Climate and Energy
Steps to Creating a Bicycle-Friendly City
Did you know that there is approximately one bicycle trip taken in the U.S. for every twenty taken in Germany? AICGS Fellow and Assistant Professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs Dr. Ralph Buehler recently co-wrote an article with Dr. John Pucher titled “Walking… Read more >
Germany and the United States at Rio +20
In planning last week’s United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, Rio +20, organizers sought to bring together the public, private, and NGO sectors for a constructive dialogue on sustainability and development. The ploy worked for the German delegation, whose liveliness underscored a growing convergence of public and private interests regarding sustainability, but… Read more >
Beyond Domestic Politics: Energy Policy in the Transatlantic Relationship
On June 18, Philipp Rösler, Chairman of the FDP and German Minister of Economics and Technology, opened a visit to Washington, DC, with a speech on the three issues at the core of the future of the transatlantic relationship: the ongoing European debt crisis, trade policy, and, perhaps surprisingly, energy policy. While… Read more >
The Decentralization of the Electricity Grid-Mitigating Risk in the Energy Sector
Ms. Kirsten Verclas urges that nations such as the U.S. and Germany move to create more regional electricity grids to decrease vulnerability of their electricity supply. Centralized energy grids are often cited as a potential target for terrorists and prove vulnerable in environmental disasters. One must not look beyond the example of… Read more >
Not in My Backyard: Communal Challenges to the Energiewende
In the aftermath of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, pollsters consistently found that a majority of Germans supported the closing of Germany’s remaining nuclear power plants. The anti-atomic sentiment culminated in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s announcement of an Energiewende, energy transformation, which would shift Germany from nuclear to renewable energy. As the project… Read more >
Energy Security Risk Assessment: A Transatlantic Comparison
Despite facing similar challenges, the United States and Germany continually diverge in their creation of energy policy. Mr. Aki Kachi argues that Germany pursues risk-averse energy policy, citing the nation’s decision to phase out its nuclear power plants by 2022 and the Energiewende, a large-scale movement to develop renewable energy. Conversely, U.S…. Read more >
Climate 2.0-Can Geoengineering Make the World a Safer Place?
With climate change at the forefront of many political discussions, many view geoengineering as a necessary complement to emissions reductions initiatives to combat this issue. Geoengineering, refers to a large-scale effort to modify the environment in order to mitigate the impacts of global climate change. Instances of geoengineering take many forms, ranging… Read more >
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