The United States will play a crucial role in global climate protection in what has been called the "super election year" of 2024. After three-and-a-half years of having scored huge successes in climate protection, President Joe Biden could be succeeded by Donald Trump in January 2025, according...

Low-carbon hydrogen has emerged as an important component of EU decarbonisation plans. It also adds a new element to the EU’s external energy policy, given that a sub­stantial share of Europe’s future hydrogen requirements will need to be met with imports. In this context, the Eastern...

The economic and financial crisis of 2008 disrupted the European Union’s (EU) enlarge­ment policy for the Western Balkans. At least since that time, the region has seen greater involvement by economic actors from non-EU countries such as China, Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates...

The competition for carbon capture, storage, and utilisation is intensifying. Historically dominated by North America, the lead in this technology is now being seized by key players across Asia - reaching from Saudi Arabia to Japan. Unlike traditional energy (transition) geopolitics, this new...

Russia wants to realise a high degree of self-regulated stability in the Arctic. Moscow considers this necessary for overcoming the many problems and obstacles to development that are linked to its ambitious plans as well as the consequences of climate change. The regression of sea ice is...

If the EU wants to achieve net zero emissions by 2050, enacting conventional climate change mitigation measures to avoid emissions of greenhouse gases will not be enough. To compensate for unavoidable residual emissions, unconventional measures to remove CO2 from the atmosphere will also be...

Since net zero targets have become a keystone of climate policy, more thought is being given to actively removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere while continuing to drastically reduce emissions. The ocean plays a major role in regulating the global climate by absorbing a large proportion of...

Plurilateral initiatives are again gaining importance in climate diplomacy as a complement to multilateral efforts – not least in view of the lack of progress in implementing the Paris Agreement and more difficult conditions in the UN process. New alliances are expected to facilitate agreement...

With the publication of its Synthesis Report in March 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has completed its work programme for the sixth assess­ment cycle. The IPCC reports, and in particular the respective Summary for Policy Makers (SPM), provide a scientific basis for...

Climate policy in the European Union (EU) and Germany changed significantly with the adoption of net-zero emissions targets. A key new development is the growing importance of carbon management. The umbrella term includes not only the capture and storage of CO2 (carbon capture and storage, CCS),...