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Search our website for in-depth analysis (Dossiers), background info (Factsheets) or the latest News, interviewees (Experts) or 鶹 Events. Please use AND/OR to find more terms in one document, NOT to exclude terms, quotation marks “…” to find precise terms or use the filters below. Under “Show today’s news” you will find the very latest on the energy transition.

  • 16 May 2017 |

    Battered utilities take on start-ups in innovation race

    Utilities and the energy transition 16 May 2017, 00:00 As more and more countries around the globe embark on the transition to a low-carbon economy, a lot of lessons can be learned from the fate of Germany’s embattled power companies. Shaken to the core ...
  • 02 Jun 2021 |

    Germany between citizens’ energy and Nimbyism

    The People's Energiewende 02 Jun 2021, 11:00 Since the energy transition took off in 2000, millions of Germans have become energy producers, investing in solar panels on their houses and buying shares in wind parks. Citizens' engagement is one ...
  • Germany gets serious about decarbonising its prized heavy industry

    17 Jun 2020, 11:28 In its pursuit of climate-neutrality by mid-century, Germany has set its sights on extending the energy transition to its famed heavy industry. Sectors such as steel, cement and chemicals are some of the Energiewende's toughest ...
  • 29 Apr 2021 |

    Climate cabinet to put Germany back on track for 2030 targets

    Chancellor Merkel's coalition government aims to agree on steps and climate action law 29 Apr 2021, 12:00 [UPDATE adds 2021 Consitutional Court ruling that Climate Law is insufficient due to lack of emission reduction targets beyond 2030] Chancellor ...
  • News
  • 04 Sep 2020 |

    Germany faces packed election year as voters weigh climate against pandemic recovery

    04 Sep 2020, 15:15 The era of Chancellor Angela Merkel will come to an end when Germans head to the polls next autumn after what looks set to become an unusually dramatic run-up to the federal elections. With no clear front-runner for her succession in ...
  • 17 Oct 2016 |

    Grid agency launches sixth PV auction

    The Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) has started the sixth round of auctions for large-scale ground-mounted PV arrays. It increased the auction volume to 160 megawatts because a number of winners from previous auctions said they would not realise their ...
  • 18 Mar 2021 |

    German industry calls for faster climate-friendly refurbishment of buildings

    18 Mar 2021, 14:03 Expert BDI- Federation of German Industries Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Charlotte Nijhuis Climate & CO2 Heating 鶹 The Federation of German Industries (BDI) wants ...
  • Citizen participation as the key to energy transition success

    10 Mar 2015, 11:02 Since the energy transition took off in 2000, millions of Germans have become energy producers, investing in solar panels on their houses and buying shares in wind parks. Citizens' engagement is one reason that support for the ...
  • 02 Feb 2017 |

    “Germany to complete yet another coal plant“

    German utility Uniper is set to put its new coal plant Datteln 4 into operation despite a dire outlook for the industry in the country, Craig Morris writes on energytransition.org. “With a billion euros already sunk in the plant, Uniper’s decision to ...
  • 24 Oct 2018 |

    “We’re not adjusting the limit” – Merkel

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated her proposal to adapt Germany’s emissions law to prevent diesel driving bans in cities where nitrogen oxide limits are only slightly exceeded. In an interview with public broadcaster hr-iNFO, Merkel said this ...
  • Germany’s Energiewende paints Austria into a corner

    For now, Germany’s southern neighbour Austria benefits greatly from exports of cheap German power, but this arrangement is about to come to an end, Irmgard Kirschko writes in the Austrian newspaper Kurier. An “artificial shortage” at the border, which is ...
  • 28 Sep 2016 |

    鶹 demand for heating decreases further

    The energy demand to heat German apartment buildings fell six percent last year because of energy-efficient insulation and modernisation, according to a study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) cited in Süddeutsche Zeitung. The study is ...
  • 31 Jul 2020 |

    Steag coal compensation lawsuit “legitimate” but “politically explosive” – opinions

    31 Jul 2020, 12:22 Expert STEAG Electricity generator Fossil fuels Utilities Coal Handelsblatt / Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Hard coal power station operator Steag’s petition to the German Federal Constitutional Court to improve compensation for plant ...
  • 27 Nov 2020 |

    German mobility far from climate-friendly, car still has central role- study

    27 Nov 2020, 14:20 Expert Agora Verkehrswende Think tank on energy transition in the transport sector Transport Cars Freight Charlotte Nijhuis Transport Cars 鶹 Germany still has a long way to go in making mobility more environmentally and ...
  • 20 Jan 2017 |

    “China’s quota challenges VW”

    Germany’s largest car manufacturer VW struggles to comply with China’s planned quota for e-cars, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports. “The e-quota certainly is going to be a challenge,” a VW manager for China told journalists on Thursday in ...
  • 21 Aug 2017 |

    “Power grid not ready for e-car boom”

    The power grid in southern German states Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg is not ready to cope with a large increase of electric vehicles, news agency dpa says in an article carried by website General-Anzeiger online. Industry experts estimate that the ...
  • 17 Jun 2021 |

    Circular economy essential in achieving Germany’s climate targets – report

    17 Jun 2021, 13:04 Edgar Meza Resources & Recycling 鶹 A circular economy is vital in achieving a climate-neutral and competitive industrialised country, according to a new report by the Federation of German Industries (BDI) and ...
  • 17 Jun 2021 |

    New environmental lawsuit threatens Tesla Berlin factory with construction stop

    17 Jun 2021, 11:51 Sören Amelang Cars Tagesspiegel Tesla may have to stop construction of its "Gigafactory" near Berlin following new legal action brought by environmental NGOs, reports Thorsten Metzner in the newspaper Tagesspiegel. The ...
  • 18 Feb 2015

    In the media: E-mobility becomes commercially viable

    18 Feb 2015, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Öko-Institut Study: Up to 700,000 e-cars could be run profitably in commercial car fleets by 2020 Large numbers of e-cars could already be profitably operated in commercial car fleets, according to ...
  • 16 Jun 2021 |

    NGOs call for 80% renewable power share by 2030, early new combustion engine car ban

    16 Jun 2021, 12:21 Edgar Meza Climate & CO2 Renewables 鶹 The German environmental NGO umbrella association DNR and 54 other organisations are calling on the German government to back up the soon-to-be revised Climate Action Law with ...
  • 23 Sep 2019 |

    Planned coal exit auctions in Germany unlikely to achieve goals – analysis

    23 Sep 2019, 13:49 Expert Aurora 鶹 Research Bioenergy Electricity market Renewables Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2016 Energiewende Cost & Prices Finance Edgar Meza Coal Utilities 鶹 Government auctions aimed at shutting down Germany ...
  • 22 Feb 2019 |

    Australia could follow Germany’s coal phase-out model – commentary

    22 Feb 2019, 13:47 Sören Amelang 鶹 鶹 Coal International Sydney Morning Herald Australia faces similar challenges to Germany when it comes to phasing out coal and might want to follow Germany’s example by setting up a commission to work ...
  • Conservatives ponder earlier switch to market-based CO2 price for transport and heating

    15 Jun 2021, 10:53 Julian Wettengel Cost & Prices Elections & Politics Reuters / Tagesspiegel Background The conservative CDU/CSU union of outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel aims for an earlier switch from fixed prices to market-based prices in ...
  • 20 Feb 2019 |

    German school protests will focus on transport emissions on global strike day in March

    20 Feb 2019, 13:26 Rachel Waldholz Climate & CO2 Society Washington Post Tens of thousands of teenagers across Europe have skipped school since the beginning of the year, joining protests demanding action on climate change, Luisa Beck reports in the ...
  • 05 Jan 2017 |

    “Silicon Valley for renewable energies” in Hamburg?

    The northern German city of Hamburg hopes for a “Silicon Valley for renewable energies” as Siemens is testing a new energy storage system, writes Olaf Preuß for Welt Online. The system would heat up rock fill with excess wind power, which a turbine later ...
  • 02 Jan 2017 |

    “RWE faces townhall rebellion”

    Influential municipal shareholders are threatening to pull out of Germany's largest electricity provider, RWE, unless the company's prospects brighten, reports Jürgen Flauger in German business daily Handelsblatt Global Edition. Guntram Pehlke, ...
  • 07 Sep 2021 |

    Operator says Nord Stream 2 pipeline almost complete, bets on quick start of operations

    07 Sep 2021, 13:57 Benjamin Wehrmann Gas Security 鶹 / Die Welt The operator of the controversial gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 has announced that the project is almost complete. The last pipe segments connecting Germany and Russia through the ...
  • 18 Nov 2020 |

    G20 corona stimulus packages risk delaying climate action – report

    18 Nov 2020, 13:43 Charlotte Nijhuis 鶹 鶹 Green stimulus 鶹 Corona stimulus packages in G20 countries are set to delay climate action, according to a report published by Climate Transparency, an international partnership ...
  • 30 Mar 2022 |

    Autobahn project in central Berlin causes stir among government parties

    30 Mar 2022, 13:58 Benjamin Wehrmann Cars Cities Berliner Morgenpost / Der Tagesspiegel An announcement by Germany’s federal transport ministry (BMDV) to expand a motorway in the centre of Berlin has caused a stir among local politicians and could also ...
  • 30 Apr 2018 |

    German government coalition disagrees on CO₂ price

    The grand coalition of the conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) disagree on the possible introduction of a price on CO₂ emissions in sectors not covered by the European Union Emissions Trading System (ETS), write Jakob ...
  • 01 Mar 2021 |

    Number of e-buses in German public transport doubled in 2020, fuel cell falling behind – report

    01 Mar 2021, 14:08 Charlotte Nijhuis Transport Der Spiegel The number of electric buses in German public transport doubled last year compared to 2019, says a report published by consulting firm PwC, Der Spiegel writes. According to the analysis, the ...
  • 10 Jun 2021 |

    Long-term market outlook boosts confidence in wind energy sector

    10 Jun 2021, 13:56 Edgar Meza 鶹 鶹 Wind Business & Jobs 鶹 The future of the wind power sector is looking increasingly rosy according to the latest  Wind鶹 trend:index (WEtix), published by global wind energy event ...
  • 22 Feb 2019 |

    New north-south electricity highway takes shape

    22 Feb 2019, 13:23 Kerstine Appunn Grid 鶹 Grid operators TenneT and TransnetBW have presented their detailed plans for the route of Germany’s large north-south electricity line “SuedLink”, running from windy Schleswig-Holstein down to ...
  • 14 Jun 2018

    German coal commission to contribute to closing 2020 climate gap – minister

    Germany’s new commission to define a path and an end-date for an exit from coal-fired power generation should also help close the gap in emission reductions to reach the country’s 2020 climate goal, environment minister Svenja Schulze told the utility ...
  • “In the club of nuclear pals”

    Germany’s membership in the European Atomic 鶹 Community (Euratom) is a paradox since the country’s decision to phase out nuclear power in 2000, writes Joachim Wille in Frankfurter Rundschau. Provisions of the membership contract still called on ...
  • Climate and digitalisation Germany's key challenges of the future- Merkel

    11 Sep 2019, 13:45 Julian Wettengel Climate & CO2 Elections & Politics 鶹 German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said protecting the climate and digitalisation are the two key challenges that Germany faces in the future. Her comments ...
  • 26 Feb 2020 |

    Ministry plans to soften controversial wind distance rules – report

    26 Feb 2020, 13:52 Expert BEE- German Renewable 鶹 Federation Bundesverband Erneuerbare Energien Bioenergy Citizens' energy Electricity market Renewables Solar Wind Business & Jobs Sören Amelang Wind Germany's economy ministry has ...
  • 07 Feb 2019 |

    Volkswagen’s electric strategy shift “risky bet” but may yield dominance of e-car market

    07 Feb 2019, 13:52 Benjamin Wehrmann Cars Reuters The radical shift in strategy by Germany’s biggest carmaker Volkswagen towards electric vehicles is “a radical and risky bet” that stems from the turmoil caused by the company’s emissions fraud scandal, ...
  • 06 Jan 2015

    In the media: Wind power record in December; nuclear waste disposal; Heligoland looks where the wind is blowing

    06 Jan 2015, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Wirtschaftswoche "Wind power breaks one record after another" Between 3400 and 3700 megawatts of new wind power capacity have been built in Germany in 2014, Mario Brück writes in the ...
  • 15 Feb 2019 |

    EnBW, Energiekontor sign first long-term power supply contract for zero-support solar farm

    15 Feb 2019, 11:44 Expert EnBW EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG Electricity market Business & Jobs Utilities Benjamin Wehrmann 鶹 鶹 Solar Utilities 鶹 German utility EnBW and renewable power plant operator ...
  • 06 Sep 2019 |

    German companies to play “major role” in second European battery cell production project

    06 Sep 2019, 13:27 Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 (until 2021) Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Freja Eriksen Storage Cars Clean 鶹 ...
  • 23 Feb 2021 |

    Deutsche Post's e-van StreetScooter attracts buyers, defying predicted demise

    23 Feb 2021, 11:48 Expert DHL Express Transport Business & Jobs Charlotte Nijhuis Cars Business & Jobs Manager Magazin Online The electric delivery vehicle StreetScooter, a subsidiary of German postal service Deutsche Post, has attracted potential ...
  • 16 Sep 2019 |

    German economy ministry counts on gas for energy transition

    16 Sep 2019, 17:01 Gaseous energy sources will play a "crucial role" in Germany's long-term energy supply and industrial production, with CO₂-neutral or carbon-free gases, such as green hydrogen, being a key element, according to a draft ...
  • 30 Mar 2017 |

    “A burden for the climate”

    The Moorburg coal power plant in Hamburg wastes the energy equivalent of 36 tonnes of hard coal per hour during normal operation because environmental organisations and citizen initiatives prevent it from  using waste heat for district heating, Olaf Preuß ...
  • How do Spanish activists push for climate action amidst economic recovery?

    01 Oct 2021, 11:34 After Spain hosted the COP25 in 2019 and many Spanish cities declared a climate emergency, the country's climate movement has grown – especially among young people. But the coronavirus pandemic slowed down this newfound momentum ...
  • Fear of ousted populists could be enough to stall climate policy in Poland

    17 Apr 2024, 13:30 The election victory of the pro-EU coalition led by former European Council president Donald Tusk in late 2023 stirred high hopes for the start of serious climate policies in Poland after an eight-year lull during the rule of the right ...
  • “German mining machinery companies have high hopes for Trump”

    The German machinery industry is hoping that a revival of fossil-fuel-based industry in the United States, as promised by President-elect Donald Trump, will give makers of mining equipment a boost, writes Thomas Schmelzer in Handelsblatt. The industry has ...
  • 16 Jan 2019 |

    Nord Stream 2 contractor OMV criticises “completely unacceptable threat” from US ambassador

    16 Jan 2019, 13:26 Kerstine Appunn Gas Security Handelsblatt Rainer Seele, chairman of Austrian oil and gas company OMV, has criticised the US ambassador to Germany’s letter to contractors of Russian-German gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 as a “completely ...
  • 14 Feb 2020 |

    German coal exit too late, climate targets require completion by 2030 – report

    14 Feb 2020, 13:22 Sören Amelang Coal Climate & CO2 鶹 Germany must exit coal much quicker than planned to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement, according to a report by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). "A coal ...
  • 19 Oct 2020 |

    German consumers to pay more for gas in 2021

    19 Oct 2020, 12:57 Kerstine Appunn Gas Cost & Prices 鶹 Higher costs for gas infrastructure and the new CO2 price in the heating sector are set to increase gas costs for German households in 2021, consumer comparison site Verivox has ...
  • 05 Dec 2014

    In the media: Nuclear waste fund, Vattenfall, E.ON's split

    05 Dec 2014, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn Sven Egenter 鶹 鶹 Frankfurter Rundschau "We need a fund" Jörg Sommer, chairman of the German Environment Foundation, says more money is needed to treat nuclear waste in Germany. In an ...
  • 26 Aug 2021 |

    Expert Council on Climate finds ministry's emergency programme for buildings sector lacking

    26 Aug 2021, 13:43 Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit Climate & CO2 Policy Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic ...
  • 09 Jan 2015

    In the media: Renewables superlatives, EU policy, heating and e-cars

    09 Jan 2015, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) "A year full of superlatives for ecologic power" German consumers paid almost 23 billion euros for renewable electricity in 2014, the FAZ writes, ...
  • 15 Feb 2021 |

    Additional charging points boost demand for e-cars – economic think tank

    15 Feb 2021, 13:52 Sören Amelang 鶹 鶹 Cars 鶹 A rapid roll-out of charging infrastructure as planned by the German government could significantly speed up the uptake of electric vehicles, according to a report by the ...
  • Morocco and Germany co-chair new climate partnership programme

    The German and Moroccan governments together with the World Resources Institute (WRI) have initiated a partnership programme to help developing countries create and implement their national climate plans to meet commitments made in Paris last year. “Any ...
  • German government should annul coal exit commission’s mandate and decide for itself – opinion

    Due to its apparent lack of will to achieve a consensus, the mandate of Germany’s coal exit commission should be annulled and the government itself should find a consensus on how to end coal-fired power production in the country, Angela Hennersdorf writes ...
  • German authorities fully approve Nord Stream 2 pipeline

    With the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH), the last German authority has approved the construction and operation of the contentious Russian-German Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline. The interests of shipping and the maritime environment do ...
  • 29 Sep 2017 |

    Football rivals will face-off in 2018 to mark end of hard coal mining

    To mark the end of hard coal mining in Germany, players from rival football clubs Borussia Dortmund and FC Schalke 04 and other clubs in the western German Ruhr coal mining area will team up for a friendly match against the Polish national team in 2018, ...
  • 02 Jan 2015

    In the media: Wind power booms while solar wanes; Energiewende is popular, but Germans grumble about implementation

    02 Jan 2015, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Handelsblatt / dpa “Solar boom continues to ebb“ Germany built 1.95 gigawatts-worth of solar installations in 2014 – 43 percent fewer than the year before, the Handelsblatt writes, reporting ...
  • 14 Jun 2017 |

    “At least 1.2 billion for Lusatia”

    Eastern German states Saxony and Brandenburg demand at least 1.2 billion euros in federal funds to finance the economic transformation of their shared coal-mining region Lusatia, Jens Blankennagel writes in Berliner Zeitung. “ The end of coal mining there ...
  • 05 Nov 2014

    In the media: Climate action plan, industry concerns and power lines

    05 Nov 2014, 00:00 鶹 鶹 Die Welt Steel industry says its concerns over energy policy go unheard Various voices from the steel industry raise concerns about the Energiewende in an article in Die Welt. Industry representatives are ...
  • 17 Jan 2019 |

    鶹-intensive industries call for energy transition cost “super cap”

    17 Jan 2019, 14:13 Benjamin Wehrmann 鶹 鶹 Cost & Prices Die Welt Germany’s energy-intensive industries have called for an energy transition cost “super cap” for their businesses, Daniel Wetzel reports for newspaper Die Welt. Lobby ...
  • 29 May 2020 |

    Massive offshore wind expansion could solve German hydrogen strategy gridlock

    29 May 2020, 13:01 The German government is set to make the large-scale use of offshore wind power to produce emission-free hydrogen a cornerstone of its long-anticipated national hydrogen strategy, reports Tagesspiegel Background. With additional ...
  • 20 May 2020 |

    'Bee power' contracts seek to make Germany's bioenergy crops more sustainable

    20 May 2020, 13:36 Benjamin Wehrmann Bioenergy Agriculture Tageszeitung (taz) Power suppliers in Germany have begun offering "bee power" contracts that charge customers one additional cent per kilowatt hour to help preserve the industrious ...
  • 18 May 2020 |

    Critics blast German parliament's approval of toll-free transport for LNG-powered trucks

    18 May 2020, 14:08 Expert ICCT- International Council on Clean Transportation Transport Expert Institute for Applied Ecology Öko-Institut Citizens' energy Climate & CO2 Electricity market Edgar Meza Gas Cars Focus Online / Öko-Institut Despite ...
  • 16 Feb 2017 |

    Row over nuclear waste export to US threatens repository law

    Considerations within Germany’s governing conservative party CDU to transfer 152 containers with radioactive fuel elements from a research reactor to the US could deal a blow to the  country’s search for a final repository for its nuclear waste, Michael ...
  • 28 Jun 2022 |

    Scholz "still has a big gap to fill" to advance climate action- reactions to result of Germany's G7 summit

    28 Jun 2022, 15:11 Civil society groups and others have largely reacted with criticism of the German presidency's role in furthering climate action within the G7 group of influential economies. With the energy crisis caused by Russia's invasion ...
  • 15 Dec 2023 |

    Green Deal 2.0 must trigger investments in European industry and infrastructure – EU lawmaker

    15 Dec 2023, 11:31 Industry and grid investments must be at the heart of the follow-up to the landmark European Green Deal policy package after the 2024 EU elections, says Bas Eickhout, member of the European Parliament. The results of the vote will shape ...
  • Researchers doubt Germany's new building energy act is breakthrough for heating transition

    19 Jun 2020, 14:14 Expert BDEW-German Association of 鶹 and Water Industries Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft Electricity market Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Utilities Expert IKEM- Institute for Climate Protection, 鶹 and ...
  • 18 May 2021 |

    Allegations of forced labour in Xinjiang implicate German solar companies' supply chains

    18 May 2021, 13:29 Correction: This article was updated to reflect that the named German companies whose supply chains have been implicated in the " Uyghur Forced Labour and Global Solar Supply Chains ” report are not solar photovoltaic module ...
  • Ramped up renewables expansion will aggravate existing Energiewende problems – opinion

    Germany’s new coalition agreement means a visible increase in ambition for expanding renewable energy sources, Hubertus Bardt and Benjamin Tischler write in a guest commentary for Handelsblatt. However, “goals like these are easily made but hard to ...
  • 09 Aug 2019 |

    German army exits hard coal heating

    09 Aug 2019, 13:42 Expert Vattenfall Germany Electricity market Business & Jobs Utilities Sören Amelang Climate & CO2 Heating 鶹 Germany's armed forces are phasing out the use of hard coal for heating. The last heating system ...
  • 20 Feb 2018 |

    Car companies cannot change corporate culture “like a pair of sneakers” – commentary

    Daimler AG CEO Dieter Zetsche likes to dress up “like the guy from next door”. He has changed his outfit from business attire to sneakers and washed-out jeans in recent years, but even with this makeover “he remains the highly paid head of a listed ...
  • 17 May 2017 |

    SPD election programme draft includes CO₂ floor price, climate protection law

    The Social Democratic Party (SPD) wants to develop a national climate protection law and introduce a CO₂ floor price, the party says in a first draft for the federal election campaign programme. "We will continue to develop European emissions trading ...
  • 27 Sep 2016 |

    New draft for combined heat and power law

    The federal economy ministry has made changes to the reform of the combined heat and power (CHP) law, after last month’s agreement with the EU Commission on state aid questions. The changes include the introduction of tenders for governmental support for ...
  • 26 Apr 2016

    鶹 policy after Chernobyl / One billion euros for e-cars

    26 Apr 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel 鶹 鶹 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung “鶹 policy after Chernobyl” The impact of Chernobyl was the largest where its fallout was the smallest – in Germany, where the ...
  • 05 May 2020 |

    German environment ministry weighs wind farm distance regulations to protect birds

    05 May 2020, 14:09 Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit Climate & CO2 Policy Edgar Meza Wind Tagesspiegel Background ...
  • 18 Aug 2017 |

    Popularity of diesel vehicles drops - study

    Forty-one percent of German drivers say they plan on buying a new or used vehicle in the coming 18 months, according to a study conducted by fuel and petrol station brand Aral AG. This rate is the highest since the first such study in 2003. Most survey ...
  • 25 Sep 2020 |

    German econ min warns Nord Stream 2 stop could damage trust in large-scale projects

    25 Sep 2020, 13:43 Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 (until 2021) Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Julian Wettengel Gas Security ...
  • 24 Sep 2020 |

    Germany must prepare for more frequent and intensive extreme weather- meteorologists

    24 Sep 2020, 12:46 Expert DWD- Germany's National Meteorological Service Deutscher Wetterdienst Climate & CO2 Julian Wettengel Climate & CO2 鶹 Germany’s national weather service has said that the country should prepare for ...
  • 24 Sep 2020 |

    Critics of Tesla's Berlin gigafactory object to construction without licenses

    24 Sep 2020, 12:43 Benjamin Wehrmann Cars Society rbb24 / 鶹 Tesla's planned e-car factory near Berlin continues to draw criticism from local residents who take issue with the fact that work already began despite pending licenses, ...
  • German Greens struggle to find firm position on limited nuclear plant runtime extension

    01 Aug 2022, 13:20 Expert Green Party Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Policy Benjamin Wehrmann Nuclear phase-out Government ARD / Tagesspiegel / Handelsblatt / ZDF The debate about extending the runtime of Germany’s three remaining ...
  • 22 Sep 2020 |

    EU agriculture reform not ambitious enough for new 2050 climate target- NGO

    22 Sep 2020, 13:45 Expert BMEL- Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture (until 2025) Agriculture Kerstine Appunn Agriculture EU 鶹 The final meeting before the decision on the next funding period for farmers under the EU’s Common ...
  • 鶹 research investments doubled in past ten years

    The German government’s spending on energy research has more than doubled since 2006, the German Parliament (Bundestag) said in a press release. Research investments rose from around 400 million euros in 2006 to more than 875 million euros in 2016, ...
  • 07 Aug 2017 |

    Transport biggest contributor to emissions rise in first half of 2017 - think tanks

    With an increase of almost 5 million tonnes of CO₂ emissions, the transport sector contributed most to the rise of German energy-related CO₂ emissions in the first half of 2017, compared to the same period last year, according to think tanks Agora ...
  • 2021 emissions trading earnings to reach new record level for German state

    03 Aug 2021, 13:53 Benjamin Wehrmann Climate & CO2 Cost & Prices 鶹 / Die Welt The earnings from selling allowances in the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for the German state look set to reach a new record level in 2021 ...
  • 06 Apr 2016

    Minister calls nuclear energy an ‘aberration’ / Renewables dominate EU electricity mix

    06 Apr 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel 鶹 鶹 Ministry for the Environment and Nuclear Safety Using nuclear energy is an ‘aberration’ The nuclear catastrophe of Chernobyl almost 30 years ago showed that using nuclear energy ...
  • 03 Jan 2017 |

    “How to cope with the Energiewende”

    Peter Terium and Johannes Teyssen, former CEOs of Germany’s traditional utilities RWE and E.ON respectively, face each other in a new green energy rivalry after both companies split in two last year, writes Helmut Bünder in a portrait of both men in ...
  • 02 Feb 2018 |

    There will be no “quick solution” to hardware retrofitting – Merkel

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said that a decision on hardware retrofitting is not in sight. “We will continue to examine the hardware retrofitting proposal, but according to what I saw, there will certainly not be a quick solution for millions of ...
  • 10 Jul 2019 |

    Grid operators propose at least ten offshore wind power hubs in North Sea

    10 Jul 2019, 12:53 Expert TenneT Grid operator Electricity market Grid Technology Kennedy Nyavaya Grid Wind 鶹 Several European grid operators have proposed to build at least ten artificial “energy islands” as wind power hubs in the North ...
  • 01 Apr 2019 |

    Comparison website reports highest power prices ever in Germany

    01 Apr 2019, 13:50 Benjamin Wehrmann Cost & Prices 鶹 Power customers in Germany paid the highest power prices ever registered in the country during the first three months of 2019, price comparison website Verivox says. With 29.42 cents ...
  • Conservatives and SPD defend postponing Germany’s 2020 climate goal

    Germany’s negotiating coalition parties, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the Social Democrats (SPD), have defended their decision to postpone the country’s 2020 goal of reducing emissions by 40 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 ...
  • 23 Mar 2016 |

    Pressure on utilities to pay more for nuclear storage

    23 Mar 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel 鶹 鶹 Hydrogen Reuters Nuclear commission wants utilities to supplement clean-up provisions The commission on payments for the nuclear clean-up insists that nuclear power station ...
  • “The cartel”

    Germany’s most important carmakers have met in “secret workshops” since the 1990s in order to coordinate their exhaust gas treatment systems and collude to fix technology, costs and suppliers, weekly news magazine Der Spiegel and associated website ...
  • 07 May 2024 |

    EU rules limit populists’ damage to climate action in Spain

    07 May 2024, 10:00 The impact of a populist party opposed to climate action is starting to make itself clearly felt in Spain. From climate budget cuts to suspending low-emission zones and reversing plans for green taxes: As a partner in several city and ...
  • 12 Mar 2015

    In the media: Should utilities survive?

    12 Mar 2015, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Spiegel Online “Let the utilities die” Germany’s biggest utilities are in an existential crisis of their own making, writes Nicolai Kwasniewski in a commentary on Spiegel Online. “The survival of ...
  • Deal between utilities E.ON and RWE set to reshuffle German energy market

    German energy companies RWE and E.ON have agreed to a deal in which E.ON will buy RWE's green power subsidiary innogy and the two utilities will exchange large parts of their assets to focus their activities. The deal would drastically reshape ...
  • 15 Dec 2018 |

    COP24 blog: Parties decide "solid" rulebook

    15 Dec 2018, 22:10 Germany is under scrutiny at the UN climate summit COP24 in Poland: the country will fail to meet its 2020 climate target and only the next year will show if a push to phase-out coal-fired power production will result in an end date for ...
  • 13 Dec 2016 |

    Daimler example threatens billion-euro disaster for VW

    Volkswagen's competitors see its decision to build a battery cell factory for serial production in Germany as a concession to its workers’ council, rather than an economically promising endeavour, writes Philipp Vetter for Die Welt. “VW is forced by ...
  • 12 Dec 2016 |

    “The federal government is now responsible for handling the nuclear waste”

    Nuclear plant operators removed the last hurdle to an agreement with the government over who will pay for storage and clean-up of nuclear waste after power plants are shut down in 2020, writes Manfred Schäfers in FAZ.net. Operators agreed to revoke most ...
  • 19 Apr 2022 |

    Regional leader under pressure over support for Nord Stream 2

    19 Apr 2022, 13:25 Julian Wettengel Gas Elections & Politics 鶹 / FAZ / Welt am Sonntag / t-online Leading German politicians have called for a probe into the role played by Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania's state premier Manuela ...
  • “Where our coal comes from”

    After years of rising hard coal import volumes due to the closing of domestic mines, Germany seems to decrease its reliance on the fossil fuel, Andreas Macho writes in business weekly WirtschaftsWoche. While Germany continues to be Europe's biggest ...
  • 09 Sep 2020 |

    German rail operator adds hundreds of electro-diesel hybrid locomotives to fleet

    09 Sep 2020, 14:29 Expert Deutsche Bahn German railway operator Transport Business & Jobs Benjamin Wehrmann Transport 鶹 Deutsche Bahn (DB) has ordered up to 400 electro-diesel hybrid locomotives from Siemens for its cargo fleet in a ...
  • 20 May 2020 |

    German government adopts higher CO2 starting price of 25 euros per tonne for transport and heating

    20 May 2020, 13:55 Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit Climate & CO2 Policy Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic ...
  • 10 Aug 2016 |

    “Few of Germany’s tendered ground-mounted solar PV projects realised”

    So far just 25 percent of the winning bids in Germany’s first auction for ground-mounted solar photovoltaic (PV) projects, held in April 2015, have been realised, Sandra Enkhardt writes in PV Magazine. Of the projects selected in the country’s second ...
  • 29 Mar 2017 |

    “Gorleben will survive the next ice age”

    Last Friday's  vote in the German parliament in favour of plans to find a final nuclear repository  could finally herald an end to the decades-old conflict over where to store Germany's nuclear waste, Daniel Wetzel writes for Welt Online. But ...
  • 19 Apr 2021 |

    Greens name 40-year old Annalena Baerbock as candidate for German chancellor

    19 Apr 2021, 13:55 The German Green Party unveiled Annalena Baerbock as their candidate for chancellor, touted as the party's first ever serious contender to lead the government in Europe's largest economy. In her nomination speech as the only ...
  • 05 Jun 2015

    In the media: G7 seen setting climate agenda; Coal-fired plants lose money

    05 Jun 2015, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn Sven Egenter 鶹 鶹 Carbon Tracker Initiative "Coal: caught in the EU utility death spiral" New coal-fired power plants fail to generate positive cash-flows even under the most optimistic ...
  • 07 Jan 2021 |

    2020 records show e-mobility “has entered mainstream” in Germany – motor authority

    07 Jan 2021, 13:59 Expert Federal Motor Transport Authority Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt Cars Transport Charlotte Nijhuis Cars 鶹 [Update adds December 2020 data and graph] The number of newly registered electric cars in Germany tripled in 2020 ...
  • France, Germany vow to cooperate on industry transformation, back EU probe into Chinese EVs

    14 Sep 2023, 13:36 Increasing international competition in the transition to a more sustainable economy will require tight-knit cooperation among EU countries and a tough stance on defending the bloc from unlawful trade subsidies abroad, the economy ...
  • 04 Sep 2020 |

    Electric car registrations climb to new record high in Germany

    04 Sep 2020, 14:03 Sören Amelang Cars 鶹 The share of new electric vehicle registrations in Germany reached a new record in August. The number of new purely electric vehicles (BEV) rose 220 percent from last year, to 16,076 vehicles. Their ...
  • 20 Mar 2017 |

    “Transport and cold weather cause emissions to rise”

    Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions rose to 906 million tonnes in 2016 (from 902 mln in 2015), due to colder weather and rising emissions in the transport sector, according to preliminary calculations by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA). The data ...
  • 20 Apr 2021 |

    German government raised 11.5 billion euros via green bonds- 2020 report

    20 Apr 2021, 13:06 Expert BMF- Federal Ministry of Finance Bundesministerium der Finanzen Finance Government Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz ...
  • Merkel “will not whitewash” climate dissent with Trump at G20

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel is determined to lead the climate negotiations at the G20 summit in Hamburg “in a way that they serve the content and goal of the Paris Agreement”, she said in a government declaration before the federal parliament. After ...
  • 15 Oct 2019 |

    Europe must cut meat production to increase forest areas for climate- researchers

    15 Oct 2019, 12:22 Expert KIT- Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Karlsruher Institut für Technologie Renewables Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Technology Julian Wettengel Climate & CO2 Agriculture 鶹 Large-scale afforestation and ...
  • 08 Apr 2020 |

    Government rejects state demands for changes to coal exit law

    08 Apr 2020, 12:54 Julian Wettengel Coal Tagesspiegel Background / 鶹 The federal government has largely rejected calls by German states to make changes to the planned coal exit law, reports Nora Zaremba in energy and climate policy ...
  • 22 Nov 2016 |

    “TRANSFORM 2025+” aimed at making VW brand world leader in e-mobility

    VW, Germany’s biggest carmaker, has specified its ambitions to become the “world market leader in e-mobility”. The company’s “TRANSFORM 2025+” strategy foresees making “e-cars the new trademark” of the core VW company. It also aims to sell one million e ...
  • 06 Apr 2020 |

    March marks record e-car month in Germany with over 10,000 new registrations

    06 Apr 2020, 12:37 Expert BAFA- Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control Bundesamt für Wirtschaft und Ausfuhrkontrolle Fossil fuels Renewables Expert Federal Motor Transport Authority Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt Cars Transport Julian Wettengel Cars ...
  • 15 Nov 2016 |

    “Climate outrage in the housing sector“

    The housing industry has criticised the federal government’s Climate Action Plan 2050, because of last-minute changes at the expense of the sector, writes Henrike Roßbach for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). After economy minister Sigmar Gabriel ...
  • 11 Jan 2016

    How to exit coal / 鶹 policy "reminiscent of GDR"

    11 Jan 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Agora Energiewende “How the exit from coal power generation by 2040 can be managed” Germany can exit coal by 2040 without significant effects on power prices or supply security, and the government ...
  • 06 Jun 2018

    “Now, it’s about saving the Paris Climate Agreement“ - Merkel

    Ahead of the G7 summit in Canada, German Chancellor Angela Merkel reiterated the importance of her government’s commitment to the Paris Climate Agreement, after the US had decided to leave the accord last year. “All the more it’s on us to reach our ...
  • 02 Apr 2020 |

    Tesvolt starts production in 'first European gigafactory' for battery storage

    02 Apr 2020, 13:44 Sören Amelang Storage 鶹 German storage company Tesvolt says it has started production in "Europe's first gigafactory for commercial battery storage systems." The new production line, in the Eastern German ...
  • 08 Nov 2016 |

    “Industry grid fee rebates: Siemens rejects Green party’s criticism”

    German engineering giant Siemens has rejected criticism from the Green party that it lets private households pay for its electricity bill as “misleading” and “outrightly wrong”, Handelsblatt Online reports. Green MP Bärbel Höhn previously said it was ...
  • “Nuclear phase-out: Trouble in the home stretch”

    Last year’s agreement on financing the nuclear clean-up between the German state and nuclear power providers does not seem to have brought permanent peace as utilities refuse to drop the lawsuits against the nuclear fuel tax, write Jürgen Flauger and ...
  • Climate strikes in Germany spark debate over impact, students' commitment

    18 Mar 2019, 14:30 In the days after tens of thousands of students protested across Germany for more action on climate change, reactions poured in from across the political spectrum. Some conservative politicians argue students should not miss school, and ...
  • 06 Jun 2019 |

    Many German industrial companies ill-prepared for decarbonisation – labour union

    06 Jun 2019, 14:20 Benjamin Wehrmann Cars Business & Jobs 鶹 A large number of industrial companies in Germany will have a hard time coping with the changes brought about by the transition to a low-carbon economy and by digitalisation, ...
  • 06 Jun 2017 |

    US exit from Paris does not mean climate policy “fully outlined” – gov’t official

    US President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the Paris Agreement does not mean that the country’s climate policy was already “fully outlined”, a German government official told reporters at a press briefing in Berlin, when asked about the upcoming G20 ...
  • 25 Oct 2016 |

    “How German utilities could pay their billion-euro bills”

    Bloomberg highlights some of the ways the individual big German utilities could find the money needed to free themselves of the responsibility for storing nuclear waste. It comes after last week’s federal cabinet decision that sees nuclear power plant ...
  • 05 May 2023 |

    German economy minister wants to lower industry electricity costs with billions in subsidies

    05 May 2023, 13:29 鶹-intensive companies in Germany should receive billions of euros in state subsidies to lower their electricity costs if they promise to decarbonise and to stay within the country, economy and climate minister Robert Habeck said. ...
  • 02 Sep 2020 |

    Greenpeace 鶹 launches complaint against hard coal tenders

    02 Sep 2020, 13:03 Expert Greenpeace 鶹 (now Green Planet 鶹) Green energy provider Climate & CO2 Citizens' energy Renewables Utilities Kerstine Appunn Coal Renewables 鶹 / Tagesspiegel Background Power supplier Greenpeace ...
  • Mining union says “ideological war” in energy policy threatens jobs & supply security

    An “ideological war” in Germany’s energy policy puts thousands of jobs and the country’s energy supply security at stake, the mining union IG BCE says in a press release. Speaking at a rally held near the Niederaußem coal-fired power plant in the western ...
  • 鶹 industry calls on govt to facilitate EU state aid approval of renewables support

    07 Apr 2021, 12:51 Expert BEE- German Renewable 鶹 Federation Bundesverband Erneuerbare Energien Bioenergy Citizens' energy Electricity market Renewables Solar Wind Business & Jobs Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 ...
  • 16 Jul 2021 |

    Can the UK climate movement go 'beyond politics'?

    16 Jul 2021, 10:23 The UK is leading the world in terms of climate targets as it heads towards COP26. This is in no small part due to the work of climate activists, who, in the words of the campaigning group Extinction Rebellion, have come together to ...
  • 09 Feb 2017 |

    Germany leads in new wind power installations in Europe

    German wind power expansion accounted for 44 percent of total capacity growth across Europe in 2016, Adam Vaughan reports for the Guardian. There was an “increasingly small number of countries connecting serious amounts of new wind power” in the EU. ...
  • 27 Sep 2021 |

    Green Party below expectations but climate will be taken seriously in next coalition – media commentary

    27 Sep 2021, 14:01 Kerstine Appunn Elections & Politics 鶹 At first sight, this election result could be interpreted as a defeat for climate action because both the Green Party and the Left Party, which have the most convincing answers ...
  • 12 Jun 2019 |

    Merkel invites carmakers and suppliers to discuss shift to green mobility- media

    12 Jun 2019, 13:18 Julian Wettengel Cars Spiegel Online The German government has invited major domestic car manufacturers and suppliers to Angela Merkel’s chancellery to discuss the technological challenges of the transition to renewable mobility, and ...
  • 20 Mar 2020 |

    Solar and wind energy expansion in Germany faces paralysis due to coronavirus

    20 Mar 2020, 13:52 Freja Eriksen Solar Wind Tagesspiegel Background / pv magazine The coronavirus crisis is spilling over into the solar and wind energy industry, which is already facing a slump in Germany, write Christian Schaudwet and Steven Hanke in ...
  • 18 Dec 2020 |

    Volkswagen undermines the sale of own e-cars – report

    18 Dec 2020, 14:17 Expert VW- Volkswagen Transport Cars Charlotte Nijhuis Mobility Cars WirtschaftsWoche / 鶹 Despite Volkswagen’s (VW) positioning as a pioneer in the mobility transition, the car manufacturer does not do enough to sell its ...
  • 12 May 2017 |

    CDU overtakes SPD in polls shortly before NRW state election

    Three days before parliamentary elections in Germany’s most populous state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU party has taken the lead in polls, ahead of the governing SPD, national TV station ZDF reports. The CDU ...
  • 14 Dec 2020 |

    Buying online or in-store has limited effect on products' climate impact – env agency

    14 Dec 2020, 14:16 Expert UBA- Federal Environment Agency Umweltbundesamt Climate & CO2 Citizens' energy Benjamin Wehrmann Climate & CO2 鶹 The climate impact of a product is only modestly influenced by how it finds its way to ...
  • 15 Jun 2020 |

    Germany must step up climate ambitions for EU Green Deal – govt advisors

    15 Jun 2020, 08:46 The independent expert commission in charge of monitoring Germany's energy transition says the European Green Deal requires the country to do more to fight climate change. The government advisors say a quicker-than-planned coal ...
  • German government must urgently tackle energy policy issues – industry association

    The energy transition offers plenty of opportunities for German businesses, but the current government coalition has done little to solve key issues for the industry, writes the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) in its 2018 ...
  • 20 Feb 2019 |

    RWE agrees to leave Hambach Forest untouched until 2020 – NRW state premier

    20 Feb 2019, 13:21 German utility and lignite mine operator RWE has agreed to refrain from clearing the embattled Hambach Forest in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) until autumn 2020, said state premier Armin Laschet in a parliamentary ...
  • “German emissions increase in 2016 due to nuclear plant closure”

    Emissions in Germany have increased for two consecutive years due to the decommissioning of the country’s nuclear power plants, pro-nuclear organisation Environmental Progress writes. “German emissions would have declined had it not closed a nuclear plant ...
  • German meat consumption needs to be halved to reduce emissions – Environment Agency

    29 Mar 2021, 13:54 Expert UBA- Federal Environment Agency Umweltbundesamt Climate & CO2 Citizens' energy Charlotte Nijhuis Climate & CO2 Mobility Agriculture Hamburger Abendblatt Germany’s meat consumption needs to be reduced by half in order ...
  • 02 May 2017 |

    “Transmission highway SuedLink enters next stage”

    The preparation procedure for building Germany’s high-voltage transmission highway SuedLink has entered a crucial stage, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by Welt Online. Following submission of the sectoral planning application for SuedLink’s ...
  • 14 May 2019 |

    Volkswagen enters battery cell production in Germany

    14 May 2019, 13:06 Benjamin Wehrmann Cars Technology 鶹 Heavyweight carmaker Volkswagen has announced the launch of a battery cell production facility that will be operated in partnership with another company. In the framework of the ...
  • 29 Jun 2021 |

    City tunnel beneath Frankfurt to become 'centrepiece' of German railway strategy – ministry

    29 Jun 2021, 14:19 Expert Deutsche Bahn German railway operator Transport Business & Jobs Benjamin Wehrmann Transport Cities 鶹 / HR German railway operator Deutsche Bahn is planning one of the largest infrastrucuture projects of the ...
  • 22 Mar 2021 |

    German regulator paves way for converting natural gas infrastructure to hydrogen

    22 Mar 2021, 12:17 Expert Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA) Bundesnetzagentur Electricity market Grid Cost & Prices Julian Wettengel Gas Hydrogen Tagesspiegel Background / 鶹 ...
  • 09 Dec 2020 |

    All German parties should make climate 'central pillar' of election programmes – govt advisors

    09 Dec 2020, 15:21 Sören Amelang 鶹 鶹 Elections & Politics 鶹 German government advisors have launched an urgent call on the country's political parties to make climate action a central topic in their programmes ...
  • 11 Jan 2017 |

    “Record support for green power”

    German green power support costs exceeded 25 billion euros in 2016 for the first time, writes Andreas Mihm in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, citing figures released by the four German transmission grid operators (TSO). With 22.8 billion euros, ...
  • 28 Jun 2021 |

    German chancellor candidates ready to pull plug on Nord Stream 2 if need be

    28 Jun 2021, 13:33 Benjamin Wehrmann Gas Security The contenders from Germany's governing parties to become Germany's next chancellor have both signalled their readiness to shutter the contentious Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline if the Russian ...
  • 14 Sep 2016 |

    “Agriculture ministry resists climate protection plan”

    The federal agriculture ministry wants to make further changes to the already watered down Climate Action Plan 2050 by Social Democrat environment minister Barbara Hendricks, writes Jan Grossarth in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). An internal ...
  • Green MP says coal exit would happen even without climate protection goals

    Germany would have to discontinue coal-fired power production even without committing itself to climate protection goals, Oliver Krischer, vice-chairman of the Green Party’s parliamentary group, said during a speech on his party’s energy policy ambitions ...
  • “Cost pressure on industry continues downward trend”

    The energy costs for energy intensive industries in Germany in December 2016 have reached the lowest level in seven years, the Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut) said in a press release. The energy cost index in late 2016, which measures energy ...
  • 05 Mar 2020 |

    German carmakers to become global EV market leaders from 2021 – McKinsey

    05 Mar 2020, 15:08 Sören Amelang Cars 鶹 German carmakers VW, BMW and Daimler are set to overtake Chinese rivals to become global market leaders for electric cars from 2021, according to business consultancy McKinsey. The German trio will ...
  • 02 Nov 2017 |

    Combustion engine ban splitting point in German transport policy talks

    After an expected clash over climate and energy policy last week, Germany’s aspiring coalition partners of the conservative CDU/CSU alliance, the pro-business FDP and the environmentalist Green Party also failed to find a first official agreement on ...
  • 01 Nov 2017 |

    Storm-induced negative power prices “show Energiewende’s madness”

    The storm “Herwart” that hit Germany on the last weekend in October caused power prices to turn negative due to an excessive supply of wind power, thereby exposing “the glaring malfunction” of the country’s energy transition, Nando Sommerfeldt and Holger ...
  • 13 May 2019 |

    Germans consider climate issue biggest challenge for Europe on eve of EP elections

    13 May 2019, 14:14 Kerstine Appunn Climate & CO2 鶹 Two weeks before the European Parliament elections, German voters have said that climate and environment protection are the biggest challenges for the future of the European Union,  a ...
  • 16 Feb 2018 |

    "Germany is a 'living lab' for the energy transition"

    16 Feb 2018, 00:00 A group of energy transition researchers will present their findings on the transformation of the German energy system at the world’s largest general scientific conference organised by the American Association for the Advancement of ...
  • Lower emissions in Germany contribute to CO2 reduction across EU in 2018

    09 May 2019, 13:53 Sören Amelang Climate & CO2 International 鶹 The CO2 emissions from fossil fuel combustion decreased by 2.5 percent in the European Union in 2018 compared to the year before, partly driven by a decrease of 5.4 percent ...
  • German minister plays down US threats over Nord Stream 2

    22 Jan 2019, 13:15 The German government is playing down US threats against companies involved in the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project connecting Germany to Russia. 鶹 minister Peter Altmaier said the government was “not impressed” by ...
  • Germany presents patchy climate plan draft to European Commission- report

    08 Jan 2019, 13:15 Sören Amelang 鶹 鶹 Climate & CO2 International Tagesspiegel Background The German government has presented an incomplete National 鶹 and Climate Plan (NECP) draft to the European Commission at the last minute ...
  • 07 Jan 2019 |

    Merkel intervenes in stagnating German coal exit talks

    07 Jan 2019, 13:00 Benjamin Wehrmann 鶹 鶹 Coal Fossil fuels Politics German Chancellor Angela Merkel will personally weigh in on the stagnating negotiations over the end of coal-fired power production in the country, news magazine Der ...
  • 19 Feb 2020 |

    RWE shares reach highest price in seven years

    19 Feb 2020, 14:20 Benjamin Wehrmann Utilities dpa / Focus Online The share price of German energy company RWE has reached the highest level in seven years, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by website Focus Online. RWE's share price ...
  • 19 Feb 2020 |

    Higher buyer’s premium for e-cars goes into effect in Germany

    19 Feb 2020, 14:08 Rachel Waldholz Cars Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Germany’s increased subsidy for electric vehicles goes into effect today (Wednesday, Feb. 19), FAZ.net reports. The increase in the e-car buyer’s premium was first announced in ...
  • 28 Mar 2018 |

    Germany has used up its CO₂ budget for 2018 – gas industry initiative

    By 28 March Germany had already used up its annual CO₂ budget for 2018, one week earlier than last year, according to the natural gas industry initiative Zukunft Erdgas. “The reason for this is the climate strategy of the government, where the measures ...
  • 06 Apr 2022 |

    Europe must come together as a green electricity and hydrogen union – analyst

    06 Apr 2022, 09:49 Europe must act as a true green electricity and hydrogen union to stand its ground in a competitive world that moves to climate neutrality, says energy analyst Kirsten Westphal. The continent should establish hydrogen corridors to ...
  • 16 Jun 2017 |

    “We will initiate a restart of energy policy from North Rhine-Westphalia”

    The future government coalition of Christian Democrats (CDU) and Free Democrats (FDP) in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) wants to slow down wind power expansion and keep energy generation from fossil fuels as “bridging technologies for the foreseeable future ...
  • 23 Nov 2020 |

    G20 states confirm climate cooperation, Merkel sees topic rise on agenda

    23 Nov 2020, 13:46 Kerstine Appunn International G20 & G7 鶹 The heads of state and government from the G20 (Group of Twenty) major economies have formally confirmed their cooperation on climate protection. Despite the United States ...
  • 17 Jul 2020 |

    Volkswagen expects e-mobility boost after pandemic

    17 Jul 2020, 14:12 Expert VW- Volkswagen Transport Cars Cars Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Volkswagen does not expect the pandemic to slow the introduction of its flagship e-car model ID.3, Carsten Germis writes in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The ...
  • 16 Apr 2019 |

    Grid operators adjust plans to coal exit, raise investment costs for future grid by 9 billion euros

    16 Apr 2019, 14:22 Expert 50Hertz Transmission Grid operator Electricity market Grid Technology Expert Amprion Grid operator Electricity market Grid Technology Expert Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway ...
  • 09 Jun 2021 |

    Germany must start fossil gas heating phase-out to avoid costs – think tank

    09 Jun 2021, 13:23 Julian Wettengel 鶹 鶹 Gas Heating 鶹 Germany should immediately increase its national carbon price and better support renewables to initiate the phase-out of fossil gas in buildings heating, said think ...
  • 06 Oct 2015

    In the media: German funding for Indian solar projects

    06 Oct 2015, 00:00 鶹 鶹 Bloomberg/The Economic Times/Environment Ministry “Merkel pledges 1 billion euros to fund Indian solar projects” During Chancellor Angela Merkel’s state visit to India, Germany pledged investment of more than one ...
  • 23 Nov 2016 |

    “Why haven’t CEE policy makers embraced the Energiewende?”

    Many Central and Eastern European countries have reacted extremely sceptical to Germany’s energy transition, but they have been proven wrong, writes Jan Ondrich in a blog post on energytransition.de. Germany’s grid remains one of the most stable in Europe ...
  • 20 Dec 2016 |

    Preview2017- "Turn Energiewende into an advantage for industry"

    20 Dec 2016, 00:00 2017 will be a year filled with a multitude of seminal events for Germany's energy and climate policy. Apart from presiding over the next G20 summit, Germany will be the venue for the UN's COP23 and see legal reforms of ...
  • 10 Feb 2020 |

    Tesla to receive state aid only if research and development 'takes place in Germany'

    10 Feb 2020, 13:33 Benjamin Wehrmann Cars Welt am Sonntag The German state might grant support payments to US carmaker Tesla only if the e-car producer makes sure that "research and development as well as value creation take place in Germany", ...
  • 10 Oct 2019 |

    Coal exit commission members say timely phase-out in danger

    10 Oct 2019, 13:46 Expert BUND- Friends of the Earth Germany Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland Climate & CO2 Expert Greenpeace Germany Greenpeace Deutschland Climate & CO2 Freja Eriksen Coal 鶹 / Spiegel Online Five ...
  • Norway bets on gas and CCS to complement Europe’s energy transition

    31 Aug 2018, 13:36 With its vast amounts of hydro energy, many would like Norway to become Europe’s “green battery”, supplying neighbours with steady power when there is little wind or sun. An extreme heat wave and dry weather in the first half of 2018 ...
  • German govt’s climate policy has been through baptism of fire in first 100 days

    18 Mar 2022, 14:48 The new German three-party coalition under chancellor Olaf Scholz had started its term at the end of last year with optimism to launch a vigorous climate action programme after two difficult years in a pandemic. But the “traffic light ...
  • 01 Mar 2017 |

    Bosch chairman calls Stuttgart driving bans “disastrous” economic policy

    The regional government’s decision to ban older diesel cars from Stuttgart city centre on days with bad air from next year is “ill-advised”, “disastrous” economic policy, and its environmental benefits “questionable,” according to Franz Fehrenbach, ...
  • German states and federal government clash over renewables law reform

    13 Nov 2020, 14:53 Kerstine Appunn Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG Government pv magazine / 鶹 The German government this week rejected a range of changes to the draft reform of the Renewable 鶹 Act (EEG), which had been proposed by the the ...
  • 02 Nov 2016 |

    Industry grid fee rebates top one billion euros

    According to grid operators, German power consumers will have to shoulder grid fee rebates for energy-intensive industry in excess of 1 billion euros next year, sparking renewed calls for reform of the system to pay for keeping the grid stable as ...
  • 13 Jan 2022 |

    Cancellation of power supply contracts by budget providers possibly illegal – German env min

    13 Jan 2022, 14:01 Expert VZBV- Federation of German Consumer Organisations Verbraucherzentrale Bundesverband Cost & Prices Benjamin Wehrmann Cost & Prices Utilities Handelsblatt / 鶹 The wave of short-notice contract cancellations ...
  • 24 Sep 2019 |

    Merkel's commitment to climate neutrality by 2050 at UN summit not enough – critics

    24 Sep 2019, 13:45 Expert E3G Third Generation Environmentalism Non-profit organisation for policy transformation Climate & CO2 Finance Policy Expert Germanwatch Climate & CO2 Expert Oxfam Germany Climate & CO2 COP21 Freja Eriksen Climate & ...
  • 03 Apr 2019 |

    Gas group Linde says it is “absolutely sure” there is a future for hydrogen cars

    03 Apr 2019, 14:18 Sören Amelang Gas Cars Hydrogen 鶹 It is certain that hydrogen will be used on a large scale in future cars, according to German industrial gas supplier Linde. “We’re absolutely sure about the future of hydrogen in ...
  • 31 Jan 2020 |

    Coach company FlixBus to cut services due to rail tax support- media report

    31 Jan 2020, 14:01 Sören Amelang Mobility Wirtschaftswoche / 鶹 Europe's largest coach service, FlixBus, has said it will discontinue many rural connections because the government only supports train travel with tax cuts, reports ...
  • 27 Feb 2018 |

    German top court allows cities to introduce diesel driving bans

    Germany’s Federal Administrative Court has ruled that German cities are generally allowed to introduce driving bans for older diesel cars to enforce EU clean air rules as a last resort. The court upheld two decisions by local courts in Stuttgart and ...
  • 28 Oct 2016 |

    “Land Ahoy! for Vattenfall”

    The January-September interim report by Swedish utility Vattenfall showed that the company’s prospects have improved after the sale of its eastern German lignite operations to Czech EPH, writes Andreas Mihm in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. Profit ...
  • 21 Feb 2018 |

    Coalition plans to boost renewables expansion render grid plans obsolete – report

    The aim of Germany’s emerging coalition government to speed up the expansion of renewable energy sources could render the current scenarios for expanding the country’s power grid obsolete, Michael Bauchmüller writes in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. The ...
  • 24 Aug 2021 |

    Most Germans reject nuclear power as sustainable investment target- survey

    24 Aug 2021, 13:44 Expert Bürgerbewegung Finanzwende Finance Watch Germany Finance Edgar Meza Nuclear phase-out Finance 鶹 / Reuters An overwhelming majority of Germans see no place for nuclear power in sustainable investments, according to ...
  • Govt says climate refugees cannot claim asylum in Germany despite UN ruling

    23 Jan 2020, 13:29 Freja Eriksen Climate & CO2 International 鶹 / Deutsche Welle The German government has expressed disagreement with a  ruling  by the United Nations Human Rights Committee, which states that countries may not deport ...
  • “Wintershall determined to take part in Nord Stream 2“

    Wintershall, Germany’s largest crude oil and natural gas producer, is determined to take part in the Euro-Russian gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) reports. BASF subsidiary Wintershall said that, like its partners- ...
  • 27 Feb 2020 |

    Law firm calls German coal exit law 'unconstitutional,' Greens push for earlier plant closures

    27 Feb 2020, 14:10 Expert Green Party Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Policy Expert STEAG Electricity generator Fossil fuels Utilities Freja Eriksen Coal Welt / Tagesspiegel Background A legal opinion by the energy law firm Rosin ...
  • 20 Jan 2020 |

    German renewable energy producers received record payout through surcharge

    20 Jan 2020, 12:37 Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 (until 2021) Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Freja Eriksen Electricity market ...
  • 04 Oct 2016 |

    “BMW set to roll out electric Mini, X3 to counter Mercedes push”

    To counter ambitious plans from rivals VW and Daimler unveiled at the Paris Car Show last week, BMW is stepping up its electric mobility plans, reports Elisabeth Behrmann for Bloomberg. BMW will offer the first battery-powered model of its Mini brand from ...
  • 19 Feb 2021 |

    Volkswagen sells more electric cars than Tesla for first time – consultancy

    19 Feb 2021, 14:06 Expert VW- Volkswagen Transport Cars Sören Amelang 鶹 鶹 Cars 鶹 Volkswagen sold more electric cars across the globe than Tesla at the end of last year for the first time ever, according to an  analysis ...
  • 26 May 2021 |

    Germany must accelerate hydrogen ramp-up to achieve 2045 climate target – report

    26 May 2021, 13:25 Edgar Meza Hydrogen 鶹 Germany will need some 60 terawatt-hours of hydrogen by 2030 and domestic production can only cover a third of that demand, according to a paper by Berlin-based think tank Climate Neutrality ...
  • 25 May 2021 |

    Many of Germany’s public buildings not energy efficient – NGO report

    25 May 2021, 13:24 Charlotte Nijhuis Efficiency 鶹 Many publicly-owned buildings in Germany do not meet the energy efficiency requirements in line with the country’s climate targets, shows a report published by the NGO Environmental Action ...
  • 25 May 2021 |

    German heavy industry demands financial support for ambitious climate goals

    25 May 2021, 13:15 Edgar Meza Climate & CO2 Industry Handelsblatt / 鶹  The German government’s goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2045 has put companies from energy-intensive industries, such as steel, chemicals, paper and cement, ...
  • 17 Aug 2021 |

    Germany launches tender to quickly expand countrywide e-car charging network

    17 Aug 2021, 13:29 Expert BMVI- Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Verkehr und digitale Infrastruktur Transport Benjamin Wehrmann Transport Cars 鶹 The German transport ministry (BMVI ...
  • 19 Jun 2020 |

    Renewables could cover nearly six months of Germany's annual power demand – E.ON

    19 Jun 2020, 14:04 Expert E.ON Utility Electricity market Business & Jobs Utilities Benjamin Wehrmann Renewables 鶹 The amount of electricity produced with renewable energy sources in Germany within one year could theoretically power ...
  • 18 Jun 2020 |

    New VW brand chief downplays thrust of carmaker's electric transition

    18 Jun 2020, 14:47 Cars dpa / Focus Online / Auto Motor und Sport The new brand chief of VW, Ralf Brandstätter, has appeared to play down the group’s transition to a full focus on electric vehicles, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by Focus ...
  • 17 Jun 2020 |

    Coronavirus shows little effect on German industry's climate plans so far – NGO

    17 Jun 2020, 15:06 Benjamin Wehrmann Industry Handelsblatt The economic downturn due to the coronavirus pandemic has had little effect on many German companies' plans to invest in emissions reduction measures so far, Steffen Ermisch writes in ...
  • 02 Jun 2016

    Commentators spar over renewables reform / Agreement on biomass

    02 Jun 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Süddeutsche Zeitung “Failure desired” Germany, the homeland of the energy transition, treats renewables like a relative who annoys everyone with permanent demands, writes Michael ...
  • 03 Jul 2019 |

    Shutdown of hard coal plants in Germany initially via tenders – economy minister

    03 Jul 2019, 14:09 Julian Wettengel Coal Policy Tagesspiegel Background German economy minister Peter Altmaier said the government plans to agree on a “Hard Coal Exit Law” in autumn, and the decision on which plants are shut down first will be taken via ...
  • 22 Oct 2020 |

    Volkswagen continues fight with German car lobby group over future use of fuels

    22 Oct 2020, 12:51 Benjamin Wehrmann Cars Hydrogen Süddeutsche Zeitung The German car industry lobby group VDA and its biggest member, Volkswagen, are continuing their internal argument over whether combustion engines in passenger cars still have a future ...
  • 11 Feb 2021 |

    Bavaria gets new gas-fired power plant to ensure supply security

    11 Feb 2021, 13:29 Expert Amprion Grid operator Electricity market Grid Technology Expert TenneT Grid operator Electricity market Grid Technology Expert TransnetBW Grid operator Electricity market Grid Technology Kerstine Appunn Grid 鶹 In ...
  • 07 Jan 2020 |

    Germany's towns urge rapid climate action to make infrastructure fit for future

    07 Jan 2020, 14:00 Expert German Association of Towns and Municipalities Deutsche Städte- und Gemeindebund Cities Citizens' energy Society Benjamin Wehrmann Cities 鶹 A more rapid and determined climate and energy transition policy is ...
  • Moderate power price increase for German households

    Power prices for an average German four-person-household will be about one percent higher in January 2017, compared to the same month last year, according to price comparison website verivox. That would lead to an annual total of 1,111 euros. “Following a ...
  • 26 Jul 2017 |

    “Natural gas consumption continues substantial surge in 2017”

    Germany’s consumption of natural gas continued to rise in the first half of 2017, the German Association of 鶹 and Water Industries (BDEW) says in a press release. Since January, Germans burned the equivalent of 516 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) of ...
  • 11 Oct 2017 |

    Germany set to widely miss climate targets, env ministry warns

    11 Oct 2017, 00:00 Germany’s environment ministry fears high emissions from coal-fired power plants and transport will make the country miss its 2020 climate targets by a wider margin than previously anticipated. The ministry’s warning adds further ...
  • 12 Feb 2020 |

    Green PPAs can boost renewables, pay off – German energy agency

    12 Feb 2020, 13:27 Sören Amelang Industry Cost & Prices 鶹 Long-term company contracts for the supply of renewable energy – also called corporate green power purchase agreements (PPAs) – are already often cheaper than conventional ...
  • 10 Feb 2021 |

    鶹 ministry wants to phase out Germany's renewables levy as of 2022

    10 Feb 2021, 12:54 Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 (until 2021) Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Expert SPD- Social Democratic Party ...
  • 08 Jun 2020 |

    German solar industry files complaint against persisting support cap

    08 Jun 2020, 13:13 Expert BSW- German Solar Association Bundesverband Solarwirtschaft Citizens' energy Electricity market Renewables Solar Business & Jobs Freja Eriksen Solar 鶹 Representatives of the German solar industry have ...
  • Germany’s climate credibility depends on successful coal exit - commentary

    At the next UN climate conference in Poland, the German government can credibly call on the international community to put more effort into climate protection only if it successfully manages its own coal exit, write Ottmar Edenhofer and Hans Joachim ...
  • 06 Sep 2016 |

    “Sensational profits, government-guaranteed”

    The Association of 鶹 Market Innovators (BNE) and the renewable power provider LichtBlick welcome plans by the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) to lower grid fees by decreasing the return on equity operators invest in Germany’s grid infrastructure, ...
  • Merkel, state premiers seek compromise on core Energiewende law

    31 May 2016, 00:00 [UPDATE with new details on 2025 renewable target in paragraph 3, ads News Digest items] German Chancellor Angela Merkel and state premiers will meet on Tuesday to work out a compromise on reforming the core piece of legislation behind ...
  • Biden’s global climate summit raises hopes among German NGOs and industry

    22 Apr 2021, 10:00 Expert E3G Third Generation Environmentalism Non-profit organisation for policy transformation Climate & CO2 Finance Policy Expert Germanwatch Climate & CO2 Expert WWF Germany World Wide Fund For Nature Climate & CO2 Fossil ...
  • 08 Dec 2022 |

    Climate activists risk antagonising people with blame games – researcher

    08 Dec 2022, 08:58 Climate activists must strike a careful balance between conciliatory offers for discussion and constructive provocation, argues political scientist Jérémie Gagné from More in Common, an international non-profit initiative studying ...
  • 18 Feb 2019 |

    Postponement of buildings commission irks German real estate industry

    18 Feb 2019, 13:50 Benjamin Wehrmann 鶹 鶹 Climate & CO2 Efficiency 鶹 / dpa / Handelsblatt The German government has put back plans to set up a commission tasked with ne gotiating possible measures for reducing ...
  • 28 Aug 2019 |

    CORRECTION- Carmaker Daimler to enlist wind farms set to lose Germany's renewable support

    28 Aug 2019, 13:48 Corrects headline:Daimler will enlist several wind farms, not thousands of wind turbines, as previously stated. Benjamin Wehrmann Renewables Cars Süddeutsche Zeitung German carmaker Daimler is signing agreements with wind farm operators ...
  • Net zero targets could force Taiwan's chipmakers abroad

    16 Dec 2022, 11:26 The adoption of net zero emissions targets by global technology giants like Apple, Google and Microsoft is turning into a serious problem for Taiwan’s massive chipmaking industry. Pressure to decarbonise the extremely power-hungry ...
  • 02 Aug 2021 |

    Germany reaches one-million electric vehicles target with half a year delay

    02 Aug 2021, 12:12 Benjamin Wehrmann Julian Wettengel Cars 鶹 Germany has reached its target of one million registered battery electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, said the government in a press release. This means the country has reached ...
  • 18 Feb 2019 |

    German utility RWE issues first estimates of coal exit costs

    18 Feb 2019, 13:33 Expert RWE AG Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG Utilities Rachel Waldholz 鶹 鶹 Coal Business & Jobs dpa / Rheinische Post German utility RWE estimates costs of 1.2 billion euros for each gigawatt (GW) of ...
  • 21 Feb 2019 |

    Car-sharing usage up in Germany

    21 Feb 2019, 13:32 Sören Amelang Mobility Cars Deutsche Welle German car-sharing companies logged sharp growth in 2018, picking up an extra 350,000 registered customers, reports Deutsche Welle (in English). The total number of registered users increased ...
  • 28 Jan 2021 |

    German government concerned about Polish plans for new nuclear power plants

    28 Jan 2021, 13:48 Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit Climate & CO2 Policy Julian Wettengel Nuclear phase-out EU RND / ...
  • 14 Oct 2021 |

    Onshore wind energy continues slow recovery in Germany with more bids in latest tender

    14 Oct 2021, 13:29 Kerstine Appunn Renewables 鶹 For the first time since December 2020, an onshore wind power auction was oversubscribed in Germany. Developers submitted 210 bids totalling 1,824megawatt (MW) for the tender volume of 1,492 ...
  • 18 Feb 2019 |

    Pence, Merkel face off over Nord Stream 2 at Munich Security Conference

    18 Feb 2019, 13:47 Rachel Waldholz Gas International Security Die Welt / Reuters US Vice President Mike Pence has issued a warning to Germany over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline at the Munich Security Conference this weekend, reports Die Welt.  His comments ...
  • 29 Jul 2016 |

    Grid operator invests less in first half of 2016

    Dutch-German transmission grid operator TenneT has posted a consolidated EBIT of 417 million euros (324 million in Germany) in the first six months of 2016 and invested 875 million euros in the grid infrastructure (642 million in Germany). The EBIT ...
  • Merkel calls US gas sanctions against Russia “irregular behaviour”

    German Chancellor Angela Merkel has backed her foreign minister’s criticism of US Senate plans to further tighten economic sanctions on Russia, Thorsten Knuf writes in the Frankfurter Rundschau. “This is, to put it mildly, irregular behaviour by the US ...
  • 23 Sep 2021 |

    The carbon balancing act: Emission reduction and removal in the bid for net-zero

    23 Sep 2021, 12:45 “Achieving net-zero” emissions by the middle of the century is a goal that few would fault. But when it comes to reaching a balance of greenhouse gases and carbon removal – as not all emissions from food and industrial production can be ...
  • 25 Jan 2021 |

    Germany in top 20 countries most affected by climate change – NGO

    25 Jan 2021, 12:37 Expert Germanwatch Climate & CO2 Charlotte Nijhuis Climate & CO2 鶹 / Handelsblatt Germany is among the 20 countries that have been most affected by climate change in the past two decades, according to the Global ...
  • 14 Dec 2017 |

    Potential car buyers continue to lose interest in diesel engines – survey

    Diesel cars continue to fall out of favour with people interested in buying a new car in Germany. In a survey commissioned by the German 鶹 Agency (dena), 17 percent of potential car buyers said they planned to buy a diesel car, compared to 21 percent ...
  • 12 Jun 2017 |

    “Front against Trump crumbles”

    Japan and Great Britain did not sign a joint statement with France, Germany and Italy in reaction to the US decision to leave the Paris Agreement, and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau proposed to strike the references to the Paris Agreement from the ...
  • 14 Feb 2022 |

    Climate change creates dangerous state of “collective helplessness” in society – security report

    14 Feb 2022, 13:38 Benjamin Wehrmann Security 鶹 [Adds paragraph on related study about climate policy perception by science platform WPKS] The “increasingly tangible” threat of climate change and other risks at a global scale, such as the ...
  • 09 Aug 2019 |

    Germany's grid management costs soar as high winds overstrain capacity

    09 Aug 2019, 13:54 Expert BDEW-German Association of 鶹 and Water Industries Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft Electricity market Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Utilities Freja Eriksen Grid Renewables Wind Costs for maintaining a ...
  • 19 May 2020 |

    Rebuff of environment advisors' report shows Merkel party's disdain of science – opinion

    19 May 2020, 14:17 Expert PIK- The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Climate & CO2 Benjamin Wehrmann Climate & CO2 Government The governing conservative CDU/CSU alliance has shrugged off concerns by the German Advisory Council on the ...
  • 11 Dec 2019 |

    Bosch CEO calls for aid for structural change in Germany’s car regions

    11 Dec 2019, 13:11 Freja Eriksen Cars Frankfurter Allgemeine / Stuttgarter Nachrichten The German car industry sees itself threatened by stricter CO2 limits planned by the European Commission, Volkmar Denner, head of German car part supplier Bosch, has ...
  • 11 Dec 2019 |

    Germany hesitates on support for European green finance taxonomy

    11 Dec 2019, 12:59 Freja Eriksen Finance Süddeutsche Zeitung Germany is wavering at the last minute to make a decision on whether to support an EU taxonomy for green financial activities that aims to identify the investments that will be regarded as ...
  • 23 Jan 2019 |

    Coal commission draft recommends shielding consumers from rising power prices – media

    23 Jan 2019, 11:04 Germany’s coal exit commission will propose to protect companies and private households from rising electricity prices resulting from a state-driven phase-out of the fossil fuel,  Reuters news agency says citing a draft report [shorter ...
  • “Let there be light again”

    After three years of rapid shrinking and the loss of more than 100,000 jobs, Germany’s solar industry seems to have bottomed out, Franz Hubik writes on Handelsblatt Online. “Although the market has shrunk to a fifth of its original size, it now was at ...
  • “Better chances for citzens’ energy”

    The government coalition has agreed last-minute changes to the contested reform of the Renewable 鶹 Act (EEG) in order to boost citizen energy projects, reports Michael Bauchmüller in Süddeutsche Zeitung. Citizen energy projects need to participate at ...
  • 26 Sep 2018 |

    NGOs lambast "dirty deal" between government and carmakers on diesel and CO2 emission limits

    There is mounting evidence that the German government will oppose stricter car fleet emission limits at EU level in exchange for carmakers’ consent to cover the hardware retrofitting costs in certain types of diesel vehicles, reports the Frankfurter ...
  • 03 Dec 2019 |

    German carbon-offsetting nonprofit organisations report rising demand

    03 Dec 2019, 13:54 Sören Amelang Transport Society dpa / Focus Online German carbon offsetting nonprofit organisations atmosfair and Arktik are reporting rising demand in the wake of the Fridays for Future protest movement, according to a  report by ...
  • 30 Mar 2015

    In the media: "Don't buckle!", WWF tells government on lignite

    30 Mar 2015, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn Sven Egenter 鶹 鶹 Der Spiegel “鶹 transition causes controversy between chancellor and state premiers” An alliance of three state premiers have informed Chancellor Angela Merkel about their concerns ...
  • “The FDP deserves respect”

    The FDP’s decision to let talks for a ‘Jamaica coalition’ government collapse after four weeks spared Germany a “government rife with contradictions”, Heike Göbel writes in a commentary for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “No labour market flexibility ...
  • 09 May 2017 |

    “E.ON profit misses estimates in earnings debut as green utility”

    German utility E.ON’s first-quarter adjusted earnings before interest and taxes of just over 1 billion euros was around 34 percent below the previous-year figure, in line with the company’s expectations, the company has said in a press release. This was ...
  • German court stops controversial clearing of forest for lignite mine

    05 Oct 2018, 17:00 Clearing operations at the embattled Hambach Forest to make way for a coal mine have to be halted to decide whether the forest is protected by EU environmental rules, a German court has decided. The judges said energy company RWE did ...
  • 08 Jan 2019 |

    Germany wobbles on Russia's Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline

    08 Jan 2019, 13:02 Sören Amelang 鶹 鶹 Gas Security Bloomberg / Handelsblatt Global Support within German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition for the Nord Stream 2 Baltic Sea gas pipeline is slipping as frustration with the Kremlin’s ...
  • 14 Jul 2021 |

    Most Germans remain sceptical about electric cars- survey

    14 Jul 2021, 13:08 Edgar Meza 鶹 鶹 Cars 鶹 While a majority of Germans know that climate protection requires a different kind of mobility, most of them have serious reservations about electromobility and are largely ...
  • Bavaria's CSU calls for doubling down on climate action despite pandemic

    08 Jan 2021, 12:41 Expert CSU- Christian Social Union Christlich Soziale Union in Bayern Policy Elections & Politics Charlotte Nijhuis Green stimulus Elections & Politics 鶹 / Focus Online The CSU – Bavarian sister party to ...
  • 07 May 2019 |

    Eastern German state premiers call for EU support to exit coal

    07 May 2019, 13:31 Julian Wettengel Coal dpa The heads of government of eastern German lignite states Brandenburg, Saxony and Saxony-Anhalt have called for EU support to cope with the transition away from coal, news agency dpa reports in an article ...
  • 06 Jan 2021 |

    VW subsidiary Audi trumps Tesla in sale of e-cars in Norway

    06 Jan 2021, 13:21 Expert VW- Volkswagen Transport Cars Charlotte Nijhuis Cars Wirtschaftswoche Volkswagen subsidiary Audi has overtaken Tesla as the top-selling electric car brand in Norway, according to a report in Wirtschaftswoche. In 2020, more ...
  • Carbon offset market booms despite nagging greenwash concerns

    15 Oct 2021, 11:34 Thanks to more and more businesses publicly making “carbon neutrality” or “net-zero” commitments, the voluntary market for carbon emission offsets is booming both globally and in Germany. Critics, however, consider buying into projects ...
  • 01 Nov 2021 |

    COP26 can put “moral pressure” on govts to reduce emissions – climate scientist

    01 Nov 2021, 08:26 The 26th UN climate change conference in Glasgow is a necessary instrument to put “moral pressure” on world governments to commit to more climate action, Stefan Rahmstorf, scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research ...
  • 15 Nov 2019 |

    German doctors call for national strategy to deal with health effects of climate change

    15 Nov 2019, 13:50 Sören Amelang Climate & CO2 Society 鶹 German doctors have called for a national plan to deal with the damaging health effects of climate change. Heat waves will become more frequent, more intense, and last longer, ...
  • 25 Oct 2017 |

    Budget and taxes: Conservatives, FDP and Greens agree on “common working basis” for coalition talks, including possibility of cutting climate-harmful subsidies

    In a second round of coalition talks, representatives from CDU, CSU, FDP and the Green Party agreed on “a common working basis” in the areas of budget, finances and taxes, Green leader Cem Özdemir said in a video message after the meeting. A paper ...
  • 24 Nov 2015 |

    COP21 Interview: We must err on the side of caution

    24 Nov 2015, 00:00 The final negotiations for a global climate treaty in Paris are just days away. What is the German perspective on an international climate agreement and what has the energy transition (Energiewende) got to do with it? The Clean 鶹 ...
  • 12 Nov 2019 |

    鶹 use in German buildings stagnates at 2010 levels – report

    12 Nov 2019, 12:36 Expert dena- German 鶹 Agency Deutsche Energie-Agentur Grid Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Technology Efficiency Freja Eriksen Efficiency 鶹 The final energy use for heating rooms and water in Germany's 22 ...
  • 01 Aug 2019 |

    German government puts focus on green hydrogen for energy transition – media

    01 Aug 2019, 12:30 Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 (until 2021) Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Julian Wettengel Gas Renewables ...
  • 26 Nov 2019 |

    Germany must adapt as local temperature increase already at 1.5 degrees – govt

    26 Nov 2019, 17:36 The effects of global warming are becoming increasingly felt in Germany, shows a government report on climate change adaptation. The average air temperature in the country rose by 1.5°C from 1881 until 2018, and more frequent heat waves ...
  • 06 Apr 2017 |

    "Germans’ love for diesel has turned cold"

    The VW emissions scandal and  looming driving bans  in Stuttgart and other cities are beginning to have a serious impact on diesel car sales, reports Philipp Vetter in a front-page article for newspaper Die Welt. The share of diesel vehicles in new car ...
  • 08 Aug 2017 |

    Germany’s vaunted vocational training programme strains to meet Energiewende’s demand for skilled workers

    08 Aug 2017, 00:00 Since Germany’s Energiewende shifted into gear in the early 2000s, the renewable energy and energy efficiency sectors have created over a million jobs, many of them in technical branches, such as renewable energy production, power ...
  • Federal government unsettles population with climate action debate – Saxony state premier

    31 Jul 2019, 13:57 Julian Wettengel Climate & CO2 Elections & Politics Rheinische Post The federal government is “frightening” the population with the debate about climate action measures such as higher prices for fossil car fuels and domestic ...
  • 24 May 2017 |

    Social Democrats tone down CO₂ floor price ambition in campaign programme draft

    The Social Democratic Party (SPD) has toned down its ambition regarding the introduction of a carbon floor price in its proposal for a party programme, to be decided at a federal party conference on 25 June. The party, which currently governs together ...
  • Government worried short-term coal plant closures will trigger compensation claims – report

    The German government is concerned that short-term coal plant closures might lead to expensive compensation claims by operators, reports Klaus Stratmann in business daily Handelsblatt in a double-page article. A utility source said “we will see each other ...
  • Analysts and researchers say new German government unlikely to reach climate targets

    Challenging Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent promise that Germany will find ways to meet its 2020 climate targets, nine analysts and researchers contacted by Bloomberg have said that the country will probably fail in its efforts, report Mathew Carr, ...
  • 11 Dec 2014

    In the media: Global perceptions of the Energiewende, CO2 from cars and report on fossil fuel dependency

    11 Dec 2014, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Study: Renewable Energies Agency (AEE) “How the world sees the Energiewende” Germany’s Energiewende – the shift from conventional and nuclear energy to a renewable power supply – is the focus of ...
  • 06 Oct 2014

    Germany's energy transition in the media on 6 October

    06 Oct 2014, 00:00 鶹 鶹 Der Spiegel “Expensive power in the south” Power prices in Germany may eventually be as much 10 percent higher in Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg if the two southern German states do not get access to cheap ...
  • 17 Jul 2019 |

    German offshore wind industry demands increase of expansion targets

    17 Jul 2019, 12:47 Expert VDMA- German Engineering Federation Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Expert WindGuard Deutsche WindGuard Renewables Julian Wettengel Wind Deutsche WindGuard / VDMA German offshore ...
  • 26 Jul 2018 |

    Onshore wind power expansion slows down

    After a record 2017, Germany saw an “expected” decrease in onshore wind power expansion in the first half of 2018, said German Wind 鶹 Association (BWE) and industry association VDMA Power Systems at a press conference in Berlin. The “market slump” ...
  • 18 Oct 2019 |

    Farmers in Germany call for large protests against environmental policies

    18 Oct 2019, 14:14 Expert DBV- German Farmers‘ Association Deutscher Bauernverband Agriculture Freja Eriksen Agriculture 鶹 / Tageszeitung (taz) Up to 10,000 farmers and 700 tractors are expected to be present at protests against German ...
  • Post feed-in tariff futures for pioneer renewable plants: Onshore wind power

    31 May 2021, 11:05 Many of Germany’s early renewable energy pioneers were experimenters with onshore wind technology. Inspired by the example of neighbouring Denmark, which had already proven the effectiveness of wind technology in the early 1990s, a ...
  • 06 Jul 2017 |

    Sino-German tandem: Export champions promote global energy transition

    06 Jul 2017, 00:00 With the US pulling out of the Paris Agreement, China and Germany are making a very public display of leadership on climate protection and transition to green energy. The export heavyweights are eager to keep the global economy on track ...
  • 09 Dec 2020 |

    Germans more concerned about climate change than other Europeans – survey

    09 Dec 2020, 15:14 Charlotte Nijhuis 鶹 鶹 Society 鶹 A large majority of Germans think addressing climate change must be part of the post-COVID-19 economic recovery. In  a large-scale, international  survey of 30,000 ...
  • “Self-inflicted doldrums”

    The current mood in Germany’s wind power industry is “ miserable,” but just like the solar power industry before, the companies are victims of a crisis of their own making, Franz Hubik writes in an opinion piece for Handelsblatt Online. Annual wind power ...
  • 14 Feb 2018 |

    Germany mulls free public transport in cities to curb emissions

    In a bid to avoid EU fines for excessive air pollution, the German government is considering plans to make public transport free of charge to improve air quality in cities. Transport experts welcomed the proposed measures designed to lure more people onto ...
  • Parliament energy committee agrees to contested renewables reform

    The federal parliament’s committee for economics and energy has agreed to the reform of the Renewable 鶹 Act (EEG), including many last-minute changes, according to a press release. The government coalition parties, economy minister Sigmar Gabriel’s ...
  • 10 Aug 2020 |

    Water shortages in German towns foreshadow climate change's impact on entire country- opinion

    10 Aug 2020, 14:03 Benjamin Wehrmann Climate & CO2 Society dpa / n-tv / Tageszeitung An intense heat wave and lack of rain is causing severe water shortages in German municipalities that could foreshadow global warming's impact on the country as ...
  • 鶹 law reform inadequate for German 2030 renewables target – analysis

    04 Dec 2020, 13:01 Kerstine Appunn Renewables Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG Tagesspiegel Background Germany will fail to achieve its 2030 target of a 65 percent renewables share in power consumption, even with added ambition in the latest draft for the ...
  • 07 Oct 2019 |

    Legal loophole allowed German companies to avoid paying billions in renewables support – media

    07 Oct 2019, 14:29 Benjamin Wehrmann Cost & Prices Der Spiegel Hundreds of companies may have used a loophole in Germany's Renewable 鶹 Act to avoid paying their share of the country's renewables support- and passed on the energy ...
  • Power and gas prices set to rise in Germany, remain close to EU average in real terms

    Germany’s power and natural gas customers face “considerable” price rises in 2019 as more than 200 suppliers have announced to charge 4.4 percent more for energy, the price comparison website Verivox says in a press release. For a household with an annual ...
  • 13 Oct 2014

    Germany's energy transition in the media on 13 October

    13 Oct 2014, 00:00 鶹 鶹 Der Spiegel “鶹 transition: Gabriel to put more pressure on utilities” German Economy and 鶹 Minister Sigmar Gabriel plans to put more pressure on utilities by taking 10 gigawatts of coal-fired power ...
  • 07 Aug 2020 |

    British energy transition cheaper, more effective than Germany’s – op-ed

    07 Aug 2020, 15:05 Coal Cost & Prices Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The British green energy transition has proven cheaper and more effective than Germany’s because of factors including its use of market mechanisms and its embrace of nuclear power, ...
  • 15 Mar 2019 |

    BMW and Daimler mull development of joint e-car platform to save billions in costs

    15 Mar 2019, 13:42 Expert BMW- Bayerische Motoren Werke Bavarian Motor Works Transport Cars Expert Daimler AG Transport Cars Business & Jobs Benjamin Wehrmann 鶹 鶹 Cars Business & Jobs Süddeutsche Zeitung / Handelsblatt German ...
  • 06 Aug 2020 |

    Environmental NGO sues to stop Nord Stream 2 over methane leakage concerns

    06 Aug 2020, 14:13 Expert DUH- Environmental Action Germany Deutsche Umwelthilfe Climate & CO2 Society Gas International 鶹 The environmental group Environmental Action Germany (DUH) says it is suing to stop the controversial Nord ...
  • Germany’s renewables levy rises slightly in 2020

    15 Oct 2019, 12:27 Germany’s renewable energy surcharge (EEG surcharge) that is paid by consumers with their electricity bill and supports wind, solar, biomass and hydro power installations will rise by about 5 percent to 6.756 cents per kilowatt hour (ct ...
  • 13 Mar 2019 |

    Germany’s oil and gas production slides in 2018

    13 Mar 2019, 14:10 Sören Amelang 鶹 鶹 Fossil fuels 鶹 Germany’s domestic extraction of oil and natural gas has slumped last year, further  increasing the country’s already heavy dependence on imported fossil fuels. ...
  • 11 Mar 2019 |

    Reinsurance company Munich Re introduces battery performance insurance

    11 Mar 2019, 13:57 Benjamin Wehrmann Storage Finance 鶹 German reinsurance heavyweight Munich Re has introduced an insurance for operators of battery storage installations that shields them against the risk of their products not performing ...
  • 17 Sep 2021 |

    Many ways to climate neutrality: Who are the candidates running to succeed Merkel?

    17 Sep 2021, 11:37 Three candidates vie to succeed Angela Merkel as German chancellor in the most unpredictable federal election in decades that will determine the next steps Europe's largest economy takes on the path to climate neutrality. A recent ...
  • 27 Sep 2019 |

    Project-based carbon contracts for differences could help lower industry emissions – analysis

    27 Sep 2019, 13:51 Expert DIW- German Institute for Economic Research Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Climate & CO2 Electricity market Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Freja Eriksen Cost & Prices ...
  • 11 Mar 2020 |

    German chemical makers connect with engineers to find path to climate neutrality

    11 Mar 2020, 13:22 Sören Amelang Industry 鶹 The German chemical industry association VCI has teamed up with the country's engineering association VDI to develop concepts aimed at reaching greenhouse gas neutrality by 2050. The ...
  • Coronavirus effects weigh on German SMEs’ climate investments – development bank

    27 Nov 2020, 13:53 Expert KfW Bank KfW- government-owned financing institution Fossil fuels Finance Efficiency Benjamin Wehrmann Business & Jobs Green stimulus 鶹 The economic impact of the coronavirus crisis is pouring cold water on ...
  • 10 Mar 2021 |

    Small modular reactors not the solution – German nuclear authority assessments

    10 Mar 2021, 13:25 Expert BASE- Federal Office for the Safety of Nuclear Waste Management Bundesamt für die Sicherheit der nuklearen Entsorgung Nuclear phase-out Expert Institute for Applied Ecology Öko-Institut Citizens' energy Climate & CO2 ...
  • 19 Jun 2019 |

    Third German solar PV auction in 2019 again oversubscribed

    19 Jun 2019, 12:07 Expert Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA) Bundesnetzagentur Electricity market Grid Cost & Prices Julian Wettengel Renewables Solar 鶹 Germany’s third solar PV ...
  • 26 Mar 2020 |

    Nobody can be happy about any positive climate effect now- German climate researcher

    26 Mar 2020, 14:00 Expert PIK- The Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research Climate & CO2 Benjamin Wehrmann Climate & CO2 Society Frankfurter Rundschau Emissions reductions due to the coronavirus crisis cannot be considered good news, ...
  • 100% green power by 2035 – high hopes for Germany's next renewables reform

    01 Mar 2022, 14:31 Germany’s government has initiated the first steps of a wide-ranging renewables reform that should make the country’s power supply almost 100 percent renewable by 2035. In a draft paper seen by 鶹, the economy and climate ...
  • 26 Feb 2019 |

    “Climate Action Law has the right aim but relies on inadequate instruments” – op-ed

    26 Feb 2019, 14:05 Kerstine Appunn Climate & CO2 Government Handelsblatt In an op-ed in Handelsblatt, Klaus Stratmann argues that the draft Climate Action Law’s rigid sector targets don’t allow for innovation that could make future emissions cuts more ...
  • COP28 deal – Reactions from Germany and Europe

    13 Dec 2023, 13:47 German and European politicians, scientists, businesses and civil society have overwhelmingly welcomed the key message of this year’s UN climate change conference COP28 in Dubai: the agreement to "transition away" from fossil ...
  • 12 Jan 2017 |

    “Germany mulls alternatives to green energy levy”

    Germany’s energy and economy ministry (BMWi) is searching for alternative ways to fund the country’s switch to renewables, reports Nathan Witkop for Montel. The ministry tendered for a study to explore “models for the future financing of renewable energy” ...
  • Coalition treaty grasps challenges, lacks detail- Energiewende expert

    09 Feb 2018, 00:00 The provisions on climate, energy, and transport in the coalition treaty agreed by Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the Social Democrats (SPD) recognise the big challenges of Germany’s energy transition project, but ...
  • Commission on coal exit "easy way out"- Greens' climate spokesperson

    08 Feb 2018, 00:00 In their coalition treaty, negotiators from Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the Social Democrats (SPD) have agreed to set up a special commission charged with managing the phase-out of coal-fired power generation in ...
  • 28 Oct 2021 |
    Gas

    Scholz says Germany needs new gas plants as EU edges closer to taxonomy decision

    28 Oct 2021, 13:37 Julian Wettengel 鶹 鶹 Gas 鶹 / EurActiv Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting Olaf Scholz (SPD) has re-iterated that the country must build new gas-fired power plants to complement renewables and guarantee ...
  • 17 Nov 2020 |

    New development cooperation project to lay foundations for German hydrogen imports

    17 Nov 2020, 13:53 Expert GIZ- Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit German development agency International Benjamin Wehrmann Hydrogen International Handelsblatt A new project launched by Germany's development cooperation ...
  • 07 Feb 2019 |

    France ceases to support Germany on Nord Stream 2 – media report

    07 Feb 2019, 13:39 Benjamin Wehrmann Gas International Süddeutsche Zeitung Germany cannot count on French to help it block an amendment to an EU regulation which would give the a Union greater say in the construction of the contentious Russian-German ...
  • 14 Jul 2017 |

    “Job illusion energy transition“

    Germany is paying a high price for creating jobs in the renewables sector and it is uncertain whether these jobs are sustainable in the long run, Manuel Frondel writes in a guest article for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. The econometrist from economic ...
  • 17 May 2023 |

    Exit of German energy state secretary deals blow to Green Party’s climate plans

    17 May 2023, 14:09 Germany’s Green energy and climate action minister, Robert Habeck, has suffered a setback for his decarbonisation plans with the departure of his energy state secretary, Patrick Graichen. Habeck’s state secretary left his post following ...
  • 05 Sep 2019 |

    Economy ministry plans no compensation for hard coal plant operators after 2030 – media

    05 Sep 2019, 12:29 Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 (until 2021) Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Julian Wettengel Coal Cost & Prices ...
  • 13 Feb 2019 |

    Global e-car registrations surge, BMW comes 6th and VW 9th – report

    13 Feb 2019, 13:14 Sören Amelang 鶹 鶹 Cars Business & Jobs 鶹 The number of electric cars worldwide rose 64 percent last year to reach 5.6 million in early 2019, according to the Centre for Solar 鶹 and Hydrogen ...
  • 13 Nov 2020 |

    Tesla poaches top Daimler manager; metalworkers’ union protests

    13 Nov 2020, 15:00 Sören Amelang 鶹 鶹 Cars 鶹 Germany's metalworker's union IG Metall staged a protest against the switch of Daimler's Berlin plant manager to rival Tesla, the California-based electric car ...
  • 14 Jul 2020 |

    Germany's biggest state NRW 'enters new dimension' in CO2 reduction but struggles on transport

    14 Jul 2020, 14:11 Benjamin Wehrmann Climate & CO2 Transport dpa / Süddeutsche Zeitung Germany's most populous state North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) has exceeded its own emissions reductions goal, news agency dpa reports in an article carried by the ...
  • 17 Feb 2017 |

    New economy minister Zypries assures renewables industry of progressive Energiewende legislation

    Brigitte Zypries, Germany’s new economy minister, has assured the country’s renewables industry of pursuing a progressive policy approach to advance the energy transition. At a conference by the German Renewable 鶹 Federation (BEE) she pledged to ...
  • 07 Feb 2019 |

    Daimler’s dividend cut shows German carmakers have reached crisis mode – media

    07 Feb 2019, 13:46 Benjamin Wehrmann Cars Tagesspiegel Due to a severe drop in profits, German luxury carmaker Daimler has cut the dividend paid to its shareholders for the first time in nine years, a sign that the infamous dieselgate scandal, tighter ...
  • 22 Feb 2021 |

    Climate plays important role in upcoming German state elections

    22 Feb 2021, 12:25 Charlotte Nijhuis Elections & Politics Tagesspiegel Background Climate policy plays an important role in the upcoming German state elections in Baden-Württemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate on 14 March, Tagesspiegel Background writes. ...
  • Exports to France push German record power trade surplus in January

    04 Feb 2019, 14:16 Benjamin Wehrmann 鶹 鶹 Electricity market Cost & Prices Tageszeitung Germany’s export surplus of electricity reached a new monthly record level in January, Bernward Janzing writes in the Tageszeitung (taz). ...
  • 06 Dec 2016 |

    “Spurned gifts”

    The buyer’s premium for alternative car engines introduced by the German government last May has largely failed its objective of boosting the sale of e-cars, writes Dana Heide in Handelsblatt. Economy minister Sigmar Gabriel expected the one-billion-euro ...
  • 09 Jul 2020 |

    Associations propose revival of German railway tracks totalling 4000 km

    09 Jul 2020, 13:25 Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Transport Freight 鶹 In Germany, 238 railway connections with a total length of 4,016 kilometres could be reactivated, the Association of German Transport Companies (VDV) and the Pro ...
  • German energy state sec says Hambach Forest must go for supply security

    The embattled Hambach Forest has to be cut down to ensure a secure power supply for Germany, energy state secretary Thomas Bareiß said at an event organised by Bloomberg New 鶹 Finance (BNEF) in London, Adam Vaughan writes in The Guardian. Bareiß said ...
  • 20 May 2019 |

    Church near Hambach Forest prepared for demolition to make room for coal mine

    20 May 2019, 13:25 Benjamin Wehrmann Coal Society Rheinische Post A church in the town of Kerpen-Manheim, in the western German Rhenish coal mining region, has been prepared for demolition to expand a nearby coal mine, the Rheinische Post reports. About ...
  • 05 Nov 2020 |

    German farmers understand need for climate action, seek economically viable solutions- association

    05 Nov 2020, 14:17 Expert DBV- German Farmers‘ Association Deutscher Bauernverband Agriculture Benjamin Wehrmann Agriculture 鶹 German farmers have understood the need for making agriculture more sustainable and integrate food production in ...
  • 19 May 2021 |

    German legislators disagree on who should bear the burden of CO2 heating price

    19 May 2021, 13:38 Kerstine Appunn Cost & Prices Heating 鶹 / dpa Conservative parliamentarians and members of the Bundesrat have announced their opposition to government plans for tenants and landlords to share the burden of extra ...
  • 16 Feb 2021 |

    Air pollution in German cities within EU limits- but ten years too late

    16 Feb 2021, 14:10 Expert UBA- Federal Environment Agency Umweltbundesamt Climate & CO2 Citizens' energy Benjamin Wehrmann Cars Cities 鶹 Air pollution with nitrogen dioxide has fallen below legal limit values in most cities across ...
  • 13 Aug 2019 |

    Switching from oil to gas in home heating systems could save 14 million tonnes CO₂- study

    13 Aug 2019, 13:37 Expert BDEW-German Association of 鶹 and Water Industries Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft Electricity market Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Utilities Expert KfW Bank KfW- government-owned financing institution ...
  • Need to take into account citizens’ wishes and concerns for climate action in transport – acatech

    07 May 2019, 12:34 Julian Wettengel Climate & CO2 Transport Cars 鶹 An increasing number of Germans say they have major worries about climate change (61 percent in 2019 compared to 37 percent in 2017) and many are calling for action in ...
  • 14 Nov 2016 |

    “Cabinet approves guide to climate-neutral Germany”

    The German federal cabinet finally approved the government’s Climate Action Plan 2050 as the basic framework on how Germany is to become largely greenhouse gas neutral in 2050. In a press release, environment minister Barbara Hendricks pointed out that ...
  • 03 Feb 2020 |

    German environment minister calls for markup on big, fuel-intensive cars

    03 Feb 2020, 13:49 Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit Climate & CO2 Policy Julian Wettengel Cars Cost & Prices dpa ...
  • 09 Nov 2016 |

    “German economy minister blocks agreement on climate change plan”

    With a surprise last-minute veto, federal economy minister Sigmar Gabriel blocked a tentative agreement on Germany’s Climate Action Plan 2050, writes Markus Wacket for news agency Reuters. German mining, chemicals and energy trade union IG BCE and the ...
  • 03 Feb 2020 |

    CDU’s economic wing proposes stronger German participation in nuclear energy research – media

    03 Feb 2020, 13:47 Freja Eriksen Nuclear phase-out Spiegel Online The committee for economics, jobs and taxes of chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has proposed that Germany participates more intensively in the European ...
  • 02 Aug 2021 |

    German debate about coal end date 2038 heats up in election campaign

    02 Aug 2021, 12:38 Benjamin Wehrmann Coal Elections & Politics The debate about Germany's decision to shut down the last coal-fired power plant by 2038 at the latest has intensified in the election campaign. Economy minister Peter Altmaier ...
  • 27 Oct 2020 |

    Home insulation makes big difference in heating bill and CO2 emissions – government report

    27 Oct 2020, 13:25 Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit Climate & CO2 Policy Kerstine Appunn Efficiency Clean 鶹 ...
  • Switching off coal plants could benefit grid stability – internal ministry paper

    Germany can take coal plants with a combined capacity of seven gigawatts off grid- and might even improve the security of the power supply by doing so, according to an unofficial document by Germany’s economy & energy ministry (BMWi) and the Federal ...
  • 13 May 2022 |

    Russia "weaponises" gas supply, Germany could cope with halt by winter – econ min

    13 May 2022, 13:00 Russia has started to use fossil fuel deliveries as “a weapon“ with the introduction of sanctions on Gazprom Germania, the former German unit of Gazprom, said economy and climate minister Robert Habeck. While the situation was ...
  • 10 Nov 2017 |

    EnBW says earnings turnaround in 2017 in sight

    German utility EnBW has announced third quarter results, saying earnings were up and its balance sheet was “significantly stronger”. It says for the first time since 2010, it expects its operating result to rise again in 2017, crediting the consolidation ...
  • 03 Feb 2021 |

    Heat pumps see record growth as lockdowns encourage Germans to modernise homes

    03 Feb 2021, 13:29 Expert BDH- Federation of German Heating Industry Industry Efficiency Heating Benjamin Wehrmann Efficiency Die Welt Germany's residential heating sector saw a massive shift towards low-carbon technologies in 2020, spurring hopes ...
  • Right-wing populists challenge Europe’s climate efforts

    07 Jun 2024, 12:00 Right-wing populist parties opposed to climate action are gaining power and popularity across the European continent and are set to do well in the 2024 European Parliament elections. These parties strongly influence climate narratives ...
  • 16 Oct 2020 |

    Tesla forced to halt construction at Berlin factory after failing to pay its water bill

    16 Oct 2020, 13:30 Benjamin Wehrmann Cars rbb24 / Der Spiegel US carmaker Tesla has been forced to halt construction works at its planned e-car and battery factory near Berlin after failing to pay a water bill to the local supply company, which then ...
  • 21 Aug 2018 |

    RWE prepares clearing of Hambach Forest for coal mining despite calls for moratorium – report

    German energy company RWE has rejected calls for a moratorium on forest clearing as part of lignite mining during its negotiations with the country’s coal exit commission, and said it would continue mining operations at the controversial Hambach mine, the ...
  • Costly nuclear power no option for low-carbon power mix of future – researchers

    25 Jul 2019, 14:52 Expert DIW- German Institute for Economic Research Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Climate & CO2 Electricity market Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Benjamin Wehrmann Nuclear phase ...
  • 11 Jun 2020 |

    Local authorities' interest in climate change adaptation rises sharply in Germany

    11 Jun 2020, 14:20 Expert UFZ- Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research Helmholtz-Zentrum für Umweltforschung- UFZ Climate & CO2 Renewables Society Sören Amelang 鶹 鶹 Climate & CO2 Der Spiegel Following two extremely hot and ...
  • 23 Jul 2019 |

    Court annuls price system suspected to be behind recent German grid troubles

    23 Jul 2019, 13:52 Freja Eriksen Grid Cost & Prices 鶹 A German court has ruled to revoke the so-called mixed-price system used to set prices on the energy balancing market. The Higher Regional Court of Düsseldorf’s decision follows a ...
  • 08 Jun 2020 |

    Germany denounces further US sanctions planned against Nord Stream 2

    08 Jun 2020, 13:14 Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 (until 2021) Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Freja Eriksen Gas Security Handelsblatt ...
  • BDEW: 鶹 transition to enter crucial stage only after next legislative period

    Germany’s energy transition will face a critical phase after the next legislative period  in 2021, according to the national utility association BDEW. “The real challenges lie between 2021 and 2030, when the nuclear exit has been completed and excess ...
  • 26 Aug 2019 |

    Study finds CO2 price of 50 euros per tonne would be 'socially balanced' for Germany

    26 Aug 2019, 13:34 Expert Agora Energiewende Think tank on German, European and international climate and energy policy Climate & CO2 Electricity market Energiewende International Expert Agora Verkehrswende Think tank on energy transition in the ...
  • German foreign minister calls for global renewables and efficiency targets

    02 May 2023, 13:39 Internationally agreed targets to expand renewable energies and increase energy efficiency are needed to put the global economy back on a path towards limiting the global temperature rise to 1.5°C, Germany's foreign minister ...
  • 05 Oct 2020 |

    Germany registers more than 20,000 pure electric cars in a month for first time

    05 Oct 2020, 13:45 Sören Amelang Cars 鶹 A record number of car buyers in Germany have opted for electric vehicles in September. The number of new purely electric vehicles rose to 21,188 last month, an increase of 260 percent compared to a ...
  • 28 Jan 2019 |

    German politicians and energy experts praise coal exit deal, say real work starts now

    28 Jan 2019, 11:36 The agreement by Germany's coal exit commission to end the fossil power source's use by 2038 the latest is welcomed by the country's climate activists and energy industry representatives alike. They praise the final ...
  • 21 Sep 2021 |

    Gas price hike also hits Germany, but no plans to intervene by govt- media report

    21 Sep 2021, 13:20 Benjamin Wehrmann Gas Cost & Prices Tagesspiegel Background / 鶹 / ARD The quick rise in natural gas prices impacts Germany, but the economy ministry at this point does not aim to use government action to protect ...
  • G20 currently not able to send “strong joint messages on climate”- Germanwatch

    01 Jul 2019, 13:35 Expert Germanwatch Climate & CO2 Julian Wettengel Climate & CO2 International 鶹 / Financial Times Environmental and development organisation Germanwatch  has said it is “relieved“ that 19 of the G20 countries at ...
  • Conservative party head calls for overhaul of German energy taxes and levies

    12 Aug 2019, 12:29 Expert CDU- Christian Democratic Union Christlich Demokratische Union Policy Elections & Politics Julian Wettengel Climate & CO2 Cost & Prices 鶹 / Welt am Sonntag The head of Germany's conservative ...
  • German government denies media report on latest coal exit commission draft

    The German government denies a report by news website Spiegel Online that the country's coal exit commission will propose to initiate the fossil fuel's phase-out in the west of the country and favours to finish it by 2035. Germany’s economy and ...
  • 14 May 2020 |

    Germany's gas grid operators present concept for 2030 green hydrogen grid

    14 May 2020, 14:03 Sören Amelang Gas Hydrogen 鶹 Germany can establish an initial grid for transporting green hydrogen made with renewables by 2030 at limited costs, according to the country's gas transmission grid operator umbrella ...
  • German industry urges new debate on carbon capture, storage and utilisation

    15 Apr 2021, 14:18 Expert BDI- Federation of German Industries Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Carbon removal Fossil fuels Technology 鶹 Germany’s ...
  • 28 Jun 2019 |

    Climate effects from airplanes’ condensation trails to triple by 2050- study

    28 Jun 2019, 12:42 Freja Eriksen Climate & CO2 鶹 The condensation trails forming behind airplanes at high altitudes do more damage to the climate than their CO2 emissions and the climate-harmful effects will triple by 2050, according ...
  • 23 Apr 2015

    In the media: "The end of coal is imminent"

    23 Apr 2015, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 ZDF heute.de “Climate levy on coal: Gabriel puts his foot down” With pressure and criticism from coalition partner CDU-CSU increasing, Economy and 鶹 Minister Sigmar Gabriel has defended his ...
  • 14 Mar 2019 |

    Weak coal and nuclear performance weighs on RWE’s balance sheet

    14 Mar 2019, 13:44 Benjamin Wehrmann Coal Business Utilities 鶹 A lower power production from coal and nuclear plants, as well as lower wholesale power prices, have dented the profits of German RWE, the energy company’s annual balance sheet ...
  • 27 Aug 2015

    In the media: Subsidies for heating systems; wind turbines and tourism

    27 Aug 2015, 00:00 Clarifies that the whole article in the Frankfurter Rundschau is written by Jörg Staude. Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Ministry of Finance / FÖS Government subsidies seen rising Subsidies and tax concessions will increase to 22 ...
  • 05 Jul 2021 |

    German government advisors urge decision on use of fossil fuel hydrogen

    05 Jul 2021, 13:13 Sören Amelang Hydrogen 鶹 Germany's hydrogen council has said the country must urgently make up its mind whether to use hydrogen made with fossil fuels in its market ramp-up of the technology deemed key to reach ...
  • 16 Feb 2018 |

    State should support diesel car retrofitting, say government advisors - report

    Retrofitting older diesel cars to reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions could be financed “fully or for the largest part possible” through a support mechanism, a group of government advisors writes in a draft report, Markus Balser and Michael Bauchmüller ...
  • 20 Jun 2019 |

    Germany should keep coal exit roadmap as flexible as possible – energy agency head

    20 Jun 2019, 13:25 Julian Wettengel Coal Tagesspiegel Background Germany’s government must implement the key recommendations given by its coal exit commission, but the proposal should not be followed to the letter to maintain necessary flexibility in ...
  • Extending nuclear plants’ runtime not advisable, German govt concludes

    08 Mar 2022, 13:35 Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit Climate & CO2 Policy Expert BMWK- Federal Ministry for Economic ...
  • 19 Jun 2019 |

    Germany to support three battery cell alliances – economy minister

    19 Jun 2019, 12:04 Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 (until 2021) Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Julian Wettengel Cars Reuters Germany ...
  • 13 Dec 2019 |

    E-car sales in Germany up by almost 50 percent in 2019- report

    13 Dec 2019, 13:42 Rose-Anne Clermont Cars 鶹 Germany is forecasted to register 110,000 new e-vehicles in 2019, while market giants USA and China saw a decrease in e-market sales, the Center of Automotive Management's (CAM) ...
  • 10 Dec 2019 |

    Share of new cars with alternative engines reaches double digits for first time in Germany

    10 Dec 2019, 13:29 Expert dena- German 鶹 Agency Deutsche Energie-Agentur Grid Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Technology Efficiency Rose-Anne Clermont Cars 鶹 The number of new registrations of electric, hybrid, liquid gas and ...
  • 05 Jun 2019 |

    Merkel counters industry's economic policy criticism, says companies deceived public trust

    05 Jun 2019, 12:31 Expert BDI- Federation of German Industries Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Julian Wettengel Climate & CO2 Die Welt Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel has launched a verbal ...
  • 04 Jun 2019

    German industry association says "vague" climate policy damages economy

    04 Jun 2019, 13:32 Benjamin Wehrmann 鶹 The influential industry lobby group BDI has criticised Germany’s government for damaging the economy with unclear and erratic policymaking in areas such as climate, energy and taxation. “There has to ...
  • 09 Sep 2020 |

    City of Berlin wrangles over clean mobility concept including combustion engine ban

    09 Sep 2020, 14:31 Benjamin Wehrmann Cars Cities rbb24 The government coalition in the City of Berlin has failed to reach an agreement on a new climate action package that would include a ban on cars with fossil-fuelled combustion engines within the next ...
  • 12 Feb 2019 |

    Companies plan Germany’s first industrial-scale renewable hydrogen project

    12 Feb 2019, 14:14 Sören Amelang Gas Hydrogen 鶹 German power grid operator Amprion and gas grid operator Open Grid Europe (OGE) are planning to build a 100 megawatt (MW) power-to-gas plant along with hydrogen infrastructure, a project they ...
  • 08 Feb 2019 |

    Stop Nord Stream 2 for EU solidarity – opinion

    08 Feb 2019, 14:10 Julian Wettengel 鶹 鶹 Gas Security Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The contentious Russian-German gas pipeline project Nord Stream 2 is a political issue – contrary to what some German industry representatives say – and ...
  • 23 Dec 2020 |

    Bosch supervisory board head calls EU preference for e-cars harmful for climate

    23 Dec 2020, 13:51 Julian Wettengel Cars Stuttgarter Nachrichten German car supplier Bosch’s supervisory board head Franz Fehrenbach has criticised the EU for what he calls its preferential treatment of electric cars, saying this is to the detriment of ...
  • 14 Feb 2019 |

    EU concessions mean some German cities may avoid diesel bans

    14 Feb 2019, 14:15 Sören Amelang 鶹 鶹 Cars Tagesspiegel Background The European Commission has approved German government plans to impose diesel bans only in cities that significantly exceeded pollution limits, Markus Grabitz, Stefan ...
  • 11 Feb 2019 |

    Climate change important security policy issue – Chancellor Merkel

    11 Feb 2019, 14:19 Julian Wettengel 鶹 鶹 Climate & CO2 Security 鶹 German Chancellor Angela Merkel said climate change was one of the major security policy issues of today, in a video podcast ahead of the Munich ...
  • 11 Feb 2019 |

    Coal exit compromise brings uncertainty for Germany’s most modern coal plant

    11 Feb 2019, 14:05 Expert Uniper SE Uniper SE Utilities Benjamin Wehrmann 鶹 鶹 Coal Climate & CO2 Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung The German coal commission’s agreement to gradually phase out coal power has left investors and ...
  • 24 Mar 2021 |

    Resettlement of villages to expand German lignite mine postponed until 2026

    24 Mar 2021, 13:08 Expert RAG German Coal RAG Deutsche Steinkohle AG Coal Fossil fuels Business & Jobs Expert RWE AG Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG Utilities Charlotte Nijhuis Coal 鶹 The controversial resettlement of five ...
  • 12 Dec 2019 |

    Implementation of coal exit compromise endangered, associations tell Merkel

    12 Dec 2019, 13:14 Expert BDEW-German Association of 鶹 and Water Industries Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft Electricity market Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Utilities Expert BDI- Federation of German Industries Bundesverband ...
  • 24 May 2019 |

    Audi aims to sell one million e-cars per year by mid-2020s

    24 May 2019, 13:32 Benjamin Wehrmann Cars Business & Jobs 鶹 German carmaker Audi has announced the goal of selling one million electric cars per year by the mid-2020s and to offer 30 e-car models by that time, with 20 models being ...
  • 23 Apr 2020 |

    Mercedes-Benz gives up on fuel cell cars – report

    23 Apr 2020, 13:46 Expert BMW- Bayerische Motoren Werke Bavarian Motor Works Transport Cars Expert Daimler AG Transport Cars Business & Jobs Expert VW- Volkswagen Transport Cars Sören Amelang Cars Hydrogen Technology ntv / electrek Daimler subsidiary ...
  • 25 Oct 2023 |

    German econ minister doubles down on power price subsidies with new industry strategy

    25 Oct 2023, 11:00 Germany's economy ministry wants to strengthen the country as an industrial location with a new industry strategy, a key aspect of it being a so-called bridge electricity price for energy-intensive companies. Robert Habeck wants to ...
  • German industry welcomes EU offshore wind plans, but environmental concerns remain

    20 Nov 2020, 13:50 Benjamin Wehrmann 鶹 鶹 Renewables Wind International 鶹 The plans by the European Commission to significantly ramp up renewable energy generation at sea have been mostly welcomed by German policymakers ...
  • 13 May 2019 |

    Buildings minister proposes tax rebates for climate-friendly renovation

    13 May 2019, 14:03 Julian Wettengel Efficiency Rheinische Post Horst Seehofer (CSU), German federal minister of the interior, building and community and a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s climate cabinet, will propose making the climate-friendly ...
  • 11 Nov 2019 |

    German wind turbine maker Enercon to cut 3,000 jobs

    11 Nov 2019, 12:58 Expert Enercon GmbH Wind turbine manufacturer Wind Business & Jobs Technology Freja Eriksen Wind Business & Jobs dpa German wind turbine maker Enercon has announced it will cut up to 3,000 jobs, saying the federal government& ...
  • Lignite exit should follow example of hard coal phase-out – Merkel

    The highly anticipated task force on phasing out coal power – which will also tackle the phase-out of lignite mining – should follow the example of Germany’s hard coal exit, Chancellor Angela Merkel told parliament. The last German hard coal mine closed ...
  • EU Commission rejects renewables levy exemptions for cogeneration power plants - report

    The European Commission has rejected to approve exemptions from the renewables surcharge for operators of highly efficient combined heat and power (CHP) plants in Germany, Andreas Mihm reports for Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). Since 2014, ...
  • 09 Apr 2020 |

    German wind power installations slightly up in early 2020 but still below required levels

    09 Apr 2020, 13:45 Benjamin Wehrmann Wind 鶹 / dpa / Focus Online The expansion of onshore wind power in Germany has moderately picked up again in the first quarter of 2020, figures compiled by industry expert group Fachagentur Windenergie ...
  • 17 Aug 2020 |

    Merkel meeting with Thunberg must be more than symbolic act- activists

    17 Aug 2020, 13:40 鶹 鶹 Society dpa / die Welt / taz Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with climate activists including Greta Thunberg and Luisa Neubauer on Thursday (20 August) to discuss climate policy,  dpa reports in an ...
  • 08 Apr 2020 |

    Digitalisation of Germany's energy transition on track, but many hurdles ahead – study

    08 Apr 2020, 12:55 Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 (until 2021) Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Sören Amelang Digitalisation Clean ...
  • 16 Apr 2018 |

    Germany runs risk of losing Energiewende plot, needs carbon price – E.ON CEO

    Johannes Teyssen, the chief executive of energy company E.ON, said Germany is running the risk of losing the overarching plot of its Energiewende. He warned that the current government is focusing again too much on side-aspects such as the exact date and ...
  • 05 Dec 2016 |

    “Six years to go”

    Six years before Germany's last nuclear plant is due to go offline, the utilities’ lawsuits over the legality and costs of the phase-out procedure pose a final but major obstacle for the nuclear exit, writes Michael Bauchmüller in Süddeutsche Zeitung ...
  • 02 Apr 2020 |

    E-car driver satisfaction drops sharply as vehicles enter mass market – survey

    02 Apr 2020, 13:39 Sören Amelang Cars 鶹 The initial enthusiasm of early electric car drivers has given way to increasing frustration as the technology has started to enter the mass market, according to  a survey  by Consultancy UScale. Of ...
  • 26 Apr 2019 |

    Germany has enough supply to cope with Russian oil pipeline halt

    26 Apr 2019, 12:56 Julian Wettengel Fossil fuels Reuters / Tagesspiegel Background German refineries have adequate oil stocks if import flows on the Russian Druzhba pipeline were to be halted, a spokesman for industry group MWV ...
  • 24 Oct 2019 |

    Nuclear waste from Germany exported for disposal in Russia

    24 Oct 2019, 12:22 Expert E.ON Utility Electricity market Business & Jobs Utilities Expert RWE AG Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG Utilities Benjamin Wehrmann Nuclear phase-out Tageszeitung (taz) A company in Germany that enriches uranium ...
  • 18 Oct 2021 |

    German “traffic light coalition” ponders introduction of climate ministry, FDP leader says

    18 Oct 2021, 13:14 Benjamin Wehrmann Elections & Politics ARD / 鶹 / n-tv The possible new German coalition government of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Green Party and the Free Democratic party (FDP) could install a “new climate ...
  • 18 Oct 2021 |

    Industry appears more content with “traffic light coalition’s” climate proposals than activists

    18 Oct 2021, 13:13 Benjamin Wehrmann Elections & Politics 鶹 / RND Industry representatives in Germany have largely welcomed the ideas proposed by the possible next government coalition of the Social Democrats (SPD), the Green Party and ...
  • 23 Mar 2020 |

    German Fridays for Futures leader warns against protests during corona crisis

    23 Mar 2020, 14:03 Benjamin Wehrmann Climate & CO2 Society Süddeutsche Zeitung The outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Germany and the rest of Europe means that the weekly Fridays for Future (FfF) protests for greater climate action need to be ...
  • 01 Mar 2021 |

    Protest at Hamburg coal-fired heating plant against possible use of Namibian wood

    01 Mar 2021, 14:33 Charlotte Nijhuis Coal Cities 鶹 Climate activists have protested at a coal-fired heating plant in Hamburg that could be converted to use imported wood as a fuel due to the coal-phase out plans of Germany's second ...
  • Hydrogen start-up Sunfire reports rising demand from cosmetics industry

    04 Apr 2019, 13:51 Sören Amelang Gas Business Hydrogen Start-ups Technology 鶹 The cosmetics industry is increasingly interested in using renewable hydrogen, according to German electrolysis start-up sunfire. Hydrogen made with renewable ...
  • 26 Feb 2021 |

    New EU car emissions rules could lead to major job losses – BMW works council head

    26 Feb 2021, 12:14 Expert BMW- Bayerische Motoren Werke Bavarian Motor Works Transport Cars Expert FDP- Free Democratic Party Freie Demokratische Partei Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Policy Expert VDA- German Association of the Automotive Industry ...
  • 16 Mar 2020 |

    Germany's utilities say power supply secure amid coronavirus response

    16 Mar 2020, 14:09 Expert VKU- German Association of Local Utilities Verband kommunaler Unternehmen Climate & CO2 Electricity market Utilities Benjamin Wehrmann Grid Security 鶹 The far-reaching measures taken in Germany and across ...
  • 28 Jul 2020 |

    Calls grow for improving industrial battery recycling in Germany

    28 Jul 2020, 12:44 Edgar Meza Technology Tagesspiegel Background The German government’s recently published draft amendment to the country’s battery law aimed at improving battery recycling in the country does not go far enough for waste management ...
  • “Austria and Germany: agreement on common framework for congestion management”

    German and Austrian energy regulators have agreed to cap peaks in the exchange of power from October 2018 to reflect lagging grid development between the two countries, announced Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) and E-Control in separate press releases. ...
  • 26 Mar 2019 |

    VW subsidiary MAN 鶹 Solutions buys stake in electrolysis expert in expectation of future commercial market

    26 Mar 2019, 13:20 Expert VW- Volkswagen Transport Cars Julian Wettengel Gas Hydrogen Technology Handelsblatt / 鶹 Engine manufacturer and Volkswagen (VW) subsidiary MAN 鶹 Solutions shows a firm commitment to sustainable hydrogen ...
  • German Greens vow to speed up low-carbon transition

    23 Nov 2020, 14:00 Germany's Greens have backed a more ambitious climate target in a bid to defuse growing tensions with more radical activists. At a virtual convention designed to showcase the party's ability to govern Europe's largest ...
  • 22 Feb 2021 |

    Germany still lacks business model for clean industry- think tank

    22 Feb 2021, 12:23 Expert Agora Energiewende Think tank on German, European and international climate and energy policy Climate & CO2 Electricity market Energiewende International Expert Alliance for Climate and Economy Stiftung KlimaWirtschaft ...
  • 10 Oct 2019 |

    German econ minister says hydrogen key part of future energy system

    10 Oct 2019, 13:56 Germany’s economy minister Peter Altmaier has said that hydrogen will be a key element of the country’s future energy system, as a zero-carbon or carbon-neutral energy source. However, natural gas would play a significant role over the ...
  • 03 Feb 2022 |

    German politicians reject EU green label for nuclear power, welcome gas provisions

    03 Feb 2022, 12:13 Economy minister Robert Habeck and environment minister Steffi Lemke have reiterated Germany’s opposition to labelling nuclear power as a sustainable activity, but did not react to provisions on gas projects the European Commission ...
  • 11 Apr 2016

    Utilities increase nuclear provisions / A 'power market pentagon'

    11 Apr 2016, 00:00 Sören Amelang Kerstine Appunn Spiegel Online/AFP/Süddeutsche Zeitung “Utilities increase nuclear provisions” The utilities have increased their provisions for the nuclear exit in the last year, according to a report by press agency AFP ...
  • 13 Nov 2017 |

    Germany's energy use and emissions likely to rise yet again in 2017

    13 Nov 2017, 00:00 Higher energy demand triggered by economic growth and colder weather is likely to push up Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions again this year, energy market group AG Energiebilanzen forecast on Friday. A new rise would put Germany’s 2020 ...
  • 23 Dec 2016 |

    Preview2017 – Elections, G20 set to dominate Energiewende policy

    23 Dec 2016, 00:00 Germany is heading into a year filled with international top-events and elections that will determine the future course of the country’s Energiewende project. The uncertainties about the new US administration and the exact details of ...
  • 05 Mar 2020 |

    Germany’s largest coal state rejects coal exit law

    05 Mar 2020, 14:35 Rachel Waldholz Coal Policy Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung / Handelsblatt Germany’s largest coal state, North Rhine-Westphalia, says it cannot accept the federal government’s proposed coal exit law without major amendments, arguing that ...
  • 25 Feb 2020 |

    Search is on for new “expert council” to monitor German emissions cuts

    25 Feb 2020, 13:38 Expert DIW- German Institute for Economic Research Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Climate & CO2 Electricity market Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Expert Claudia Kemfert German ...
  • 03 Mar 2020 |

    Lower taxes for diesel cost Germany up to seven billion euros in 2019

    03 Mar 2020, 14:22 Expert BMF- Federal Ministry of Finance Bundesministerium der Finanzen Finance Government Expert Green Party Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Policy Benjamin Wehrmann Fossil fuels Cars Rheinische Post The lower ...
  • 10 May 2021 |

    Germany's largest union warns new CO2 target will speed up car industry job losses

    10 May 2021, 14:22 Expert IG Metall-Industrial Union of Metalworkers IG Metall Transport Business & Jobs Expert VDA- German Association of the Automotive Industry Transport Sören Amelang Cars Industry Policy Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung Government  ...
  • 26 Sep 2019 |

    USA and China overtake Europe in energy R&D expenses – report

    26 Sep 2019, 14:01 Sören Amelang Renewables Technology Bizz 鶹 Europe dedicated less money to energy research and development last year, resulting in the US and China outspending the EU and its member states "for the first time", bizz energy ...
  • Social Democrats prepared to raise initial CO2 price in Germany's climate package

    26 Sep 2019, 13:59 Expert SPD- Social Democratic Party Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Policy Sören Amelang Climate & CO2 Cost & Prices Tagesspiegel Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) are prepared to ...
  • 02 Mar 2020 |

    VW will not develop new natural gas vehicles as it shifts aggressively to e-cars

    02 Mar 2020, 13:34 Rachel Waldholz Cars Handelsblatt / Der Spiegel VW has decided not to develop new natural gas vehicles, just two years after predicting that cars fueled by compressed natural gas (CNG) could eventually account for up to 10 percent of ...
  • 18 Mar 2019 |

    Germany and Poland agree on forging battery production alliance

    18 Mar 2019, 14:07 Benjamin Wehrmann Storage International 鶹 The governments of Poland and Germany have agreed on pooling their efforts to establish an independent battery production in Europe. At the bilateral German-Polish economy forum ...
  • 16 Oct 2018 |

    Land set to become “new currency” of Germany’s energy transition – study

    The demand for land to construct wind turbines and solar power arrays is set to replace monetary costs as the central restrictive factor for renewable power expansion and will become “the new currency” of Germany’s energy transition, the Energiewende, a ...
  • 25 Jan 2022 |

    Sudden halt of controversial buildings subsidy dismays Germany's construction sector

    25 Jan 2022, 13:24 Expert BDI- Federation of German Industries Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Expert DENEFF- German Industry Initiative for 鶹 Efficiency Deutsche Unternehmensinitiative ...
  • 12 Mar 2019 |

    Germany should make its energy policy fully European to improve it – DIHK head

    12 Mar 2019, 14:01 Expert BDI- Federation of German Industries Bundesverband der Deutschen Industrie Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Benjamin Wehrmann Grid International Tagesspiegel In order to achieve the best possible climate action in ...
  • 30 Oct 2020 |

    German states lagging behind many sustainable mobility targets, study says

    30 Oct 2020, 10:42 鶹 鶹 Mobility 鶹 Germany’s federal states are lagging behind on many sustainable transport targets, particularly on climate protection goals, according to a study commissioned by German transport and ...
  • 06 Jul 2020 |

    German states call for renewables reform and greenlight removal of solar support cap

    06 Jul 2020, 12:25 Julian Wettengel Renewables Solar 鶹 The council of German state governments has called for a speedy and comprehensive reform of the Renewable 鶹 Act (EEG) to ensure the country reaches its 2030 target of expanding ...
  • 03 Feb 2021 |

    'Dark doldrums' highlight supply challenges for Germany's fossil power phase-out

    03 Feb 2021, 13:31 Benjamin Wehrmann Fossil fuels Renewables Süddeutsche Zeitung Germany's coal plants provided the bulk of the country’s power consumption amid a period of cloudy short days and little wind in early January, foreshadowing the ...
  • Reduction of coal power inevitable, says German environment minister

    03 Nov 2014, 00:00 Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit Climate & CO2 Policy Carel Mohn 鶹 鶹 Climate ...
  • 01 Feb 2021 |

    Germany's wind industry at risk of losing market to Chinese producers – metal industry

    01 Feb 2021, 13:52 Expert BWE- German Wind 鶹 Association Bundesverband Windenergie Citizens' energy Electricity market Business & Jobs Technology Benjamin Wehrmann Wind Welt am Sonntag   Please note: an earlier version of this blurb sent on ...
  • 29 Oct 2014

    Germany's energy transition in the media 29 Oct 2014

    29 Oct 2014, 00:00 Sven Egenter Spiegel Online “Germany starts complete remodelling of power market” The German government sees at least 100 gigawatts of overcapacity in the European power market, which it aims to reduce in coming years together with its ...
  • 15 Jul 2021 |

    Fit for 55 package “nothing less than a revolution;” “saturated with scepticism towards market-based approaches” – media reactions

    15 Jul 2021, 14:02 Julian Wettengel Climate & CO2 EU taz / FAZ / Volksstimme The European Commission’s legislative proposals to reach the new 2030 climate target have elicited mixed reactions from German media. The farewell to the conventional ...
  • 09 Mar 2017 |

    SPD to make energy efficiency a post-election priority, warning of early coal phase-out

    Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) are to make energy efficiency a priority for energy policy in the coming legislative period, Hubertus Heil, deputy chairman of the SPD’s parliamentary group, said during a speech on his party’s energy policy ambitions ...
  • German politicians welcome U.S. return to global climate action

    23 Apr 2021, 12:55 Expert Germanwatch Climate & CO2 Expert Green Party Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Policy Expert Institute for Applied Ecology Öko-Institut Citizens' energy Climate & CO2 Electricity market Kerstine ...
  • 11 Feb 2019 |

    EU e-car registrations surpass 100,000 in 2018

    11 Feb 2019, 14:09 Benjamin Wehrmann 鶹 鶹 Cars International 鶹 Registrations of new electric cars in the EU exceeded 100,000 for the first time last year, industry association ACEA says in a press release (in English). ...
  • 21 Jan 2021 |

    Pilot project in Germany's largest refinery to produce synthetic fuels

    21 Jan 2021, 14:22 Sören Amelang 鶹 鶹 Hydrogen Technology Germany's largest refinery is set to add synthetic fuels to its existing mineral oil-based product portfolio, reports Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ). The regional ...
  • 31 Jan 2020 |

    Heat pump industry expects strong growth in Germany after tepid increase in 2019

    31 Jan 2020, 14:15 Expert Agora Energiewende Think tank on German, European and international climate and energy policy Climate & CO2 Electricity market Energiewende International Sören Amelang Efficiency 鶹 Germany's heat pump ...
  • 06 Feb 2019 |

    Merkel backs German coal exit by 2038

    06 Feb 2019, 13:41 Benjamin Wehrmann 鶹 鶹 Coal Climate & CO2 dpa / WirtschaftsWoche Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel has backed ending coal-fired power production in the country by 2038 as  proposed by Germany’s coal exit ...
  • 15 Oct 2014

    Germany's energy transition in the media on 15 October

    15 Oct 2014, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 "State Secretary Baake: 'Target triad for 2030 is the most cost-efficient and effective route to decarbonising Europe's energy system'" Ahead ...
  • 16 Aug 2019 |

    NGOs present climate action package, call on German govt for more speed

    16 Aug 2019, 13:19 Expert BUND- Friends of the Earth Germany Bund für Umwelt und Naturschutz Deutschland Climate & CO2 Expert DUH- Environmental Action Germany Deutsche Umwelthilfe Climate & CO2 Society Expert Germanwatch Climate & CO2 Expert ...
  • 09 Jun 2020 |

    Interest in sustainable investments picking up in Germany

    09 Jun 2020, 12:51 Benjamin Wehrmann Finance 鶹 The volume of financial investments classified as sustainable increased by nearly one quarter in Germany last year, according to the latest figures published by the financial industry ...
  • “Strong onshore wind expansion during transition, clear risks in 2018/19”

    Germany saw strong onshore wind power expansion in the first half of 2017, but development could severely slow after the transition phase from set feed-in tariffs to auction-based remuneration by 2019, said German Wind 鶹 Association (BWE) and ...
  • Green party boosts influence in German energy sector

    06 Aug 2019, 13:57 Expert BDEW-German Association of 鶹 and Water Industries Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft Electricity market Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Utilities Sören Amelang Utilities Elections & Politics Recharge ...
  • 15 Jan 2020 |

    Transport ministry and Deutsche Bahn ink 86 billion euro investment contract

    15 Jan 2020, 14:02 Expert Deutsche Bahn German railway operator Transport Business & Jobs Benjamin Wehrmann Transport 鶹 The German rail service Deutsche Bahn (DB) and the country's transport ministry (BMVI) have sealed a contract ...
  • 12 Nov 2021 |

    EU taxonomy must distinguish between fossil and green gas – German state minister

    12 Nov 2021, 13:04 The upcoming rules in the European Union taxonomy for sustainable investments have to treat the supply of fossil gas different from the buildout of infrastructure that can also be used with green gases, said Jan Philipp Albrecht, Green ...
  • 10 Jan 2020 |

    German parliament plans to drastically cut funding for energy research

    10 Jan 2020, 11:52 Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 (until 2021) Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Expert VCI- German Chemicals Industry ...
  • 22 Mar 2016

    Wind power firms inflating / Smart under suspicion / Minister in Chernobyl

    22 Mar 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn Julian Wettengel 鶹 鶹 Handelsblatt “To inflate or to die” Nordex, the small Danish wind turbine manufacturer, has confirmed the takeover of the wind branch of the Spanish group Acconia. The cartel ...
  • 26 May 2020 |

    Emissions fraud compensation ruling marks black day for Volkswagen- German media

    26 May 2020, 12:45 Expert VW- Volkswagen Transport Cars Cars Hessische Niedersächsische Allgemeine / NZZ / Mitteldeutsche Zeitung Volkswagen lost a key legal battle in the long-running Dieselgate scandal on 25 May when a court ordered that a customer is ...
  • Lufthansa rescue deal must set example for green recovery conditions – opinion

    26 May 2020, 12:38 Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and 鶹 (until 2021) Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Energie Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Policy Expert Left Party Die Linke Renewable ...
  • 17 Mar 2016

    2015 emissions rise / An international view of the energy transition

    17 Mar 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Federal Environment Agency (UBA) Emissions data 2015 – 6 million tonnes more CO2 2015 has seen a slight increase in greenhouse gas emissions, the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) reports. According ...
  • 30 Jun 2017 |

    Germany’s chief climate diplomat stresses need for “pragmatic” Chinese-German leadership

    Germany’s chief climate diplomat Karsten Sach has stressed the need for China and Germany to show joint “pragmatic” leadership in climate protection in light of new disorder in international climate diplomacy following the decision of US President Donald ...
  • 24 Aug 2020 |

    Germany to emit green “twin bond” in bid to jolt sustainable finance market

    24 Aug 2020, 13:52 Expert BMF- Federal Ministry of Finance Bundesministerium der Finanzen Finance Government Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz ...
  • 04 Jan 2016

    Utilities 'a little greener' / E-Mobility 'in slow lane'

    04 Jan 2016, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 E.ON Separation of E.ON and Uniper operations completed Effective 1 January 2016 E.ON has completed separation of operations from its planned spin-off Uniper. E.ON will focus on renewables, energy ...
  • 11 Jul 2019 |

    Industrial powerhouse states plan to step it up on renewables, climate

    11 Jul 2019, 14:02 Expert RWE AG Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG Utilities Julian Wettengel Coal Grid Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung / Süddeutsche Zeitung / 鶹 The government of the western German coal state and industrial ...
  • 24 Mar 2021 |

    German govt decides amended nuclear law, settles disputes with plant operators

    24 Mar 2021, 13:14 Kerstine Appunn Nuclear phase-out 鶹 Germany’s government cabinet today approved an amendment to the Nuclear 鶹 Act which provides for financial compensation to nuclear power plant operators due to the country’s phase ...
  • 04 Jul 2017 |

    “G20 needs to show concrete steps to implement Paris climate accord”

    04 Jul 2017, 00:00 At the Hamburg summit, the G20 leaders must go beyond mere lip services and present concrete proposals on how they will implement the Paris Climate Agreement, Christoph Bals, policy director of environmental NGO Germanwatch, tells Clean ...
  • 08 Jul 2019 |

    Recurring extreme weather events show Germany must review climate change adaptation strategy – Merkel

    08 Jul 2019, 13:28 Julian Wettengel Climate & CO2 鶹 Germany must review its climate change adaptation strategy as an early heatwave this year has shown that extreme weather events happen more frequently, said German Chancellor Angela ...
  • Solar beats onshore wind in first joint auction

    Only solar bids have been successful in Germany’s first joint solar and onshore wind auction for renewables support, said the Federal Network Agency (BNetzA) in a press release. “In competition, it simply is the technology that offers the lowest costs ...
  • 30 Nov 2015

    Coal exit needed by 2040- study / Germany's "unusually big mistakes"

    30 Nov 2015, 00:00 鶹 鶹 Agora Energiewende “German climate goals for 2030 and 2040 require extensive coal exit” Germany must reduce coal-fired power generation by 60 percent by 2030 and phase it out almost entirely by 2040 to achieve its ...
  • 15 Dec 2020 |

    New EU climate target means Germany has to boost renewables expansion- economy minister

    15 Dec 2020, 14:12 Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit Climate & CO2 Policy Expert BMWi- Federal Ministry for Economic ...
  • 27 Sep 2021 |

    "Climate crisis as a top priority"- Reactions to German federal elections

    27 Sep 2021, 14:05 The Social Democrats (SPD) under chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz have narrowly won Germany's federal elections. According to preliminary final results, the SPD received 25.7 percent of votes, while the conservatives (CDU/CSU) ...
  • 14 Dec 2020 |

    “Real test” for new EU 2030 climate target lies in details – opinion

    14 Dec 2020, 14:26 Julian Wettengel Climate & CO2 EU Süddeutsche Zeitung / WirtschaftsWoche / Welt / Frankfurter Rundschau German media have praised the EU Council’s decision to raise the bloc's 2030 climate target as a success for the country’s ...
  • 03 Dec 2019 |

    Industry associations call on new EU Commission to focus on power-to-x

    03 Dec 2019, 13:51 Expert VDMA- German Engineering Federation Verband Deutscher Maschinen- und Anlagenbau Business & Jobs Cost & Prices Sören Amelang Gas Hydrogen Technology 鶹 Synthetic substitutes for conventional oil and gas will ...
  • Diesel crisis: New German transport minister pledges “no panic, no bans”

    Germany’s new transport minister, Andreas Scheuer, has signalled that he does not plan a sharp departure from the previous government’s approach to reducing diesel engine pollution in cities, which had been sharply criticised by environmentalists as being ...
  • 13 Jun 2019 |

    Climate change will increase the future risk of violent armed conflict – study

    13 Jun 2019, 13:38 Julian Wettengel Climate & CO2 Security Nature Intensifying climate change will increase the future risk of violent armed conflict within countries, according to a study published in the journal Nature co-authored by an ...
  • 03 Jul 2020 |

    Bumpy conclusion of Germany's landmark coal act clears way to next energy transition chapters

    03 Jul 2020, 12:48 In a vote that has been hailed as "historic", Germany's parliament has adopted a law that will ensure the phase-out of coal power by no later than 2038. The decision follows two years of intense debate about the country& ...
  • Germany agrees to pay energy companies over 2 billion euros in nuclear exit compensation

    05 Mar 2021, 13:12 Expert BMU- Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (until 2025) Bundesministerium für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit Climate & CO2 Policy Expert E.ON Utility Electricity market ...
  • 18 Nov 2019 |

    Green Party dares too little for fear of losing poll tailwind – opinion

    18 Nov 2019, 13:29 Expert Green Party Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Policy Julian Wettengel Elections & Politics Deutschlandfunk Germany's opposition Green Party has dared too little in their decisions at the party's ...
  • 22 Sep 2015

    In the media: VW's blatant deception; "error in the IEA energy bible"

    22 Sep 2015, 00:00 Kerstine Appunn 鶹 鶹 Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) “The VW scandal” It is a mystery why VW decided to take the risk of manipulating emission results with rather limited benefits, writes Holger Appel in FAZ. Why ...
  • 24 Feb 2021 |

    Germany to reach one million e-cars target this year – government advisors

    24 Feb 2021, 12:34 Sören Amelang Cars Handelsblatt Germany will probably reach its target of having one million fully electric or plug-in hybrid cars on the road this year, government advisors have said. The head of the country's National Platform ...
  • Green Party proposes ministers for their departments after quarrel over agriculture

    26 Nov 2021, 13:11 Following the publication of the coalition treaty, the Green Party has named its future ministers who will be in charge of the foreign office, the “super ministry" for economy and climate, the environment department, and the food ...
  • 03 Aug 2020 |

    Villagers plan constitutional complaint to save homes from German coal industry

    03 Aug 2020, 13:23 Expert RWE AG Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG Utilities Benjamin Wehrmann Coal Society dpa / Rheinische Post / 鶹 A group of villagers living in towns threatened by coal mine expansion in western Germany plan ...
  • Pro- and anti-coal protesters besiege German coal exit commission visiting mining district

    Hundreds of coal workers in the eastern German region Lusatia welcomed the country’s coal exit commission during a trip to the region with protest banners saying, “good jobs are being trampled on,” Michael Bauchmüller writes in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. ...
  • 27 Jul 2020 |

    Germany's energy-efficient renovation support programmes in high demand also amid pandemic

    27 Jul 2020, 13:11 Expert KfW Bank KfW- government-owned financing institution Fossil fuels Finance Efficiency Benjamin Wehrmann Heating 鶹 The demand for energy-efficient building renovation programmes offered by Germany's government ...
  • 09 Nov 2020 |

    Shift to e-cars only works if Germany builds 2,000 charging points per week – car lobby

    09 Nov 2020, 13:19 Expert VDA- German Association of the Automotive Industry Transport Sören Amelang Cars Der Spiegel Germany must speed up its charging infrastructure rollout tenfold to avoid a failure in its shift to electric mobility, which is rapidly ...
  • 23 Mar 2020 |

    German utilities rule out power cuts to defaulting households during corona crisis

    23 Mar 2020, 13:57 Expert EnBW EnBW Energie Baden-Württemberg AG Electricity market Business & Jobs Utilities Expert VKU- German Association of Local Utilities Verband kommunaler Unternehmen Climate & CO2 Electricity market Utilities Expert VZBV- ...
  • Germany seeks joint communiqué at G7, also on climate - official

    According to a government official, Germany wants the 8-9 June G7 summit, to be held in the Charlevoix region of Quebec, Canada, to issue a joint communiqué that also covers climate and energy-related issues. In light of the US’ position, agreeing on a ...
  • 22 Sep 2017 |

    German elections ahead: The road to the next Energiewende government

    22 Sep 2017, 00:00 On 24 September 2017, Germans will cast their votes in the general elections and determine who will be in charge of the next phase of the country’s energy transition. Parties have shifted into national campaign mode after elections in ...
  • 05 Oct 2023 |

    Germany’s climate action programme 2023

    05 Oct 2023, 15:15 The German government in October adopted the final version of its long-due comprehensive climate action programme to put the country on track to reaching its 2030 climate targets. With a delay of several months due to fights within the ...
  • Securing utility payments for the nuclear clean-up

    26 Jun 2017, 00:00 Utilities are liable to pay for much of the costs of ridding Germany of its nuclear heritage. But given their economic troubles, will they be able to do so? To ensure the general public does not end up with footing the bill, the ...
  • 12 Jun 2023 |

    Q&A – Climate may get only sporadic attention as economy to dominate Croatia’s “super election year”

    12 Jun 2023, 13:18 The 2024 European Parliamentary elections will kick off what has been coined a “super election year” for Croatia, together with parliamentary and presidential votes later in the year. Political analysts expect heated debate as ...
  • 19 Feb 2025 |

    Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions and energy transition targets

    19 Feb 2025, 13:10 This factsheet provides an overview of Germany's greenhouse gas emissions and the government's energy transition targets. [UPDATES to include price for emissions allocations Germany had to buy from EU neighbours] Climate & ...
  • Small, but powerful – Germany’s municipal utilities

    18 Feb 2015, 00:00 In size, the “Stadtwerke” individually cannot rival the four largest players in the German electricity market – E.ON, RWE, Vattenfall and EnBW-- but taken together, they are a powerful factor in Germany’s energy landscape. Utilities ...
  • 18 Jun 2021 |

    Volkswagen places massive EV bet to master green mobility shift

    18 Jun 2021, 12:00 Volkswagen has initiated a remarkable transformation in the wake of the emissions cheating scandal of its own making. Shaken to the core by "Dieselgate," one of the world's largest carmakers embraced electric mobility ...
  • 03 Feb 2023 |

    Q&A- Why Europe needs to adapt to the impacts of climate change

    03 Feb 2023, 09:45 A string of extreme weather events has pushed adaptation to the forefront of climate policy in Europe. This Q&A explains how fast the continent is warming, what the impacts and costs of rising temperatures are, and why emission ...
  • 02 Jan 2023 |

    Q&A – 鶹 crisis reignites debate about fracking in Germany

    02 Jan 2023, 10:20 The energy crisis has revived the German debate into the controversial gas extraction method known as unconventional hydraulic fracturing – or simply fracking – as the country looks for alternatives to Russian supply. However, there is ...
  • 03 Aug 2018 |

    Road freight emissions in Germany

    03 Aug 2018, 13:45 Trucks and other freight vehicles are the backbone of Germany’s export-driven economy. But the rapid growth in traffic volumes increases the pressure of reaching emissions reductions in the transport sector, which already lags behind on ...
  • 17 Sep 2021 |

    Vote21- Milestones & facts for Germany's packed election year

    17 Sep 2021, 09:00 Germany will head to the polls on 26 September to elect a new federal parliament and government. More than 60 million people are invited to decide who will follow on the outgoing Angela Merkel as next chancellor and oversee the climate ...
  • Germany, EU remain heavily dependent on imported fossil fuels

    03 Apr 2024, 12:00 As the move to climate neutrality advances, Germany and the EU still rely heavily on imports of fossil fuels as domestic resources are often largely depleted or their extraction is too costly. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the energy ...
  • 09 Sep 2016 |

    Germany’s trimmed-down Climate Action Plan

    09 Sep 2016, 00:00 After months of deliberation, the German environment ministry has presented a trimmed-down Climate Action Plan 2050 for consultation with other ministries. The plan has been presented as crucial for Germany to achieve its ambitious ...
  • 24 Jun 2016 |

    Germany's new power market design

    24 Jun 2016, 00:00 The German parliament has approved wide-reaching reforms of the power market and agreements about the transferral of lignite power plants into an emergency reserve before permanent phase-out. This factsheet presents a summary of the ...
  • Defining features of the Renewable 鶹 Act (EEG) 2014

    08 Oct 2014, 00:00 This factsheet explains some of the tools that have made the Renewable 鶹 Act (EEG) the most important measure for the promotion of renewable power sources in Germany in the past 24 years. Renewable 鶹 Act | EEG 2014 Kerstine ...
  • Q&A – Germany agrees phaseout of fossil fuel heating systems

    11 Sep 2023, 13:31 After years of neglect, Germany has agreed upon concrete steps to reduce emissions from heating buildings, which are directly responsible for around 15 percent of the country’s entire CO2 output. But agreeing on the details of phasing ...
  • 30 Mar 2023 |

    Lack of coordination and monitoring slows climate adaptation in Poland

    30 Mar 2023, 10:53 Poland is increasingly affected by heatwaves, droughts and floods as the impacts of climate change become ever more apparent. The country has had adaptation plans in place for a decade, but a lack of coordination and monitoring is ...
  • COP23- See the energy transition in Germany's industrial centre

    30 Oct 2017, 00:00 Germany’s coal mining state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) hosts the United Nations’ COP23 climate summit in Bonn. The epicentre of Germany’s industrialisation, this region is responsible for almost one percent of global CO2 emissions, ...
  • The story of "Climate Chancellor" Angela Merkel

    07 Dec 2021, 13:30 German leader Angela Merkel has been nicknamed the "Climate Chancellor" for her long-standing international action on emission cuts. However, at the end of her 16-year German leadership in winter 2021 many see her climate ...
  • 06 Jan 2025 |

    The road to a new coalition government in Germany

    06 Jan 2025, 11:50 Germany is heading for snap elections in February 2025 after chancellor Olaf Scholz's coalition government broke up several months earlier, following months of dispute among the parties. Under normal circumstances, Germans elect a ...
  • 27 Nov 2024 |

    Polls reveal citizen support for climate action and energy transition

    27 Nov 2024, 13:00 The German public has put climate action at the top of its policy priorities for several years and remains strongly in support of the transition to a low-carbon and nuclear-free economy. The picture across Europe is more diverse, ...
  • Q&A: COP28 and the 100 billion U.S. dollar climate finance commitment

    29 Nov 2023, 09:55 Two weeks before the start of the UN climate conference COP28 in Dubai, the OECD has said developed countries might have finally made good on their pledge to mobilise 100 billion U.S. dollars climate finance in 2022, two years later ...
  • 鶹 Network Blog
  • 02 Jun 2021 |

    How clean energy is reported in Southeast Asia – and what can be done to improve coverage

    02 Jun 2021, 08:30 Devon Terrill International Ten journalists in five Southeast Asian countries received training to analyse national media narratives on clean energy and coal – and suggest ways to improve coverage. Their work was commissioned as part of ...
  • Three questions to: Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar, 鶹 Ambassador for India

    09 Aug 2019, 14:07 Renewables Government International Vaishnavi Chandrashekhar is a freelance journalist who regularly covers environment, climate change, and sustainable development. She writes for the Times of India, as well as other publications. ...
  • 12 Mar 2020 |

    Unbiased reporting needed on climate, today’s most polarised issue in US- says Amy Harder

    12 Mar 2020, 11:04 Julian Wettengel Politics International Climate has become the most polarising issue in the US and highlights deep partisan divides between Republicans and Democrats, a recent Pew Research Center survey shows. As climate change becomes ...
  • 30 Mar 2022 |

    Exchange programme brings together journalists from Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia and Germany in 2022

    30 Mar 2022 Berlin Apply now for the journalist exchange programme we are offering in cooperation with the International Journalists' Programmes (IJP). The programme is focussing on reporting in the field of climate and energy and is co-funded by ...
  • 27 Nov 2018 |

    NOW CLOSED: Call for energy transition cross-border journalism

    27 Nov- 31 Dec 2019 Berlin Dare to cross borders, cooperate across traditional beats and most of all: collaborate! 鶹 鶹 pleased to extend the call for a second round of applications for the 'Go collaborate! 鶹 transition story ...
  • 31 Jan 2022 |

    Exchange programme brings together journalists from Poland and Germany in 2022

    31 Jan 2022 Berlin Apply now for the 2-months journalist exchange programme we are offering in cooperation with the International Journalists' Programmes (IJP). The programme is focussing on reporting in the field of climate and energy and is co ...
  • 鶹 Calendar- 鶹 & Climate Policy Events

    Upcoming events 14 August: German government has been in office for 100 days.  29 August: Panel discussion " From ‘Dark Doldrums’ to Solar Surge? Grid integration of high shares of renewables " hosted by Swiss embassy, BERLIN. 7 September: End ...
  • Journalism for the energy transition

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