Audi accelerates electric vehicle plans with $12 billion investment
By 2025, Audi says that it will have “more than 30 electrified models in its product range” and “20 of which will be fully electric.”
Germany
Germany bans gay conversion therapy for minors
Germany is banning gay conversion therapy for minors saying the practice that purports to make patients straight has no scientific basis and often causes psychological harm.
Germany’s CO2 emissions set to fall “markedly” in 2019 as energy use declines
Germany is headed for second consecutive year of substantial reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, as a sharp drop in coal consumption is driving a decline of the country’s overall energy use in 2019.
E.ON transitions all of its 3.3 million U.K. customers to 100% renewable electricity
German electric utility E.ON has transitioned all of its 3.3 million residential customers in Britain to 100% renewable electricity at no extra cost.
German court allows Peruvian farmer to sue RWE over climate crisis
The lawsuit alleges that since RWE has produced an roughly 0.47% of GHG emitted by industry, it should be liable to pay an equivalent of the costs.
Germany tests its first ‘electric highway’ for trucks
Germany is testing a eHighway system with a hybrid truck receiving power from cables to keep it from using its combustion engine.
Bosch pledges to be carbon neutral by 2020
In over 400 locations worldwide, the company will no longer leave a carbon footprint, making Bosch the first major industrial enterprise to achieve this ambitious goal in a little over a year.
RWE abandons all present & future coal plans
RWE, one of Germany’s “big four” utilities, has cancelled plans for the BoA plus lignite coal-fired power station and promised to cease investing in new coal generation capacity.
Last fur farm in Germany shuts down
The country introduced a ban on all fur farming in 2017, with a deadline for closures required by 2022 to allow farmers to transition into new, less cruel industries.
Germany awards 505 MW in first ever large-scale solar PV tender
Germany’s Federal Network Agency has announced the winners of its first special tender for large-scale solar PV, in which 121 contracts were awarded totaling 505 megawatts (MW) of capacity at an average price of €0.065 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).