Siegburg/Düsseldorf (dpa/lnw) – North Rhine-Westphalia’s Economics Minister Mona Neubaur (Greens) has warned of the great importance of decisive and pragmatic action in view of the energy crisis. “It’s right and it’s good that we accept responsibility and don’t steal away, even if it gets uncomfortable,” said the Greens politician on Sunday at the small party conference of the North Rhine-Westphalia Greens in Siegburg.
In order to get the crisis under control and become more resilient, it is important to look to the future in a solution-oriented manner, said the Deputy Prime Minister. The way out of the crisis will succeed primarily through the expansion of renewable energies and by conserving raw materials, she affirmed.
In his speech at the small party conference, Environment and Transport Minister Oliver Krischer emphasized that the agreement on the 49-euro ticket was a big and important step. Such a Germany-wide ticket for local transport is “a revolution”. Now it is important to further improve the offer in order to offer many people a real alternative to the car, said the Green politician.
About 110 delegates met in Siegburg on Sunday. It was the first major party meeting of the NRW Greens since the government was formed with the CDU at the end of June. The focus was on the discussion of the effects of the energy crisis in North Rhine-Westphalia triggered by Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine.
The delegates discussed and unanimously approved a motion by the state board on energy security, the expansion of renewable energy and social justice.
Most recently, the most recent political agreement between the Green-led economics ministries in the federal government and North Rhine-Westphalia and the energy company RWE marked a sticking point, especially for the Green Youth. Among other things, it envisages letting two lignite-fired power plants run longer until 2024, but bringing forward the phase-out of coal in the Rhenish mining area by eight years to 2030.
The exit agreement, which the Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck and North Rhine-Westphalia Minister Mona Neubaur supported, also stipulates that the Lützerath settlement, inhabited by climate activists and a symbol of the climate protection movement, has to give way to the lignite excavators. It was only on Saturday that more than 1,000 people demonstrated at the Garzweiler opencast lignite mine for the preservation of the site.
