With US President Barack Obama and the 2016 Democratic presidential candidates rolling out their climate change strategies, now is a good time to take a look at what has worked – and what has not – in Germany and the rest of Europe.
A new incentives initiative seeks to complete Germany’s transition to renewables with an appeal to business and a focus on a long-neglected area: the heating and cooling sector. Government support for solar and biogas heat may give the Energiewende a further push in the right direction.
Removing regulations slowing the build-up of renewable systems for consumers and industry, considering complementary methods of integrating fluctuating flows of renewable energy, and greening the transport sector through fuel innovations: these are three of the developments we may see in Germany’s renewable energy transition in 2015.
What a difference a year makes: Germany’s transition to renewable energy showed positive forward momentum, with increasing energy production from renewables, increased exports, decreased carbon emissions, and decreasing consumer prices. The next challenge is to improve efficiency.
Former Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Fu Ying on the […]
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BERLIN POLICY JOURNAL is a bimonthly digital magazine on international affairs, edited in Germany’s capital and published by the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). It is best read via our app – on GooglePlay and the Apple AppStore – on tablets and smart phones. Check out this website for previews, full-length articles, and current blog posts.
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+++ The Kremlin is looking to exploit the transatlantic rift, warns Reid Standish; Kadri Liik argues that the West’s uncoordinated Russia policy is not necessarily a bad thing; “Donald Trump is hostile to Europe,” explains former US deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes in an interview; Steven Pifer dissects Trump’s INF blunder; Annabelle Chapman profiles Warsaw’s new mayor Rafal Trzakowski; Ben Knight takes the measure of Germany’s CDU under its new leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer; Derek Scally explains the real meaning of a “Hard Border” in Ireland (Words Don’t Come Easy); “Don’t Count Your Spitzens before They Hatch,” warns David Keating in our “Red Herring & Black Swan” column; and much more +++