Declining support for coal and nuclear phase-out

According to a survey, support for the coal and nuclear phase-out is declining among people in the Central German coalfields. Although a majority of 52 percent still fundamentally support the goals of the energy turnaround. In the two previous years, however, the approval was even higher at 55 and 61 percent.

These are the results of the "Central Germany Monitor" 2022, published on Thursday.

The representative online survey commissioned by the Metropolitan Region of Central Germany annually examines the opinion on the topics of energy transition, structural change and future technologies, as well as satisfaction with the living situation.

On the coal phase-out, 41 percent of respondents said at the end of last year that they supported it. In 2021, 48 percent had still signaled approval, in 2020 even 56 percent. The mood toward the nuclear phase-out has changed even more significantly. Only 26 percent still support it in principle - after 40 percent in 2021 and 58 percent in 2020.

At the same time, however, the approval ratings for the expansion of renewable energies are high: 87 percent support the expansion of solar energy, 80 percent the expansion of geothermal energy. For more wind energy voted 73 percent of respondents.

In the online survey from December 1 to 20, a total of 2025 people from Leipzig and Halle and the districts of Altenburger Land, Anhalt-Bitterfeld, Burgenlandkreis, Saalekreis, Leipzig, Mansfeld-Südharz and Nordsachsen were surveyed. The survey has been done since 2020.