Yes! King Coal falls in Bremen

Across the world, Germany is considered to be terribly green. This is mainly due to us being obsessive about our garbage, I guess. In recent years, it may also have had something to do with our wind and solar industries booming and with German leaders talking tough at international climate negotiations.
The reality is, however, that Germans emit more CO2 per year even than most Europeans. Every fifth German job, or so, depends on the car industry, and old- style industries, such as coal and chemicals, are still very important to our economy. Our fossil-fuel hungry utilities, meanwhile, have a complete stranglehold over our politicians - mainly because their bosses and our politicians tend to be chums (or, indeed, the same people ...).
Of course, it is wonderful that Germany is saying the right things, mostly, at international climate negotiations. But our record at home is - especially in that context - highly hypocritical, embarrassing even. We still expand roads and airports like there is no tomorrow. And it could all get much worse in coming months and years, as many of our energy production plants near the end of their life. Many utilities are considering replacing them with new coal plants. This would tie Germany further into fossil-fuel dependency and would make achieving our national climate targets a trifle difficult.
Now is the time to take a different path and to start a true renewable energy revolution. Luckily, local opposition - with a strength the German environmental movement has not seen for a while - is forming to stop the 27 (or so) new coal plants that are planned. And yesterday, there was the first success! Bremen's utility, swb, announced that they will not go ahead with a new coal plant. This, as the local Friends of the Earth group says, is "the right decision that shows the way to the future". Let's hope so. And let's kill every single one of those 27 plants!
P.S. The map above is taken from BUND Bremen.