Germany committed to nuclear phase-out as Belgium suspends exit

The German government is committed to the country's exit from nuclear energy, Environment Minister Carsten Schneider said on Friday, after Belgian lawmakers voted to suspend an atomic power phase-out.

He was reacting to the Belgian parliament's decision to drop the country's nuclear power phase-out plans in a vote on Thursday.

Germany's new coalition government, made up of Chancellor Friedrich Merz's conservative bloc and Schneider's Social Democrats, is not planning to overturn the country's exit from atomic energy, which was decided in 2011 following the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

"There is a social consensus in Germany to stop using it," Schneider said after a meeting with state environment ministers in western Germany. "And the government's decision on this is also clear in my opinion."

The minister, who took office last week, said that Germany has made "a major transition to renewable energies."

By 2030, 80% of electricity demand is set to be covered by renewables, he said.

"Other countries are of course free to decide what they do," he said about the Belgian decision. "The Belgians are independent, they have to decide. We are on a different path."

A nuclear power plant is "insanely expensive," Schneider added. "The future is green in the long term and it is also cheaper as a result."