Is nuclear energy sustainable? Is the climate fund vulnerable?

First, the new Christian Democratic Federal Minister for Economic Affairs, Katharina Reiche, announced a supposed shift in the newly formed CDU-SPD government toward recognizing nuclear energy as sustainable. Three days later, the new Social Democratic Federal Minister for the Environment, Carsten Schneider, who is responsible for climate protection, contradicted Reiche. The SPD politician directly rebutted Reiche's statement, revealing a conflict within the federal cabinet of the newly formed CDU-SPD government. Germany had "opted for an energy system without nuclear power for good reasons," the business newspaper Handelsblatt, for example, quoted Reiche's cabinet colleague as saying. "Nuclear power is significantly more expensive than renewable alternatives, the expansion of which Germany has already made significant progress and which are also an economically successful location factor," several political journalists from the capital city quoted in the media. Nuclear power contains "incalculable risks," as can be seen "with regard to accidents and the spread of radioactive material," and which is why it "cannot seriously be described as sustainable."

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Reiche, the cabinet member responsible for energy policy, had announced that, in line with France's proposal, nuclear energy would be officially classified as a sustainable energy technology within the European Union (EU). This would apparently allow Germany to agree to include nuclear power in the so-called EU taxonomy, which would pave the way for climate policy subsidies in EU programs. Investments in nuclear power plants could also be classified as climate policy investments. According to the news agency DPA, Schneider described this statement on Friday as a "private opinion."

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Meanwhile, the contradiction remained less clear regarding plans by SPD politician and new Federal Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil, which could lead to cuts in the Climate and Transformation Fund. Green Party leader Felix Banaszak had essentially accused the SPD of breaking its word after the Finance Ministry announced initial key points of the planned federal budget. The Finance Ministry responded by saying that spending programs would be shifted from the federal budget to the Climate and Transformation Fund to secure their financing. However, their costs would only account for a fraction of the fund's expected additional revenue.