Germany’s new government holds great promise

NO ONE LIKES waiting for a traffic light. But for Germans the wait is over. On November 24th a new ruling coalition was unveiled. Forming it took only two months after an election. (In the Netherlands parties are still haggling after eight.) Nicknamed “traffic light” after the colours of the parties that will make it up, it is a three-way contraption, Germany’s first since the 1950s, with the Social Democrats in the lead backed up by the Greens and the Free Democrats. But whether the incoming chancellor, Olaf Scholz, will offer dynamic leadership, rather than more of Germany’s recent drift, is hard to say.

We choose to be optimistic. The entry into the government of the world’s fourth-largest economy by the mainly pragmatic Greens is good news at a time of environmental peril. The devil is in the detail, and there is a lot of it already; the coalition deal comes in the form of a 177-page document laying out its pre-agreed policies. On climate change, these include a pledge to end the burning of coal for electric power by 2030 (eight years earlier than had previously been planned) and to raise the share of renewables to 80% by 2030, from a previous goal of 65%. There is also welcome attention to the nuts and bolts of how all these commitments will actually be achieved.