France and Germany should work together towards a clean energy future, as both countries' 

baseload-heavy power systems are set to exit coal and nuclear, Berlin-based think tank Agor

a Energiewende  and  the  French  Institute  for  Sustainable  Development and International 

Relations, or IDDRI, said Wednesday. 

The joint paper was released ahead of Thursday's joint French-German cabinet meetings in 

Paris, the  first  under new French President Macron. It calls for a joint strategic vision on the 

two  country's  energy  transition,  a joint  initiative  on  carbon  pricing,  and  the coordinated 

development of renewable energies, among other elements. It also called for a new focus on 

"transport transition"  following  new  French energy minister Nicolas Hulot's call last week for 

the end of gasoline and diesel car sales in France by 2040. 

According  to  the  think  tanks,  energy policy decisions taken in one country invariably have 

repercussions  for  the  other, as well as their neighbors, with Germany and France currently 

Europe's  biggest  exporters  of  electricity  or  around  100  TWh annually, but both planning 

nuclear and coal exits set to reduce their baseload power oversupply. 

Germany  and  France  have  worked  closely  together in the past setting up joint half-yearly 

cabinet  meetings  in  2003,  but  the  election of Macron has renewed the potential for closer 

cooperation  acros s all areas with German Chancellor Angela Merkel's party focusing closely 

on the Franco-German cooperation to reform the European Union in the wake of Brexit. 

The  paper  includes  a  proposal  to  exclude  green energy investments from eurozone debt 

criteria, integrated national energy and climate plans as well as a new 'high commissioner for 

climate  change'  position  proposal  to  coordinate  energy  and  climate   meeting  within  the 

European Union. 

Regarding joint carbon price measures, which would benefit French nuclear but disadvantage 

German  coal  plants,  the  think  tanks  propose  a clear commitment by France to reduce the

share of nuclear in their power mix.