The reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, in particular CO2, is a major objective of the German energiewende. There has been broad consensus on this goal for many years now - in contrast to the continuing discussion over the proposed shutdown of Germany’s nuclear power plants. The...

Effective policies to mitigate climate change need to be accompanied by a socially just transition. This is especially relevant for coal regions. This paper draws on the experiences of past and ongoing transition policies, exploring their effectiveness and transferability. The challenges of...

Power generation from lignite and hard coal was responsible for more than a quarter of German greenhouse gas emissions in 2016. Of all federal states, North Rhine-Westphalia is by far the largest carbon emitter. The Growth, Structural Change and Regional Development Commission (also known as...

The German economic and industrial development in the nineteenth and twentieth century was based (among other things) on coal. After World War II, the reconstruction of both German states, too, was largely organized around the coal and steel industry. Therefore, it is a particular challenge,...

The European Union has embarked on the transformation of its energy and electricity system to low-carbon energy sources, just like Germany and many other countries. This chapter analyzes the European strategy for low-carbon transformation in relation to specific aspects and features of the...

For climate change mitigation a rapid phase-out of fossil fuels such as coal is necessary. This has far-reaching gender-specific consequences. This paper presents a systematic map of the literature that examines the impact of historical coal phase-out processes on women and their role in these...

The present study examines the consequences of the planned coal phase-out in Germany according to various phase-out pathways that differ in the ordering of power plant closures. Soft-linking an energy system model with an input-output model and a regional macroeconomic model simulates the...