On Saturday, the last three operating, fully operational nuclear power plants Emsland, Isar II and Neckarwestheim II were finally disconnected from the German and European energy system. They provided CO₂-free electricity to more than 10 million households. They saved annual CO₂ emissions of 30 million tons of CO₂ per year.
The German government, against the findings of science and its own public, has closed down all German nuclear power plants with a total capacity of more than 20 GW. Only a portion of this energy will be replaced by renewable energy sources. The facts show that Germany is developing high-carbon gas power and returning to coal power, including lignite power, which is the most harmful to the climate, nature and clean air.
Pragmatic climate organizations from around the world have been protesting against the shutdown for years, including, working within the international association RePlanet, the Polish organization FOTA4Climate.
On Saturday, April 15, scientists and activists gathered in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to express their opposition to the German government’s anti-climate policies for the last time and to thank the employees of the closing power plants for their many years of work on behalf of people, climate and nature, and to ensure that they will support the preservation and development of nuclear energy worldwide as an effective tool for reducing the size and impact of climate and environmental catastrophe.
– We need to take the issue of climate change seriously, at the moment we are not prepared for it. We need to use all available resources for it. The biomass of humans and the mass of livestock exceeds the biomass of other animals many times over at the moment. This is our domination over nature. Nuclear power allows us to get energy when we need it, while preserving nature. We need this solution among other solutions to the climate crisis. We need renewable energy sources, we need nuclear. We need to live together with nature, and nuclear energy will help us achieve a sustainable future,” said Prof. Szymon Malinowski, a climate researcher and climate activist, in front of the Brandenburg Gate.
The protest was combined with the delivery of a letter from Nobel laureates to Chancellor Olaf Scholz to get Germany to reverse its misguided decisions. Like many previous letters, it had no effect.
Activists assured that they will work around the world for the preservation and development of nuclear power as an effective tool for mitigation and adaptation to climate change, as well as saving nature’s resources and biodiversity.
The organizers invited Greta Thunberg and the German climate movements to the demonstration. No one responded to the invitation. The closure of Germany’s nuclear power plants means about a billion additional tons of CO₂ in the atmosphere.
Today, together with climate activists and scientists from around the world we gathered to protest the closure of Germany’s last 3 nuclear reactors.
Here's how that went! 🧵 pic.twitter.com/kDZHqDz1UD
— FOTA4Climate 🌳🏞⚛️ (@fota4climate) April 15, 2023
Letter from Nobel Prize laureates and leading scientists: Call for continued operation of German nuclear power plants.