Despite the current budget crisis, IG Metall believes the federal government must support the planned expansion of wind energy with state aid. “We need an immediate program for loans and guarantees for the entire wind energy supply chain for the entire wind industry,” said the union’s coastal district manager, Daniel Friedrich, to the German Press Agency. “The companies are now not so liquid that they can shoulder this on their own.”
Current news: headlines
Steel industry: IG Metall calls on members to strike after collective bargaining round fails
Offshore wind farm: Wind farms have become too expensive
Industrial policy: Citizens’ money or electric car subsidies: Where would you cut?
More headlines
If the expansion of wind power is to succeed, it must be supported by the state, for example through the federally owned development bank KfW, through a fund or something similar, so that the industry can make the necessary billions in investments, said the trade unionist. “And of course the state is also called upon,” said Friedrich. “We also have to accept in the Federal Republic that what is happening here in the north is not a regional activity, but is about ensuring and guaranteeing the energy supply for all of Germany, and partly for Europe.”
Friedrich named the ports, which need to be expanded at a cost of billions for the energy transition, as an important issue in the north. The wind industry, for example, has calculated that the expansion of wind energy at sea would require additional heavy-duty areas equivalent to 270 football fields. The northern German states have therefore demanded that the federal government increase federal funding for seaports tenfold.
“The amount of money the federal government recently made available, the few more than 40 million euros, is really laughable, nothing more than a drop in the ocean,” said Friedrich. “We have to understand that the North has to tackle the future tasks for the future of industry, energy supply and global trade. And he won’t be able to do that alone, it will only be possible through a national task,” demanded the trade unionist. “And we will now have to invest heavily and not be able to say that the federal states should regulate this alone, it won’t work.”
Like Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens), IG Metall also considers the debt brake to be outdated against this background. It is anchored in the Basic Law and is intended to limit the federal government’s new debt. “We cannot carry the debt issue in front of us like a monstrance and pretend that the problems of the future don’t exist,” said district manager Friedrich. “In ten or fifteen years we will not be celebrated for having adhered to the debt brake, but rather for the fact that we have invested in the future, that the infrastructure works, and that the generation after us has good jobs.”
© dpa-infocom, dpa:231229-99-435226/1
Despite the current budget crisis, IG Metall believes the federal government must support the planned expansion of wind energy with state aid. “We need an immediate program for loans and guarantees for the entire wind energy supply chain for the entire wind industry,” said the union’s coastal district manager, Daniel Friedrich, to the German Press Agency. “The companies are now not so liquid that they can shoulder this on their own.”
If the expansion of wind power is to succeed, it must be supported by the state, for example through the federally owned development bank KfW, through a fund or something similar, so that the industry can make the necessary billions in investments, said the trade unionist. “And of course the state is also called upon,” said Friedrich. “We also have to accept in the Federal Republic that what is happening here in the north is not a regional activity, but is about ensuring and guaranteeing the energy supply for all of Germany, and partly for Europe.”
2023-12-29 06:52:29
#Energy #Metall #calls #wind #power #program
