The German chancellor is visiting Canada on what he has described as an urgent mission to wean Germany off its dependence on Russian gas and seek new energy supplies, as pressure mounts on his government to find solutions to a looming crisis.
Olaf Scholz and his Economy Minister Robert Habeck, accompanied by a team of officials and business leaders, plan to sign an agreement to establish hydrogen supply chains as part of Berlin’s efforts to accelerate its transition to to renewable energies.
Upon his arrival in Montreal during the two-day visit, Scholz said that Canada “has natural resources just as rich as Russia, but the difference is that it is a reliable democracy.”
Scholz said “new fields of cooperation” had opened up with Canada since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A priority project, he said, on which the two countries wanted to work closely is the creation of a “hydrogen economy”. An agreement must be signed between Montreal and Berlin for future collaboration in the production and transport of hydrogen. Scholz is also due to discuss the delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Canada to Germany with his counterpart, Justin Trudeau.
The visit comes amid a heated debate in Germany sparked by growing concerns that Russia could completely shut off its already severely reduced gas flows to the country.
The government is facing pressure to extend the lives of Germany’s three remaining nuclear power plants, which are due to be switched off at the end of the year, as part of a phase-out strategy announced in 2011.
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In recent days there have even been calls to reinstate the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline from Russia, which the German government suspended in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Scholz said over the weekend that a decision on the nuclear plants would likely be made in the coming days. But Habeck, the Green leader, stressed that this would only help reduce gas consumption by 2% and said that “for the little it would bring us, it is the wrong decision”.
The government has single-handedly rejected the idea of ​​resurrecting the defunct Nord Stream 2 project, repeatedly referring to the idea as “morally reprehensible”. But the fact that it has been raised at all illustrates how much pressure is growing on Scholz to come up with workable strategies to deal with the unprecedented situation, which threatens to plunge Germany’s economy into recession and make millions of people face rising energy bills. and freezing the houses.
The deals reached with Canada will do little to help Germany in the near future, as it is expected to be hit by energy shortages and record prices this winter and next. The head of the intelligence service has warned of the dangers of unrest by a radicalized minority of right-wing extremists and conspiracy theorists, who he said were planning to exploit the situation. Leading economists have warned that rising energy bills, along with other increases in the cost of living, will push growing numbers of Germans into poverty and could spark social unrest.
In this context, the government wants to emphasize that once the infrastructure is in place to support hydrogen and LNG, Germany will be in a safer position. The sight of Scholz and Habeck landing in Montreal with their delegation is seen as sending an important immediate message to German voters that the government is taking action. In recent months, he has often been stunned into stasis as if stunned by the shock that Europe’s largest economy had become dangerously dependent on a single energy source in its quest for a green transition
Before the visit, Habeck said that Germany “was facing a very critical winter”.
Habeck told German television that the rapid filling of domestic gas storage facilities, currently at just under 80 percent of capacity, was encouraging, but warned that Russia could cut further the flow and so there was no room for complacency.
Currently only 20% of the gas levels due through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline reach Germany.