Since the inception of the first national energy efficiency action plans under the Energy Services Directive (2006/32/EC), the European Commission and the Member States have had a long experience in planning national strategies on energy efficiency. This paper analyses the lessons learned in...

International climate change policy has come to a relative standstill with most of the countries being discouraged by the high costs of actively pursued climate policy measures. However, climate change policy offers ancillary benefits for proactive stakeholders like the European Union, in...

International climate change policy has come to a relative standstill with most of the countries being discouraged by the high costs of actively pursued climate policy measures. However, climate change policy offers ancillary benefits for proactive stakeholders like the European Union, in...

Fostering the use of renewable energies for power generation is at the heart of the EU's long term energy policy. Accordingly, the European Commission and literally all member states have set up ambitious installations targets for alternative energy sources. These aims can only be reached by...

Worldwide, some two billion people live without access to modern energy supply. About 1.6 billion people live without access to electricity. Alleviating this "energy poverty" is a factor in reaching most of the UN's millennium goals. In our contribution to the debate on how to achieve this aim,...