The 10th "Energy Transition Congress" organized by the German Energy Agency (dena) was opened here by the country's Finance Minister Olaf Scholz on Monday.
During the two-day event, manufacturing experts, service providers, scientists, researchers and representatives of energy startups will discuss strategies and solutions to achieve the energy transition, according to dena.
Germany "must now move ahead," Scholz said. "We have the technologies, we have the engineers, and we have the means."
Referring to Germany's ongoing task of replacing traditional sources of energy generation with renewable energies, dena described the energy transition as "one of the greatest and most exciting challenges of our time."
The German government has recently revitalized its energy transition through a set of new climate laws. One measure agreed by the German government was a CO2 pricing scheme, which will come into effect in 2021, starting at 10 euros per ton of carbon.
Scholz stressed that it was also important to seek citizens' support for climate protection. The new measures would send a clear price signal to German consumers, he said.
The expansion of renewable energies was "the alpha and the omega" of the energy transition, said Andreas Kuhlmann, dena chief executive, stressing that "concerted action" was needed to increase public acceptance.
Responding to criticisms from environmental groups and economists that the agreed carbon price was set too timidly, Scholz recalled that Germany's 40 million households and car drivers could not change their behavior from one day to the next.
Germany's car manufacturers have long struggled to electrify their fleets of highly-developed combustion engine vehicles, but BMW, for example, has already announced plans to double its electric vehicle sales by 2021.
"Mobility must not be at the expense of the climate. We must find other mobility solutions," said Klaus Froehlich, member of the Board of Management of BMW, at the opening of the congress.
Editor:Cherie
