In German transport infrastructure provision, political decision-making and a lack of user charges are the main reasons for inefficiencies, such as underinvestment, misallocation of funds and congestions. In the last decades, transport policy in Germany has focused on network extensions, while...

After fierce public and political debates, an amendment to Germany’s Renewable Energy Sources Act took effect on 1 August. This article provides an assessment of the revisions made: What is the impact of the amendment on the future progress of the German energy transition? Does it provide for...

The option of climate adaptation is becoming more and more important in climate change policy. A large number of countries has already initiated a process of adaptation by drafting strategies or catalogues of measures. Hence there is an urgent need to support this process at the scientific...

The German energy transition represents a policy-driven, sustainability-oriented restructuring of both supply- and demand-side components of the entire energy system by 2050. Whereas the development of renewable energies in the electricity sector is right on track, due to the feed-in tariffs of...

The ongoing economic criticism of the German Renewable Energy Act (EEG) recently started focusing on distributional effects, too. A team of authors at the Cologne Institute for Economic Research is worried about high costs for electricity consumers. They argue since electric power consumption is...

The public debate on the German energy transition has recently been widely dominated by concerns about costs, particularly the role of the feed-in tariffs (FIT) of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act and its rising surcharge on electricity prices. The apportionment rate has been misleadingly...

When it comes to energy policy, EU countries go their own way with little regard for other member states. What strategies exist in the EU Commission to coordinate and integrate energy markets? Are these strategies consistent with national plans currently in action? Is it too late to establish a...

Virtual water, the amount of water used along a good’s value chain, has come under discussion. Fairness and efficiency problems are seen to arise in the reallocation of access to water resources through the means of international trade. Moral issues are attached to both imports and exports,...

The German energy transition repeatedly faces harsh critiques questioning its economic and environmental merit. This article defends the Energiewende and argues that Germany has chosen a rational and particularly forceful approach to securing sustainable energy supply. Though current...