The Green dream is crumbling. Germany, the EU’s self-styled climate champion, is turning back to coal. Hard. No, not just a temporary stopgap. This is a strategic retreat.
Chancellor Scholz is facing the music. The lights are going out. Industry is screaming. The solution? Burning more lignite. The dirtiest of the dirty. The same coal that Merkel promised to phase out by 2038. That timeline? Dead. Buried under a mountain of Russian gas cuts.
But here’s the real Westminster takeaway. The Germans are getting hammered for this. The Greens in the coalition are in open revolt. Foreign Minister Baerbock is furious. But what choice do they have? None. The nuclear exit was a self-inflicted wound. Now they are paying the price.
And where is the UK in all this? Laughing. Quietly. But laughing. Our nuclear push is looking prescient. Sizewell C? Hinkley Point? The Rolls-Royce mini-reactors? Suddenly the Treasury is very interested. The PM’s office is briefing that this is a ‘moment of vindication’.
Let’s be clear. The British model is not perfect. Costs are ballooning. Timelines are slipping. But at least we have a plan. The Germans have a prayer and a coal shovel.
The EU is in a panic. The Green Deal is on life support. Brussels wanted to be the global leader on climate. Now they are watching their largest economy break the carbon budget. The political fallout will be brutal. Expect resignations. Expect infighting. Expect the French to start crowing about their own nuclear fleet.
Inside Number 10, there is a quiet confidence. The Net Zero strategy is being rewritten behind closed doors. The ‘green industrial revolution’ is getting a dose of reality. Energy security is the new god. And nuclear is the altar.
But don’t think this is a done deal. The backbench rebels are stirring. The usual suspects are already drafting letters. They smell an opportunity to kill Net Zero entirely. The PM is walking a tightrope. Too much coal? The green wing mutinies. Too little? The lights go out.
The game has changed. Germany is the canary in the coalmine. Literally. If they can’t decarbonise without Russian gas, what hope for the rest of Europe?
Watch this space. The next 48 hours will be brutal. Leaks from Berlin suggest a formal coal emergency declaration is coming. The UK’s energy security review will be rushed out. And the polling? Voters are angry. Energy bills are still sky-high. They don’t care about climate targets. They care about warmth.
The Green agenda is not dead. But it is wounded. Badly. This is the moment the sceptics have been waiting for. And they are circling.
