German lawmakers have finalised the country’s long-awaited phase-out of coal as an energy source, backing a plan that environmental groups say isn’t ambitious enough and free marketeers criticise as a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Bills approved by both houses of parliament envision shutting down the last coal-fired power plant by 2038 and spending some 50 billion euros ($56 billion) to help affected regions cope with the transition.

Utility groups, labour unions and energy consumers welcomed the agreement as it allows them time and money to cope with the transition, but green groups said the time schedule was too slow and the deal too costly for taxpayers. 

Economy minister Peter Altmaier praised the deal, calling it a defining moment in German history. “This is an irrevocable beginning of the end of the fossil fuels age,” he said in parliament. 

The plan is part of Germany’s ‘energy transition’ — an effort to wean Europe’s biggest economy off planet-warming fossil fuels and generate all of the country’s considerable energy needs from renewable sources. Achieving that goal is made harder than in comparable countries such as France and Britain because of Germany’s existing commitment to also phase out nuclear power by the end of 2022.

Germany closed its last black coal mine in 2018, but it continues to import the fuel and extract its own reserves of lignite, a brownish coal that is abundant in the west and east of the country. Officials warn that the loss of mining jobs could hurt those economically fragile regions, though efforts are already under way to turn the vast lignite mines into nature reserves and lakeside resorts.

Schulze, the environment minister, said there would be regular government reviews to examine whether the end date for coal can be brought forward. She noted that by the end of 2022, eight of the country’s most polluting coal-fired plants will have already been closed.

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