Europe’s global strategic interests have become inseparable from managing climate risk and the global Energy Transition, write Luca Bergamaschi, Nick Mabey, Jonathan Gaventa and Camilla Born of the independent climate and energy think tank E3G. In a new report, EU foreign policy in a changing climate, they set out how Europe can make these themes a central thread in its foreign policy.
Author: Energiewende Team
Minnesota leading energy innovation
Minnesota’s 2025 Energy Action Plan is an ambitious attempt to increase renewable energy and strengthen the state’s economy. It could also serve as a model for other states in the region to work on reducing emissions and advancing local solutions.
The British bias towards expensive nuclear power
Why has Hinkley C been approved, despite huge costs and public outcry? Dr Phil Johnstone summarizes the new report ‘Understanding the Intensity of UK Policy Commitments to Nuclear Power,’ raising questions about British transparency and democracy.
In Poland, an Ohioan finds a parallel world on climate policy
In both Poland and Ohio, citizens are fighting for clean air and clean energy. Despite an anti-renewable turn in state policy, locals are attempting to cut carbon emissions. Kathiann Kowalski compares Warsaw and Cuyahoga County’s efforts.
“Sustainable energy for all” transforms not only how energy is generated, but also how it is perceived
The Paris Climate Agreement and the inclusion of energy in the Millennium Development Goals were two key moments in 2015, writes Marie-José Nadeau, Chair of the World Energy Council and member of the Advisory Board of the SE4all initiative of the United Nations, which presented a new five-year strategy in Brussels last week. According to Nadeau, this new strategy has the potential to impact the way energy is perceived across the world, in addition to bringing improvements in energy access. This will have important implications for the global energy sector.
The Ukrainian crisis can be solved—with an Energiewende
A Ukrainian Energiewende could go a long way to resolving the current geopolitical crisis around the country, writes Oleg Savitsky of the National Ecological Centre of Ukraine in a new report for the Succow Stiftung. According to Savitsky, it would reduce Ukraine’s dependence on Russian gas and uranium as well as on coal from the breakaway regions, while at the same time reducing pollution, greenhouse gas emissions and the risk of a nuclear disaster. It would also help to combat corruption and usher in economic growth and a more equitable society. Savitsky calls on the EU and Germany to set up a “Marshall Plan” to bring about a Ukrainian energy transition, rather than trying to maintain Ukraine as a failed gas transit state.
China’s energy transition: rapid growth on a long road
China set a world record, again, in 2015 by adding more installed capacity of both wind and solar in a single year than any other country (32.5 GW of wind and 18.3 GW of solar). By the fourth quarter of 2015, China overtook Germany with the largest installed capacity of solar power in the world (with a total of 43 GW). Though China’s increasingly ambitious policies have ushered in rapid gains in renewable energy, Rebecca Coombs examines the country’s continued over-reliance on coal, which suggests a long road ahead towards a true clean energy transition.
Uruguay: revolution rather than energy transition?
In less than a decade, Uruguayan citizens have been privileged witnesses of a fast change, a true revolution, in the energy sector, and they are beginning to perceive its results. Wilson Sierra examines Uruguayan policy and its tremendous progress.
Is policy on track for an energiewende in Japan?
The Fukushima nuclear disaster put Japanese nuclear power on hold. In the five years since, Japan’s policies have ushered in renewable energy, but Kimiko Hirata sees continued coal expansion as likely.
Israel: the “energy island’s” transition to energy independence
After several decades of stagnation, the recent discovery of significant natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean, which could supply Israel’s energy needs for the coming decades, and the introduction of domestic renewable energy generation could signal a rapid energy transition for Israel. Noam Segal explains.