Christoph Bals of NGO Germanwatch criticised the agreement would not honour the coal commission's compromise and that the phase-out would not be carried out smoothly but rather in several large steps. "This deal does not consider that our emissions budget must not be exceeded."

Dave Jones, analyst at British climate NGO Sandbag, said it was "hard to paint this as good news," because decommissioning starts too slowly and finishes too late. With reference to an increase in RWE's share price following the agreement, Hanns Koenig from Aurora Energy Research said: "Whatever one may think about today's German coal exit announcement, investors clearly think it's a good deal for RWE." According to media reports, RWE will receive 2.6 billion euros in compensation payments and operators in eastern Germany 1.75 billion euros.

Simone Peter, head of the German Renewable Energy Federation (BEE) said while the agreement did not meet the coal commission's expectations and will not sufficiently bring down emissions, it should be lauded for the fact that "it sends a clear signal to operators and investors: the age of coal-fired power production in German is over." She urged the government to make good on its promise to boost renewable energy expansion to bolster the coal exit's success.

The head of industrial lobby group VDMA Power Systems, Matthias Zelinger, said the agreement has been a "breakthrough for climate action." Zelinger said the path chosen might be more expensive than market-based solutions. "But it is much more planable regarding structural economic change in the regions and for a plan-based reconfiguration of the energy supply."

The agreement makes Germany the largest economy on the globe with concrete plans to end the use of coal to produce electricity. A swift coal exit is more difficult for Germany in comparison to many other countries, because it is still heavily reliant on the fossil fuel, some of which is still mined domestically, and because it is phasing out nuclear power at the same time in its energy transition (Energiewende) towards renewables.

A government statement on the agreed phase-out roadmap said the expansion of renewable energy sources will be increased to reach the goal of a 65 percent share in power consumption by 2030 in order to compensate for the closure of coal power plants. It will also seek to expand combined heat and power systems and install "two gas plant capacities" to cushion "the vanishing of large quantities of controllable energy."