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To exit coal, Germany’s governing coalition digs a bigger hole
Just before summer break, Germany’s parliament finally committed to phasing out coal. But the conservative government’s plan doesn’t really call for meaningful shutdowns until 2023 as coal capacity slowly rolls offline through 2038. Instead, the law greenlights a large new coal plant while awarding billions of Euros in direct payments to the aggrieved coal operators and affected regional governments, directly ignoring key recommendations of...
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The secret burning of trees: the often overlooked role of biomass
Biomass has gotten a bit hot of late. The subject of several high profile documentary films including Michael Moore and Jeff Gibbs’ highly controversial Planet of the Humans as well as last year’s Burned, lawmakers within the European Union are finally starting to question its classification as a carbon-neutral and renewable fuel—especially as more scientific evidence emerges to the contrary. Despite advances in wind...
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Fracking in Germany: truly banned, allowed a little or even soon back in vogue?
Lots of people the world over believe that fracking is banned in Germany. This view is shared by climate and environmental activists and promoted as a positive example. But unfortunately it is not quite true. Although Germany likes to be seen by the international community as a model of green and climate-friendly behaviour, it does in fact explicitly permit fracking in some cases. Furthermore,...
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Germany’s losing renewable jobs
The goal of 500,000 people employed in the renewable energy sector moves further out of reach every year. The trend is now embedding in wider reports of “environmental jobs,” not reported separately. Craig Morris takes a look.
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A Layman’s Guide to “Thinking the World Anew”
The German political economist Maja Göpel’s new book is currently Germany’s No. 1 bestselling work of non-fiction. It reaches back to the beginnings of capitalism to understand how we’ve landed in our present overlapping crises of environmental degradation, economic disparity, and illiberal democracy. In order to confront them, we have to first change the way we think about the big-ticket issues of our day,...
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EU recovery plan goes green and excludes nuclear
On 27 May the European Commission (EC) put forward its proposal for a major post-Covid-19 recovery plan. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament that what underpinned the programme was a determination “to hold governments more accountable for fighting climate change and saving our nature.” David Lowry explores what this means for the continent’s climate policy and the role of nuclear energy.
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Gender awareness: towards a sustainable and just energy transition. Part I
Gender frameworks within energy efficiency efforts are key for the construction of a more sustainable future. In this three-part series Kathrin Meyer explains the connection between energy and gender and why sustainable energy supply is not feasible without the use of gender-sensitive data.
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Mexico’s strange corona response: putting a brake on energy transition
Mexico’s government has had a bad corona run. The pandemic hit the country when the economy was already shrinking. But instead of profiting from the resulting drop in electricity demand of 9 percent in order to speed up the expansion of renewables and the much needed modernization of his country’s energy sector, President Lopez Obrador – widely referred to as AMLO – is instead...
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Is Floating Wind Energy the Next Big Thing?
Many experts say that offshore wind must go much deeper into oceans to help hit new climate targets. Massive turbines that float on the sea fit the bill – but the cost is still high. Paul Hockenos has the details. *
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SA’s coronavirus recovery plan should consider value of women’s ‘invisible’ work
The South African government still needs to drawing up a just transition plan that will support workers who are likely to lose their jobs as the country moves its economy away from dependence on carbon-emitting production, such as mining and downstream industries. But the coronavirus lockdown has shown the invisible contribution that women’s labour makes to the economy. Could the country’s coronavirus stimulus package...
This website highlights how energy transitions around the world are moving forward. It shows how they work, and what challenges lie ahead. The e-book on Germany’s Energiewende explains the country’s politics and policies, often regarded as the front runner in the global energy transition.