Author: Paul Hockenos


Paul Hockenos is a Berlin-based journalist and author of Berlin Calling: A Story of Anarchy, Music, the Wall and the Birth of the New Berlin.

Community-owned renewables now span all of Europe

In 2019, the EU set into motion dedicated legislation to expand renewable energy communities (RECs) where they already exist, and enable citizen energy in countries – mostly eastern and southern Europe – where there were none at all. The goals: to increase the use of renewable energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, enhance energy security, and also empower citizens – to make them part of the Energiewende. Member states had five years to transpose these directives and all of them did, though to different degrees and with diverse results. Paul Hockenos gives an overview at the occasion of the European Energy Communities Forum currently organised in Kraków, Poland.

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New German coalition puts climate protection on back burner

On 9 April 2025, Germany’s incoming government of Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and Social Democrats (SPD) concluded a governing ‘contract’ that paves the way for the partners to take office in May. The new chancellor will be CDU chief Friedrich Merz, who underscored in the campaign that climate protection would not be a top priority. Paul Hockenos reports.

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Harris-Walz ticket vague on post-Biden climate policy

With a moonshot US$500-billion spending programme announced in 2022, President Biden put the US on the map in terms of global climate policy. Thus far, the Democratic Party’s new candidates have been quiet on the issue. But the US climate community has no shortage of suggestions. Paul Hockenos reports. Read More

EU-China spat over EV tariffs: a race to the bottom?

In a rational world, Europe’s climate-conscious representatives would oppose surcharges that make clean tech, like electric vehicles (EVs) regardless of their origin, more costly. But that’s not the case: environmentalists warn that relying on Chinese imports will undermine a key promise of the European Green Deal, namely economic momentum and high-wage jobs within the bloc. Paul Hockenos reports. Read More