Germany sets out plan to abandon fossil fuels by 2045, Merkel returns to spotlight with youth talk series, Germany unveils sweeping crackdown on welfare fraud and more news on Thursday, September 24th.
Thursday’s top story: Germany sets out plan to abandon fossil fuels by 2045
Germany on Wednesday unveiled a roadmap for abandoning fossil fuels by 2045, making Europe’s largest economy only the third country to have done so after France and the Netherlands.
Though almost 200 countries pledged at COP28 climate negotiations in 2023 to wean off fossil fuels, few have presented concrete plans, Germany’s environment ministry said.
Germany’s measures include building up renewable power, greater reliance on electric cars and the application of European Union carbon trading schemes to drive industrial polluters away from fossil fuels, the ministry statement added.
German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider told the UN General Assembly that the Middle East war showed why fossil fuels should be dumped.
“It is not just extreme weather events around the world that demonstrate how urgently we need to do more to protect the climate,” he said.
READ ALSO: Environmental group challenges Germany’s climate plan in court
“If the situation in the Strait of Hormuz determines whether people can still afford their daily commute to work, that is not a good state of affairs,” he added.
Fentje Jacobsen, a climate policy advisor at the WWF, said the roadmap largely restated existing initiatives without adding “new ideas or additional ambitions”.
“The current government is meanwhile planning to rely less on renewables and more on gas,” she added.
Energy Minister Katherina Reiche favours building new gas-fired power plants to help stabilise the electricity grid and help offset the intermittency of renewable sources like wind and solar.
Söder threatens Berlin funding deal after Left’s election victory
Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder has called for a review of Germany’s recently renewed Capital City Agreement following the Left Party’s victory in Berlin’s state election.
The CSU leader said he would seek to reopen the agreement if Berlin’s new political leadership continues to pursue plans to expropriate large housing companies. The deal, signed last week, guarantees increased federal funding for Berlin between 2028 and 2037, including €2.9 billion for cultural institutions over the next decade.
‘Expropriate Real Estate Conglomerates’. Left Party lead candidate Elif Eralp is congratulated by supporters, but her party’s plans to socialise housing stock in the city are not universally popular. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Sebastian Gollnow
READ ALSO: What does Die Linke’s election win mean for foreigners in Berlin?
The comments mark an escalation in the political fallout from the Left Party’s election success and add to a growing national debate over housing policy, public spending and relations between Germany’s federal states.
Ahead of the Saxony-Anhalt election, where the AfD emerged as the strongest party, Söder argued that reform of Germany’s financial equalisation system should not be used to punish states for their voting choices.
Merkel Unplugged: Former chancellor returns to spotlight with youth talk series
Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel is set to return to the public stage with a new discussion series aimed at engaging directly with young people across the country. The four-part programme, titled Merkel Unplugged, will see the former CDU leader meet school classes from around Germany at the Deutschlandradio studios in Berlin.
The initiative, announced by Deutschlandfunk Kultur, is designed to provide an open exchange on the questions, concerns and perspectives of younger generations, away from the pressures of day-to-day politics.
Organisers say the discussions will be conducted “on equal footing”, encouraging students to debate issues and share their views with one of Germany’s most influential post-war political figures.
The series has already generated considerable interest, with more than 70 school classes applying to take part since the start of the academic year.
Merkel, who has largely stayed out of the public eye since leaving office in 2021, said she was looking forward to hearing directly from young people and discussing the challenges they face.
Angela Merkel (CDU), former German Chancellor, pictured at the opening of the exhibition “Kokoschka’s Adenauer. Warhol’s Brandt.” Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Kay Nietfeld
Drawing on more than three decades in politics, she said the conversations could help demonstrate that complex issues often allow for many different viewpoints rather than a single correct answer.
Merkel Unplugged will launch in mid-October on Deutschlandfunk platforms.
READ ALSO: Everything that changes in Germany in October 2026
Germany unveils sweeping crackdown on welfare fraud
The German government has approved a far-reaching package of measures aimed at tackling social welfare fraud, with a particular focus on schemes involving vulnerable immigrants from poorer EU member states.
The action plan, approved by the Federal Cabinet, includes tighter data-sharing between government agencies, increased checks on benefit claims and tougher penalties for employers who use bogus employment contracts. Authorities will also be able to halt basic income payments to individuals subject to enforceable arrest warrants until they begin serving their prison sentences.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the reforms would prevent abuse of the welfare system, while Labour Minister Bärbel Bas argued that fraud undermines public confidence in the welfare state. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said the measures would close loopholes exploited by criminal networks.
Officials say organised gangs often recruit people from south-eastern Europe, house them in substandard accommodation and provide fake work contracts to facilitate claims for benefits such as child allowance. Many of those involved are believed to be victims of exploitation themselves.
The reforms will also give local authorities stronger powers to tackle derelict properties linked to such schemes. The government aims to implement the measures before the end of the year.
New evidence reopens mystery of Hitler’s niece’s death
Fresh historical evidence has revived long-standing questions surrounding the death of Adolf Hitler’s niece, Geli Raubal, nearly a century after the case was officially ruled a suicide.
According to a report in Der Spiegel, newly discovered documents in a Munich archive cast doubt on the accepted account of Raubal’s death in September 1931. The 23-year-old died from a gunshot wound inflicted by a pistol belonging to Hitler, who at the time was a rising far-right political figure.
The exact nature of Hitler’s relationship with Raubal, the daughter of his half-sister Angela Raubal, was the subject of intense speculation at the time.
The official investigation concluded that Raubal took her own life and that her body was discovered on September 19th while Hitler was in Nuremberg, providing him with what appeared to be a clear alibi.
But historian Harald Sandner has uncovered records, including death notices and an official registry entry, indicating that the body may have been discovered a day earlier, when Hitler was still in Munich.
While no conclusive proof of wrongdoing has emerged, the findings have fuelled speculation that police sympathetic to the Nazi movement may have altered records to shield Hitler from scrutiny.
With reporting by AFP.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: thelocal.de
