On 30 May 2011, the German government announced a plan to shut all nuclear reactors by 2022. Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen stated of the decision, "It's definite. The latest end for the last three nuclear power plants is 2022. There will be no clause for revision". Prior to the decision, Germany's renewable energy sector already provided 17% of Germany's electricity and employed about 370,000. The decision to phase-out nuclear power has been called the swiftest change of political course since unification. Only a year earlier Angela Merkel's government overturned a decade-old decision to close all nuclear plants by 2022.