Energy
Climate and Energy Risks: A Transatlantic Comparison
Apr 08On April 8, 2013 AICGS and the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik (SWP) hosted an off-the-record conference on “Climate and Energy Risks: A Transatlantic Cooperation.” The conference was generously supported by the Transatlantik-Programm der Bundesregierung der Bundesrepublik Deutschland aus Mitteln des European Recovery Program (ERP) des Bundesministeriums für Wirtschaft und Technologie (BMWi). An interdisciplinary group of scholars and experts from Germany and the United States discussed the following topics on four different panels: energy security, the shale gas challenge, nuclear energy, and mitigating and adapting to climate risks. This conference was part of an ongoing project on “New Systemic Risks: Challenges and Opportunities for Transatlantic Cooperation,” which examines the impediments and opportunities for transatlantic risk management.
Fracking and the Presidential Election: Drilling for Jobs
On November 6, the U.S. presidential election will be decided in nine swing states: Virginia, Florida, Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada, Colorado, Iowa, New Hampshire, and North Carolina, representing a crucial number of the necessary 270 Electoral College votes. The outcome in these swing states is still too close to predict. Other states, like… 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 >
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 >
2012
Sustainable Urban and Regional Transportation Systems: Financing and Planning
Jun 15Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of scholars and experts from Germany and the United States, this conference discussed the environmental and economic sustainability of current urban and regional transportation systems. It looked specifically at some of the challenges that have to be met, examples of public-private partnerships, and ways to source investments and share rewards and risks. The conference was part of the Institute’s project on transportation in the U.S. and in Germany.
The Transatlantic Climate and Energy Dialogue: Urban and Regional Transportation and Energy Problems and Solutions
AICGS’ is undertaking a project on “The Transatlantic Climate and Energy Dialogue: Urban and Regional Transportation and Energy Problems and Solutions” in 2012. This project will continue the transatlantic climate and energy dialogue at the regional level by focusing specifically on the linkages between transportation and energy management for urban communities in… Read more >
New Systemic Risks: Challenges and Opportunities for Transatlantic Cooperation
The project “New Systemic Risks: Challenges and Opportunities for Transatlantic Cooperation” analyzes governance of systemic risks in the United States and the EU in three relevant policy fields. Differences and similarities of the transatlantic partners in the four pillars of risk governance—assessment and evaluation of risks, risk management, and risk communication—within the policy fields of economic and financial policy, raw materials policy, and security politics will be identified with the help of case studies (single case studies and comparative analyses). The project is undertaken in cooperation of SWP and AICGS.
