 and 3 world gas consumers, are increasing their gas consumption independently, right? Is is that what you say? For the world climate it doesn't make a difference.
  
  What Im trying to say is, that usa and eu are also contributing to global warming-not just china and russia
  
  I wouldn't say that they are following the lead of the US, it's more that the chaos caused by the US forces a lot of Western countries to give up on long-term plans to invest in the future and go back to solutions that are safe in the present.
  Environment policy is a long term investment, and we are facing short term problems. I am not saying this is right or even acceptable, but that's what we're facing now that the "rest of the world" is caught between US and Chinese imperialism.
  
  I understand what you mean, but I dont think getting europe hocked only on oil and gas again is good idea, given what happened with russia and although we cant count only on renewable energy, because it cant work all-year round, we also shouldn't abandon it completely
  
  We totally agree, I'm just saying that I dare to hope that the point of all this is to detach from the US rather than ally further with it.
  
  Yes, that is my hope as well—I hope we become truly independent militarily, digitally, and in terms of resources, so that we may finally become more than just a playground for other countries.

17 comments