Germany to mothball largest coal power plants to meet climate targets

Levy on most polluting power stations is scrapped, but largest brown coal-fired plants will be shuttered as Germany moves to cut emissions 40% by 2020

Germany agreed on Thursday to mothball about five of the country's largest brown coal power plants to meet its climate goals by 2020, after months of wrangling between the parties in chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition.

But Merkel and the leaders of her two junior coalition partners also, in effect, agreed to set up a "capacity reserve" system where utilities could switch on the brown coal plants if there were power shortages in the country.