Emissions Mitigation as a National Security Investment

Germany's first National Security Strategy identifies sustainability as a pillar of peace and stability. However, in navigating the recent energy crisis resulting from Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the government has prioritized short-term crisis management over long-term climate goals. If the Zeitenwende is to be a larger policy shift, Chancellor Olaf Scholz needs to drive the cabinet to re-prioritize rapid decarbonization to meet climate obligations. Fostering independence from fossil-fuel autocracies and averting the disintegration of the multilateral efforts to protect the global commons lay the basis for freedom and security

Energy Transitions in Political Upheaval: Improving Multilateralism in the Power Sector

Decarbonizing the power sector is critical to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. One enormous challenge is tracking the diverse multilateral initiatives that strive to tackle this problem. The governments behind such initiatives must assess their performance and follow best practices. This policy brief provides an overview of some of the most important initiatives and gives an interim assessment of their performance in the context of geopolitical rivalry and weakened multilateralism. Though a number of initiatives have met their respective goals, overall progress on decarbonizing the power sector has been too slow to curb emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. Insights from effective initiatives could serve it and other multilateral initiatives that address the power sector, including Germany’s Climate Club. Key Findings: Tracking shows that multilateral action has made progress in decarbonizing the power sector. The initiatives that surpass targets should inspire greater ambition. Inadequate metrics and data create gaps in awareness of efforts to act on commitments. Governments need to provide regular progress updates to secretariats and integrate more comprehensive data in their indicators. Secretariats are crucial for supporting initiatives. Lack of consistent government support affects their ability to manage and report on commitments. Despite India’s strong engagement, the absence of non-Western G20 countries participating in these initiatives is concerning because their power demand and emissions are rising. Policymakers must mainstream best practices. Germany in particular could use this knowledge to build a cohesive Climate Club around common targets

Climate and Environmental Security in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Competing over Abundant Resources - Adapting to Change

Climate change is compounding the Democratic Republic of Congo's tangle of problems - a long-running civil war, weak governance, and deeply entrenched poverty and inequality. The country's future is of global significance: its vast Congo-basin rainforest is a crucial carbon sink and a haven of biodiversity. DRC's hydropower potential and its deposits of copper and cobalt could enable the energy transition, but a green resource looms over development prospects. Germany will need flexible and well-aligned national strategies to effectively support peace, human progress, and environmental protection in the DRC while putting the focus on the needs of marginalized populations

The Disruption of Arctic Exceptionalism: Managing Environmental Change in Light of Russian Aggression

The Arctic is directly affected by the interaction of two ongoing global crises: climate change and Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. With its temperatures rising four times faster than the global average, the Arctic is facing dramatic environmental consequences. Meanwhile, retreating sea ice has led to increased economic interest in the Arctic and its growing geopolitical importance. Thus, understanding and managing the global and local implications of environmental change in this region requires urgent scientific and diplomatic collaboration

Securing decarbonized road transport – a comparison of how EV deployment has become a critical dimension of battery security strategies for China, the EU, and the US.

This paper compares how the pursuit of self-sufficient Lithium-ion battery production by the three main geo-economic players (China, the European Union, and the United States) is unfolding by looking at the electrification of the transport sector. The analysis of this paper uses the concept of energy security and the 4 As outlined by the Asia Pacific Energy Research Center (2007) to outline the availability, accessibility, affordability, and acceptability of Lithium-ion (Li-Ion) batteries for each respective actor. This paper aims to compare the dynamics of each geoeconomic player’s EV deployment along these four indicators. Most work in this field assesses the battery strategies of these three geo-economic players individually or focuses on EV deployment from a purely economics perspective. In contrast, this paper attempts to bridge this gap through the framework of energy security to compare how each of the three player’s battery strategy connects to broader EV deployment. Adopting this framework allows us to highlight how China’s strong industrial policies and generous incentives contrast to the government multilateral alliance-building done in the European Union and the overwhelmingly dominant role of private actors found in the United States

Comparison between China, the EU and the US's climate and energy governance: How policies are made and implemented at different levels

This paper compares the different multi-level climate and energy governance in China, the European Union and the United States. While many comparisons across these three economies exist, they concentrate on comparing the climate and energy “policy instruments” and their results. This paper puts a focus on the importance of institutionalized multi-level governance processes, i.e., the “politics” - the actors and interaction processes inherent in a mode of governance, and the “polities” - the institutional setting. How are priorities and targets decided from both bottom-up and top-down processes? How do the central governments exert control over local authorities and ensure the implementation of their policies? How do the central governments enforce and evaluate the results of the policies? And finally, how do citizens play a role in the multi-level governance in these three blocs? Analysis of multilevel governance highlights the importance of target setting and cadre evaluation in China whereas legislation is the dominant process in the EU and the US

Towards the decarbonization of the power sector – a comparison of China, the EU and the US based on historical data

This work compares the different decarbonization strategies of the power sector in China, the European Union and the United States, by considering the historical evolution of electricity generation and the current situation. Such a comparison is gaining a broader significance when evaluated with an additional level of geographic detail, by comparing European countries, Chinese provinces, and US states. The differences among these geographies highlight the challenges and opportunities of pushing towards low-carbon technologies, by making clear that regional decarbonization will need to address very different local contexts. Moreover, multiple policy and planning levels are involved, and those mechanisms are different in the three blocs being compared. Our analysis shows that these three blocs, although moving towards similar decarbonization targets, are currently at different levels of carbon intensity. The zero-carbon pathway will need to be declined in different local goals, based on the availability of low-carbon resources and the electricity demand. Given the geographical differences between demand and supply, and the likely increase of electricity demand, an improvement of power transmission networks will be essential. This work is part of a series of papers on the geopolitics of the energy transition in China, the European Union and the United States of America

Towards An Inclusive Energy Transition Beyond Coal - A comparison of just transition policies away from coal between China, the EU and the US.

This paper compares different just transition pathways in China, the European Union and the United States of America by comparing the current state of the coal sector and just transition policies away from coal. How can social justice in the energy transition be achieved under different models of energy governance? Since these three blocs have only made some progress on just transition policies and legislations for workers and communities impacted by the coal phase down or phase out in recent years, there have not been many studies comparing them to each other. The analysis in this paper shows that while all three blocs work towards ensuring the integration of coal workers and coal communities into the clean economy in the process of coal reduction, their approaches to achieving a just transition differ in terms of policy frameworks, financing resources, specific measures and public participation. This paper is part of a series of FEEM working papers of comparison studies of China, the EU and the US in the field of climate and energy

Using telemedicine for a lower carbon footprint in healthcare: A twofold tale of healing

The carbon footprint associated with healthcare has recently raised concerns about how medical practice can be made more sustainable. At the same time, Telemedicine has grown enough to enable medical practitioners to provide reliable healthcare services remotely. The propagation of telehealth amid the COVID-19 pandemic serves as an opportunity to work more consistently towards lowering healthcare’s carbon footprint by decreasing transportation and other carbon-emitting activities. Efforts in research methodology, medical education and policy are necessary to further investigate how it can contribute to lowering the footprint of the healthcare sector