Socialising Energy - Lessons from radical housing campaigns in Germany

However, this is no cause for celebration – the green- capitalist project is grossly insufficient to address the magnitude of the climate crisis, and it is dysfunctional due to its reliance on transferring the costs of transformation onto most of the population via the market. [...] Despite this, the negotiated deal only advanced the phase-out from 2038 to 2030, provided generous compensation payments to energy companies, and allowed the continued exploitation of lignite reserves until 2030.135 This led to a heated battle over the village of Lützerath, which is threatened with destruction by the plans of the energy giant RWE to expand a 66 km! lignite mine. [...] The campaign has presented a concept for the administration of the flats to be expropriated, in which the tenants, as well as representatives of civil society, make decisions in council structures, with the state playing only a minor role. [...] The current ownership structures and marketisation in the German energy system are a product of the Europe-wide liberalisation of energy systems that have been pushed through since the 1990s in the context of the creation of a single EU internal energy market. [...] The turn of parts of the climate movement towards trade unions, as well as the corresponding climate turn in parts of the trade unions, could form the basis for further alliances.