Forum

The Energy Talks at the Reichstag organized by the Clean Energy Forum and moderated by Dr. Friedbert Pflüger covered also in 2025 a wide range of important energy and climate policy topics resulting in these key messages:

1. Expectation at the beginning of the year and in the course of the Bundestag election on 23 February 2025:
   
   
   • The federal government must act more pragmatically, reliably and with greater involvement of municipalities in climate policy. It is ikey that the hydrogen ramp-up will be advanced in a multi-coloured way and that social acceptance and competitiveness be strengthened through lower prices;
     
     
   • Maintaining ambitious climate targets while prioritizing security of supply, affordability and technology openness;
     
     
   • CCUS is essential for the success of the energy transition.
     
     
2. The energy transition cannot be achieved without molecules, but renewable energies and green hydrogen remain at the heart of the energy transition, and they are also in the national strategic security interest. Companies in the automotive industry want electric mobility and renewable fuels as two options combined.
   
   
3. “Rethinking energy” means that the European CO2 emissions trading system (EU ETS) is the key instrument for achieving climate neutrality. However, it remains controversial whether the ­current level of ambition can be maintained and whether energy-intensive industries can or should remain in Germany.
   
   
4. The energy transition runs the risk to fail if the protection of soils and tropical rainforests is not made a top issue in the fight against climate change. Climate neutrality can only be achieved in a balance between nature and the requirements of a zero carbon energy supply.
   
   
5. Artificial intelligence could make all assumptions about future energy demand obsolete and give the energy transition a completely new direction.
   
   
6. Energy, and gas in particular, are the cornerstones of maintaining close European-American relations in times of global turbulence. American LNG is crucial for balancing the trade balance between the US and Europe. While the EU sees LNG deliveries as a temporary solution, the expectation in the US is that Europe will be the main buyer of American liquefied natural gas for the next decades.
   
   
7. Nuclear fusion is on the cusp of becoming another clean technology in the future energy mix. If it is really wanted, the first fusion reactors can go into operation in the mid-2030s. The potential is great, especially in Germany.
   
   
8. Energy storage systems will be a central topic of the energy transition debate next year, they are the key to its success. This consensus has only recently been formed on all sides, and this is a good basis for finding viable solutions before the end of this Bundestag election term.