BERLIN, Aug. 28 (Xinhua) -- The German federal government would grant billions of euros in aid to the regions affected by the coal withdrawal, according to a draft law passed by the German cabinet on Wednesday.
"We want to preserve and expand jobs, sustain the quality of life of the people living in the regions, and at the same time make an important contribution to climate protection by phasing out coal-fired power generation," said German Minister for Economics Peter Altmaier.
Altmaier said the draft law was "a great opportunity" to create new jobs before old ones were eliminated and noted that the money would flow "very soon" to the affected German regions.
The German government's coal commission had decided at the end of January that Germany should gradually phase out the generation of electricity from coal by 2038.
"The coal phase-out is the reason and condition for the German government's structural support for the regions," noted the draft of the so-called structural strengthening act adopted on Wednesday.
The draft provided for the distribution of up to 14 billion euros (15.52 billion U.S. dollars) "for particularly significant investments" in the lignite regions of Brandenburg, North Rhine-Westphalia, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt.
In addition, the German government wanted to establish more public institutions in the affected regions as well as rapidly expanding the transport infrastructure and increasing research and funding programs.
The aim would be to create up to 5,000 jobs in public authorities and other federal institutions in the regions affected by the coal exit by 2028, according to the German government's plan.
The draft law noted that 40 billion euros had been earmarked for coping with Germany's withdrawal from coal.
The law on structural aid would only come into force once there was a law on the concrete withdrawal from coal as the German government was currently negotiating compensation with the energy company RWE for taking coal-fired power plants off the grid.
"When lignite mining comes to an end, we will not simply leave them to their fate," said German Social Democrats (SPD) deputy faction leader Soeren Bartol, stressing that the SPD would keep its promises to people living in the coal mining areas.
Oliver Krischer, deputy leader of the Green parliamentary group, on the other hand, spoke of missed opportunities and argued that "with this law the federal government is undermining climate protection goals".
"Instead of turning the coal regions with their large open-cast mining areas into focal points for the expansion of renewable energies and CO2-free energy generation," the German government was "distributing money without any sense or reason," according to Krischer.