Acutally, On 26 January 2019, a group of federal and state leaders as well as industry representatives, environmentalists, and scientists made an agreement to close all 84 coal plants in the country by 2038.
It is especially Solar and Wind that are on the rise in Germany
The damage will be done by 2038. We need to stop pretending we have time to slowly wean off of fossil fuels. We're already facing feedback loops that are going to drastically change the climate. Just look at the graph on that page. Renewables have largely replaced nuclear... Which is largely a clean energy source while coal has barely changed and the use of gas has slightly increased. Except now we have nothing to cover baseload except for coal and we're still building new coal power plants.
They could have replaced coal with all the new renewable energy sources and thus reduce the CO2 output. But instead they somehow decided it was a good idea to shut down nuclear power plants before they shut down the last coal plant.
Per TWh produced, coal kills more than the power produced by Chernobyl.
Generation 4 reactors will very likely begin operation in the next 6-10 years. Just look at the integral molten salt reactor as an example.
Germany has always had a good environmental track record, which is why their bad decisions are interesting. It tells us about communication problems between researchers who study the impacts of energy generation and voters who are concerned about protecting the environment.
And politicians who were happy to simply outsource CO₂ emissions by closing their nuclear plants and buying electricity from other countries, which generate it from coal.
Yep - it's not in their electoral backyard. Another angle is that it seems Germany is becoming a giant in renewable tech. I mean, it looks like their big bet on that is paying off in pure economical terms. So the voters are unlikely to punish politicians for a move that seems to spell a lot of export money for Germany.
It is especially Solar and Wind that are on the rise in Germany
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_in_Germany