Deutsche und Europäische Klimapolitik

In June 2019, the summary was published – now the entire study is being released, commissioned by Germanwatch together with the Ukrainian environmental organisation Ecoaction. Nine authors from four countries analyse the transformation experiences of Germany, Romania, the Czech Republic and Ukraine on the grounds of quantitative data and policy analysis. Visualisations of the recommendations and checklists top off the publication and make it a useful tool for political decision-makers in different European countries.

In regards to the informal summit of the European Council in Sibiu, Romania, on 9th of May and the European elections, a major European alliance of cities, regions, businesses, civil society organizations, sports and youth associations urge the EU decision makers to take decisive action to respond to the climate emergency. Germanwatch supports the Climate Action Call.

The following background paper explains how the blockchain technology works and shows the fields in which it might be applied as well as the opportunities blockchain might provide. Furthermore, it highlights the threats posed by blockchain and the areas in which the technology requires further development. Anyone aiming at making a significant political, economic or technological contribution to this future topic should start addressing blockchain now.

In its final report, the German coal commission recommends the last coal power plant of Germany to shut down in the corridor 2035 to 2038. This is an important step towards reaching Germany's 2030 climate target. Nevertheless, it is not enough to bring the energy sector on a path to comply with the 1.5°C-limit of the Paris Agreement.

In this short position paper, Germanwatch asesses the most important outcomes of the coal commission's final report of 26 January 2019.

Within the next Multiannual Financial Frame (MFF), the European Regional Development Fund / Cohesion Fund Regulation (ERDF/CF) and the Common Provisions Regulation (CPR) are key instruments that shape and determine the direction of the European Cohesion Policy after 2020. Ahead of the REGI Committee votes on these two pieces of legislation in the first two month of 2019, NGOs from across Europe aim at drawing MEPs' attention with an open letter to key provisions within these regulations that are needed to promote a just and fair transition.

In our globalized world public policy making and society at large face challenges like climate change and financial crises that are global, shared worldwide and tightly connected with policies across different sectors. Solutions for addressing such highly interconnected challenges in a ‘system of systems’ world, tend to address only subsystems and so fail to achieve systemic change and anticipate impact and unintended consequences of public action. Pursuing the necessity of informing the policy decision process and proactively sensing possible problems concerning global matters we are proposing a novel computational platform called SYMPHONY that offers a solution for designing and testing policies and regulatory measures. Our aim is to offer policy modellers and policy makers tools that will support them to make decisions which will prevent and mitigate economic and financial crises as well as foster an economically and ecologically sustainable growth path.

The project SYMPHONY – where Germanwatch was a partner in - aimed at providing a set of innovative ICT tools, integrated in a platform designed to tackle two pressing issues: preventing and mitigating economic and financial crises; fostering an economically and ecologically sustainable growth path. The main objective of the project was to develop a framework for designing and testing policies and regulatory measures. This deliverable documents a concise conceptual architecture that addresses user requirements. Our solution specifies and defines how to orchestrate agent based macroeconomic models and simulators as well as stakeholder expectations in a gamified and engaging manner under a novel framework.

After three consecutive years of stable CO2 emissions, emissions are rising again. The Climate Change Performance Index 2019 (CCPI), published today at COP24 in Katowice, shows only few countries have started to implement strategies to limit global warming well below 2 or even 1.5°C. While there is a continued growth and competitiveness of renewable energy, especially in countries that had low shares before, the CCPI shows a lack of political will of most governments to phase out fossil fuels with the necessary speed. Because of that, in most countries the climate policy evaluation by national experts is significantly lower than in the last years.

Most G20 countries including several of emerging countries enhanced their conditions for investments in low-carbon energy in the past year. Nonetheless, more renewable energy investments have to be undertaken in order to meet the Paris climate targets. In addition, the G20 would need to develop and implement more ambitious, consistent and transparent long-term strategies to improve the investment climate for renewable energies. These are the key findings of the Allianz Climate and Energy Monitor 2018, published today.

Der Allianz Klima- und Energiemonitor vergleicht die G20-Staaten hinsichtlich ihrer Attraktivität für Investitionen in eine emissionsfreie Energie-Infrastruktur. Zudem berechnet er den momentanen und künftigen Investitionsbedarf – davon ausgehend, dass die Klimaziele des Pariser Abkommens, deutlich unter 2 Grad bzw. möglichst 1,5 Grad Erwärmung, eingehalten werden sollen. Der Monitor wurde zum dritten Mal von der Allianz SE in Kooperation mit Germanwatch und dem NewClimate Institute erstellt.