At the United Nations General Assembly, Germany placed itself among a small but growing group of nations willing to name a date for the end of fossil fuels — 2045 — framing the decision not merely as a climate obligation but as a reckoning with economic fragility and geopolitical exposure. Environment Minister Carsten Schneider invoked the Iran war and a €76 billion annual import bill to argue that dependence on foreign fuel is itself a form of vulnerability. The announcement is significant, yet the distance between a roadmap presented in New York and the subsidies, delays, and internal disagr