Visit to NRW: Habeck praises Wüst

DThe inaugural visit by Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) to the North Rhine-Westphalian state government had been intensively prepared for weeks. The densely populated industrial state of North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the most important stations on Habeck’s energy transition tour. “You don’t have to exaggerate it, but if the climate-neutral conversion of industry succeeds, then it will be here in North Rhine-Westphalia,” said Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) confidently on Tuesday after his conversation with Habeck. “We have everything you need in terms of skills and competences, but the implementation will of course be a huge challenge.”

Another challenge is Russia’s extremely aggressive action against Ukraine, which overshadows Habeck’s North Rhine-Westphalian agenda. Habeck said his first visit was at a “crisis-stricken time”. Like the Federal Minister of Economics, Wüst – currently also Chairman of the Minister Presidents’ Conference – found clear words. “We stand firmly with Ukraine. Russia violates international law and the Minsk Agreement.” After this escalation, the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline could not go online, said Wüst.

“I think there’s a lot of truth to that”

Developments in Ukraine are likely to make the energy transition an even more challenging project than it already is. Because gas power plants (and thus a temporarily increased gas consumption) are a central part of the project as bridging technology. This is the only way to bring forward the phase-out of coal to 2030, as desired by the traffic light coalition. Habeck took the current events as proof of how important it is to become independent of fossil fuels for geostrategic reasons. “The more we are able to produce energy in Germany ourselves and not to be dependent on imports, the more confidently we can act in terms of foreign and security policy.” “where we can reduce”. There will probably be a jump in gas prices. “War drives up prices, fossil fuel prices.” But Germany is “supply-safe”.

Like Habeck, Wüst also emphasized that these days it is becoming clear how important it is to “diversify our sources of gas”. In addition, the CDU politician renewed his willingness to end coal-fired power generation as early as 2030 – and was praised for this by the Green Economics Minister. Habeck is certain: the conversion of a rich industrial country in a short time will release “an incredible amount of investment”. Power plants, wind turbines and a hydropower infrastructure would have to be set up and mechanical engineering would have to be converted.

It was Wüst who pointed out on Tuesday that Germany will continue to be dependent on energy imports after the climate-neutral conversion – and that NRW is already active on this issue. The country has a “good partnership” with the Benelux countries. As its associated member, NRW is integrated into the western neighborhood. When building a hydrogen infrastructure, pipelines and liquid gas terminals, the following applies: “More independence here means more options”. For example, they are working on ways to import hydrogen from Antwerp in Belgium to NRW. There is also the big project to bring hydrogen from Rotterdam in the Netherlands to the federal state. “We will have to be energy importers, that’s the way it is,” said Wüst. At the end of the visit, Habeck took up Wüst’s words. The Prime Minister also said in the morning conversation that the transformation of society would succeed or fail in North Rhine-Westphalia. “I think there’s a lot of truth to that.”