Latest news with #CarstenSchneider
Reuters
17-07-2025
- Business
- Reuters
EU opens door to funding nuclear energy in next budget
BRUSSELS, July 17 (Reuters) - The European Commission wants to open up part of its proposed 2 trillion euro EU budget for 2028-2034 to nuclear energy, a move likely to divide the bloc's member states, which Germany immediately rejected. In an annex to its mammoth budget proposal published on Wednesday, the Commission listed nuclear power as an activity countries can fund through their national share of the budget - specifically, "new or additional fission energy capacity installed in GW". Around 865 billion euros of EU funding will be available under these national spending plans. The move would be a sea change for the EU, whose current budget does not fund conventional nuclear power plants - reflecting a long-running conflict between pro-nuclear EU members like France and Sweden and traditionally anti-nuclear countries like Germany and Austria. "Germany rejects any subsidization of nuclear power from the EU budget," its environment minister Carsten Schneider said on Thursday, adding that Berlin respected the choice of other countries to build reactors. "However, respect for national sovereignty in energy matters also means not claiming EU funds for this expensive path, a quarter of which comes from German taxpayers' money," Schneider said. France's energy ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Swedish energy minister Ebba Busch declined to comment. The Commission's budget proposal marks the start of years of intense negotiations among EU nations, which must all approve the final budget. EU countries have long been at loggerheads over whether to promote atomic power to reduce CO2 emissions, a dispute which has delayed policymaking on climate change and energy in the bloc. That dynamic had appeared on the cusp of a shift earlier this year, when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz signalled Berlin would no longer object to treating nuclear power on a par with renewable energy in EU policies. Countries including Denmark and Italy had also signalled a shift in their past opposition to nuclear power. However, some EU diplomats said that this softening of positions had not extended into support for EU funding. "There is no chance EU money goes to new nuclear," one EU country diplomat said. The EU's current budget explicitly bans member states from building nuclear power plants using their share of hundreds of billions of euros in regional development funds - although the budget offers some limited funds for nuclear research and decommissioning of old reactors.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
UN Ocean Conference makes headway in quest to protect high seas
The UN Ocean conference in southern France ended on Friday with some progress towards marine conservation and calls from environmental organizations for quick implementation if the international community is to reach its goals by 2030. Representatives from 170 countries spent five days in the French resort of Nice discussing the protection of the world's oceans, with signatories hoping to use the conference to make progress on the UN goal of effectively protecting at least 30% of the world's oceans by 2030, compared with 8% today. "This conference has made significant progress on marine protection, despite the difficult geopolitical situation," German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider said on Friday. The conference saw more support for an international agreement to protect the high seas, which make up around 60-70% of the oceans. The High Seas Protection Agreement, adopted by the United Nations two years ago aims to regulate international waters. More than a dozen states ratified the agreement at the conference, meaning the target of 60 states ratifying should be reached by September, according to France, which co-hosted the conference with Costa Rica. The event also built momentum to address plastic waste, with some 95 countries calling for the production of primary plastics to be limited. They also want an obligation for countries to report on their production, import and export, and to see a commitment in the agreement to phase out the most problematic plastic products and chemicals in plastics. "What is outlined here is a good start and, at the same time, the absolute minimum required to effectively combat plastic pollution," said Florian Titze from WWF Germany. Progress was also made on numerous other topics in Nice, including a French and German initiative to identify the exact location of munitions dumps in the Baltic and North Seas. A group of states also wants to push ahead with the fight against noise pollution in the ocean, while UNESCO wants to do more to promote marine education. However, the executive director of the OceanCare organization, Fabienne McLellan warned that UN Ocean Conferences serve as litmus tests for whether the international community can achieve the goals it has set itself for protecting the oceans by 2030. She said countries around the world are still a long way from these goals. The next UN Ocean Conference is planned for 2028 and will be hosted by South Korea and Chile. Two previous editions took place in New York in 2017 and Lisbon in 2022.
Yahoo
10-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
German minister calls for world's oceans to be better protected
German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider on Tuesday called for greater efforts to protect the world's oceans, as the United Nations Ocean Conference (UNOC) in France entered its second day. "I believe that we need a greater focus on the oceans - more political attention, but also from the world," the minister told public radio station Bayerischer Rundfunk. Schneider said he believes the oceans need to be protected much more. The third UNOC meeting opened in Nice on Monday with French President Emmanuel Macron urging immediate action to protect the world's oceans. Representatives of 130 countries are in the French coastal city until Friday. Environment Minister Schneider is heading the German delegation. Key topics on the agenda include tackling plastic pollution, expanding marine protected areas in international waters and debating the controversial extraction of raw materials from the deep sea. Commenting on pollution, Germany's Schneider said: "If we aren't careful, there will be more plastic in the sea than fish. ... And that's why we need a very clear political stance." Following UNOC, the international community is set to convene again in Geneva in August to negotiate a binding agreement intended to bring to an end the plastic pollution of the oceans. Schneider said he "very much" supported this aim and was working to "get several countries on board."
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Germany committed to nuclear phase-out as Belgium suspends exit
The German government is committed to the country's exit from nuclear energy, Environment Minister Carsten Schneider said on Friday, after Belgian lawmakers voted to suspend an atomic power phase-out. "I am very clear on this. There is continuity with the last federal government," Schneider said after a meeting with state environment ministers in western Germany. He was reacting to the Belgian parliament's decision to drop the country's nuclear power phase-out plans in a vote on Thursday. Germany's new coalition government, made up of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative bloc and Schneider's Social Democrats, is not planning to overturn the country's exit from atomic energy, which was decided in 2011 following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan. "There is a social consensus in Germany to stop using it," said Schneider. "And the government's decision on this is also clear in my opinion." The minister, who took office last week, said that Germany has made "a major transition to renewable energies." By 2030, 80% of electricity demand is set to be covered by renewables, he said. "Other countries are of course free to decide what they do," he said about the Belgian decision. "The Belgians are independent, they have to decide. We are on a different path." A nuclear power plant is "insanely expensive," Schneider added. "The future is green in the long term and it is also cheaper as a result."
