Hard coal and lignite will continue to help safeguard the nation’s energy supply in the future as well, but the contribution of German hard coal will be much smaller in the coming years than it was in the late 1980s. Especially as a consequence of unfavorable geological conditions, it is much more expensive than imported coal. In March 1997 the Federal Government, the governments of the coal-mining states of North Rhine-Westphalia and the Saarland, and the coal-mining industry agreed on a financial framework providing for a substantial reduction in public subsidies for the coal-mining industry by the year 2005.

The Federal Government still feels that it is justifiable to continue to use nuclear energy until such time as other comparably safe, environmentally friendly and inexpensive sources of energy are available. It must above all be stressed that this also helps to keep CO2 emissions down. In 1996, for instance, use of nuclear energy for the production of electricity prevented the emission of up to as many as 1 50 million tons of CO2. As always, safety has priority over profitability. The nuclear reactors in the Federal Republic of Germany are known throughout the world to conform to the highest safety standards.