Deutsche und Europäische Klimapolitik

Today, the Peruvian farmer and mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya is filing a lawsuit against the German utility RWE at the Regional Court in Essen, Germany. The reason: The energy company’s immense emissions threaten his family, his property as well as a large part of his home city of Huaraz. Climate change has caused the glacial lake to quickly grow in size, making it a risk for the Andean city of 120,000.

This report describes the planning and licensing process for extra high voltage transmission lines under EU and national law regulatory framework. It is shown that the TEN-E Regulation 347/2013 introduces binding priorities (PCI, Projects of Common Interest) into national planning processes, shifting participation requirements to the EU level. The comparison between the German and the UK system of planning and permitting displays the different approaches: while the regulatory system is much more refined in Germany, granting much access and public participation, the participatory approach in the UK is more open, and access to justice is easier.

The G7 summit took place on 7 and 8 June 2015 at Schloß Elmau in Bavaria. Amongst other important global issues, international climate policy was discussed. The G7 decisions on this topic pave the way to a successful climate summit in December in Paris, where a new global climate agreement is to be adopted by the international community. Germanwatch analyses the most important paragraphs of the G7 Summit Declaration.

On the eve of the G7 Summit in Elmau, Germany, NGOs from all seven member countries call on their leaders to send a strong signal that the era of fossil fuels is over. As the world's largest industrialised countries, the G7 have a global responsibility to go further and faster to address climate change through rapid decarbonisation of their economies and providing support to the poorest.

This handbook by Germanwatch highlights new approaches that have been tested by the partners of the European BESTGRID project. Within BESTGRID, Transmission system operators from Belgium, the UK, Italy and Germany have closely cooperated with national and regional non-governmental organisations. Germanwatch has been following the jointly developed good-practice approaches to early and transparent power grid planning and has compiled its findings in this handbook.

The "electricity market" White Paper published by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) puts forward practical proposals for implementing key projects in the Federal Government's short-term plan for achieving the energy transition. In general the WWF and Germanwatch view the BMWi's proposed measures as a good basis for the forthcoming debate. If carried through, these measures could form the cornerstone of a credible climate policy. However, the following remarks are limited to the analysis and evaluation of the new climate policy instrument for securing an adequate CO2 reduction contribution by the power sector. Only a short appraisal is given of the other three proposals.

Germany currently faces a political challenge towards the transformation of its energy system, known as "Energiewende." Many people associate the "Energiewende" in Germany with the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima 2011. However, the starting point for the German "Energiewende" is rooted in the increasing environmental awareness and the anti-nuclear movement of the 70s. In the 70s, the term "Energiewende" had already been coined and was used by nuclear opponents, who searched for alternative forms of energy supply...

Global emissions have reached a new peak, but recent developments indicate a new readiness for action on climate protection. This is the message of the 10th edition of the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI); a ranking of the climate protection performance of the 58 highest emitters worldwide published by Germanwatch and CAN Europe at the UN Climate Conference in Lima today. "We see global trends, indicating promising shifts in some of the most relevant sectors for climate protection", said Jan Burck (Germanwatch), author of the Index.

Germanwatch views a new landmark decision by the German federal government as a crucial but not entirely sufficient signal towards the UN climate negotiations in Lima/Peru. Today, the German federal government decided upon additional emission reduction measures that shall guarantee that Germany reaches its 2020 greenhouse gas reduction goal of 40% below the 1990 level.

This paper discusses the future of cross-border renewable electricity exchange between Europe and Southern Mediterranean countries as defined under Article 9 of the EU Renewable Energy Directive fr