On the former front, we have the spectacle of Germany - a committed subsidiser of green energy - ruling out nuclear power in the wake of the Fukushima disaster, thereby ensuring that some of the filthiest coal on the planet will be burnt. The country needs back-up capacity when renewables are insufficient and nukes are absent. So it plans to use power stations powered by lignite (or "brown coal") as back-up and pay utilities to help them absorb the costs of keeping plants open.

Compensating the utilities holding lignite power in reserve is better for long-suffering shareholders than the other proposal on offer: a tax on all coal-based carbon emissions over a certain level. RWE, which owns half of Germany's lignite-fired capacity, will be a particular beneficiary. Following the shift, Berenberg added 4 per cent to its 2017 earnings per share estimate.

Come again... having rejected nuclear energy on environmental safety grounds, Germany is turning to brown coal to meet its energy needs. Reuters

But the fact remains that RWE has been too slow off the mark in renewables - just 7 per cent of power output, compared with 17 per cent at Eon, for example - and is still heavily exposed to nuclear and coal. Risks remain in both. The proposed coal regime runs only from 2017 to 2021; a per-tonne levy may follow. A legal challenge against a tax on nuclear energy was rejected by the European Court of Justice (although a German court could yet rule the other way).

RWE does not have the funds to alter its lignite dependence by acquisition. German wholesale power prices have fallen, limiting its cash flow. Debt is coming down but it is still four times earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation. Investors expect another dividend cut.

RWE's shares are down near 80 per cent over the past eight years and trade at a discount to European peers such as Eon, SSE and Spanish renewables trailblazer Iberdrola. That gap is justified - and likely to be persistent.

Financial Times