Dr. Björn Peters - Germany

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I’m Björn. I’m from Germany. One of those countries that follow a very similar approach to Belgium, and it is simply so much 1980’s. We will phase out our nuclear power plants by the end of this year and next year.

So, the other speakers already mentioned it—it is totally irresponsible towards the climate and the economy. So, if we shut down those power plants, we will emit 50 to 70 million carbon emissions more than before. So we are not going down in emissions, we are going up! And it won’t be gas that’s replacing them, it’s coal. That’s what we have in Germany, and in order to secure the power supply, it will be coal that will be burned and not gas.

That brings us to 70 million. What does that do to the emission market? They are getting more scarce; hence, more expensive for everybody, and that is so irresponsible.

But I don’t want to finish on this note, I would like to bring you some signs of hope.

Within Germany, there are, for the very first time, clear signs that the tide might be changing. And I am hearing this from Brussels as well, from the European commission. More and more media deal with nuclear energy, something unheard of only two or three years ago when we started this movement.

Many politicians are cautiously speaking up for nuclear in Germany, and I am hearing this a little bit everywhere. So they say nuclear is the elephant in the room of the climate debate. We can’t afford to switch off our power plants. Or even Armin Laschet, the conservative candidate running for chancellor in 2 weeks time, when we have national elections, this Monday only said “Well, maybe the phase-out was not the best thing to do.”

That hasn’t been heard of for decades, that people speak positive about nuclear energy. And this is our success! We fought for it. And we will continue to fight for it.

WE WANT NUCLEAR!