Germany adds brown coal to energy exit under landmark deal

Germany is set to become the first country to drop both nuclear and coal power under a landmark agreement to compensate workers, companies and regional governments as it switches off brown coal-fired plants by 2038.

The government struck a deal worth more than 40 billion euros ($44.7 billion) in the small hours of Thursday morning with the premiers of Germany's coal-mining regions.

Once the heartland of Germany industry, the coal regions of North-Rhine Westphalia have fallen on hard times as traditional heavy industries have lost sway, while coal regions in the east have yet to fully shrug off the impact of four decades in Communist East Germany.

Designed to ensure Europe's largest economy meets its 2030 target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, the exit will be accompanied by heavy investments in renewable energy.

"Germany, one of the strongest and most successful industry nations in the world, is taking huge steps towards leaving the fossil fuel era," Finance Minister Olaf Scholz told a news conference. The decision marks a major turnaround for Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative-Social Democrat coalition.