German industry has been hit very hard by the current energy crisis. It had not even recovered enough since 2021 to reach the level of 2018. The automotive sector in particular had lost heavily in 2020 and 2021. With the gas crisis, the chemical industry, metal or paper manufacturing and other energy-intensive industries have now gone into reverse gear.
There is no short-term substitute for the former gas imports from Russia. The German government has taken various measures to improve the supply of gas. But terminals for liquefied gas, for example, must first be built.
This leaves the federal government with little choice but to ensure that gas consumption is reduced. The federal government, on the other hand, should do everything it can to quickly expand the energy supply. Coal-fired power generation is necessary - for some time to come - but other means are better when it comes to protecting the climate. For one thing, as has happened in Belgium and elsewhere, for example, the available nuclear power plants - that would be up to six - should be used for at least another ten years. This would also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, which are significantly higher in German electricity production than in most of our European neighbors.
A pragmatic solution to the transition to renewables is urgently needed, but the German government seems to be refusing. Fracking shale gas would offer Germany the opportunity to reduce its dependence on imports. This is because Germany itself has extensive shale gas and shale oil resources of its own.
Instead, we are left with continued elevated core inflation as the government prefers to focus on expanding transfer payments, more greenhouse gas emissions from Germany through coal-fired power generation, at best little improvement in energy supply over the coming years, and therefore an increasing exodus of energy-intensive industrial production - including to North America.
(abridged version)
Rotary-Magazin: "Industriestandort Deutschland in Gefahr"