Page 10 – alexander ochs | sustainable development strategist

Small Portugal Thinks Big – and Very Green!

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Aug 262010

By Camille Serre and Alexander Ochs

After having shed some light on French climate and energy legislation, let’s proceed with our review of European progress toward clean energy economies. Typically, the Scandinavian countries and Germany have set the example in the European renewables field. Yet lately, a Southern country—Portugal—has attracted media attention after delivering its National Renewable Energy Action Plan to the European Commission this June.

In 2009, Portugal ranked 3rd in Europe in wind power capacity per capita - Flickr Creative Commons / Mafalda Moreira Santos

Portugal has made dramatic changes in its energy policy over the last five years under the government of Prime Minister Jose Socrates. The country’s installed renewable energy capacity more than tripled between 2004 and 2009, from 1,220 megawatts (MW) to 4,307 MW, and renewables now represent roughly 36 percent of electricity consumed. Thanks to this performance, Portugal currently ranks 4thin Europe in energy production from renewables. Socrates seems to know what he is doing, and it looks like his previous experience has paid off. Like Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel, Socrates was Minister of the Environment before becoming head of his country’s government. The environment seems to be a springboard for European politicians’ careers.

Of course, Portugal benefits from favorable conditions for renewables as well: a strong wind resource, great hydropower, good tidal waves potential, and a high sunshine rate. After the country removed several dams in recent years, Socrates’ government has focused instead on wind power development, under most conditions the cheapest renewable energy source after hydropower. With spectacular growth in wind energy production of over 600 percent between 2004 and 2009, Portugal now ranks 6th in Europe in total installed capacity and 3rd in capacity per capita, behind only Denmark and Spain. Some even expect Portugal to overtake its neighbor Spain in per capita wind energy production as early as this year.

[Read both parts of this blog on the ReVolt website]

Green Deal or Great Disillusion? France Passes Climate-Friendly Legislation (Part 2 of 2)

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Aug 182010

by Camille Serre and Alexander Ochs

In Part 1 of this blog, we described the climate and energy measures that France plans to pursue as part of its new environmental law, Grenelle 2. This set of policies suggests that France may in fact be paving the way toward a low-carbon economy. Unfortunately, the picture is tarnished by an ongoing controversy about renewable energy development in the country.

Grenelle 2 certainly contains some positive measures in the renewables sector. For instance, it sets a goal that 23 percent of France’s energy use must come from a mix of renewable energy sources by 2020—most likely from hydropower (the nation’s largest renewables source so far), wind power, and biomass. The law calls for regional climate and energy mapping to assess climate-related risks within the country as well as to determine domestic energy needs, air pollution, and greenhouse gas emissions. Consequently, adaptation strategies and monitoring instruments will be developed. In addition, local and regional authorities that are responsible for 50,000 inhabitants or more, as well as companies with over 500 employees, will be required to conduct emissions assessments.

[Read the rest of this ReVolt blog here]

Green Deal or Great Disillusion? France Passes Climate-Friendly Legislation (Part 1 of 2)

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Aug 172010

with Camille Serre

While the United States is unlikely to pass a climate bill in the near future, there may be greater hope from one of the country’s closest allies: France. A few months ago, France passed a major bill that will deeply transform the country’s environmental law, including its approach to climate change. But while the outcomes of the measure are promising, a variety of criticisms remain.

After an exhausting legislative process, the “Grenelle de l’Environnement” ended with the adoption of the “Grenelle 2” bill this May. Enacted on July 13, three years after the process was launched by then-newly elected president Nicolas Sarkozy, the new legislation covers environmental topics such as climate and energy, biodiversity protection, public health, sustainable agriculture, waste management, and the governance of sustainable development. In addition to being a comprehensive environmental bill, Grenelle 2 implicitly defines the French sustainable development strategy for years to come.

Grenelle de l’environnement was named after the so-called “negotiations of Grenelle” on wages that took place in 1968, when France was paralyzed by a general strike. Back then, the primary negotiators were the government, unions, and employers. The Grenelle de l’environnement, launched in 2007, extended the consultation to five main stakeholder groups—the State, employers, unions, environmental NGOs, and local governments—to bring it more in line with the participatory nature of sustainable development.

On the climate front, France is likely to meet its current emissions reduction goals. [Read the rest of this ReVolt Blog here]

Will China Steal the U.S. Thunder by Launching Cap-and-Trade in the Next Five Years?

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Aug 102010

By Haibing Ma and Alexander Ochs

Recently, a China Daily news report caught Uncle Sam’s attention, presumably at an inconvenient time: just when the U.S. Senate finally admitted to abandoning its plan of issuing a federal climate bill by the end of this year, top Chinese officials were discussing how to launch carbon trading programs under their country’s next Five-Year Plan (2011–15). Serving as China’s overarching social and economic guidance, Five-Year Plans consistently lay out the most crucial development strategies for this giant emerging economy. Once included in the plan, carbon trading will be viewed as part of China’s national goals and will be domestically binding. This occurred most recently with the country’s 2010 energy intensity target, which called for a 20 percent reduction from 2005 levels and was disaggregated into provincial and local targets, with local officials held accountable for achieving them. In short, China seems to be accelerating full-throttle toward a low-carbon economy.

Chinese policymakers have been eyeing a domestic emission-trading scheme for a while. Last August, Xie Zhenhua, Deputy Director of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), announced that China will launch a pilot carbon trading program in selected regions and/or sectors—basically the same message conveyed in the recent China Daily story. On one hand, this reiteration demonstrates that the Chinese government is seriously considering such a market-based mitigation mechanism; on the other hand, the fact that the program’s status is still in discussion a year later shows that putting cap-and-trade into action might be not be that easy in China either. [Read more on Worldwatch’s ReVolt blog]

CrossTalk on Heat: Freak Weather or Hot Trend?

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Aug 052010

On this edition of CrossTalk on RT (Russia Television’s International Broadcast), Peter Lavelle asks his guests about the on-going heat wave: freak weather or evidence of global warming? I was one of them.

Bye-bye, Klimapolitik der USA

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Aug 052010

http://inhabitat.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/1/files/2010/07/Climate-Bill-Shelved-2.jpg

Kerry und Reid geben ihre Klimapolitik vorest auf

Erkennbar enttäuscht traten Harry Reid, Mehrheitsführer der Demokraten im US-Senat, und Parteikollege John Kerry, Senator aus Massachusetts und ehemaliger Präsidentschaftskandidat, vor die Kameras. Monatelang hatten sie für eine umfangreiches klima- und energiepolitisches Gesetzespaket gekämpft. Nun gaben sie kleinlaut bei. Man habe die notwendigen Stimmen nicht, um ein Emissionsziel für Treibhausgase festzulegen. 2001 aus dem Kyoto-Protokoll ausgestiegen, seit 20 Jahren der gewichtigste Bremser bei internationalen Klimaverhandlungen, zeichnet sich die nächste Schlappe für amerikanische Klimaschützer ab.

Doch nicht nur für die Umwelt ist die Nachricht eine Katastrophe. Dutzende Studien belegen die positiven Effekte, die die geplante Gesetzgebung auf die US-Wirtschaft, den Arbeitsmarkt, die Gesundheitskosten und die Sicherheitspolitik gehabt hätte. Ganz zu schweigen vom internationalen Renommee, das jetzt den nächsten Kratzer erhält. Die USA zeigen sich immer weniger in der Lage, auf die großen globalen Herausforderungen unserer Zeit tragfähige Antworten zu geben. Schuld daran ist nicht, dass „der Amerikaner“ eben nichts vom Umweltschutz hält. Das Problem ist differenzierter: [weiter zum vollstaendigen Artikel]

Glacial Melt and Ocean Warming Drive Sea Level Upward

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Jul 232010

in Vital Signs, 22 July 2010

The average sea level around the world has risen a total of 222 millimeters (mm) since 1875, which means an annual rate of 1.7 mm.¹ (See Figure 1.) Yet at the end of this long period, from 1993 to 2009, the sea level rose 3.0 mm per year—a much faster rate.² An estimated 30 percent of the sea level increase since 1993 is a result of warmer ocean temperatures that cause the water to expand (thermal expansion).³ Another 55 percent of the increase results from the melting of land-based ice, mainly from glaciers and the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets.⁴ (Sea ice that melts does not contribute to sea level rise, as the volume remains constant.)⁵ The other 15 percent of the rise is due to changes in terrestrial freshwater dynamics, such as wetland drainage and lowered water tables.⁶

Ocean warming and land-based ice melt have happened in tandem with other climatic changes during the last century. These changes include rising atmospheric temperatures, acidification of ocean waters, and changes in seasonal water cycles—all of which are linked to a dramatic increase in atmospheric greenhouse gases. Prior to the industrial revolution, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide—a major greenhouse gas—was steady at around 280 parts per million (ppm).⁷ Since then, human activities such as the burning of fossil fuels and land use changes have boosted this concentration to over 385 ppm, nearly a 38-percent increase.⁸

The world’s oceans absorb 80–90 percent of the excess solar radiation trapped on Earth by greenhouse gases.⁹ But because the ocean’s mass is so much greater than the atmosphere’s, the oceans warm at a slower rate. From 1969 to 2009, atmospheric temperatures rose 0.36 degrees Celsius while the temperature in the upper ocean (the area down to 700 meters) rose 0.17 degrees.¹⁰ (See Figure 2.)

[Read the rest of the article in Vital Signs]

US-Energiepolitik: Schwarzeneggers letzte Schlacht

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Jul 232010

Zwei Öl-Konzerne wollen Kaliforniens Klimaschutzgesetz kippen – das fortschrittlichste der USA. Sie gefährden das Prestige-Projekt von Gouverneur Schwarzenegger.

Marlies Uken, DIE ZEIT, 23 July 2010

http://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2010-07/kalifornien-klimaschutz

[…]Im kommenden Jahr will Kalifornien sogar im Alleingang den Handel mit Verschmutzungsrechten starten. Mehr als 70 weitere gesetzliche Klima-und Umweltschutz-Initiativen hängen von dem Gesetz ab. “Das Klimagesetz ist für die Umweltbranche Kaliforniens, einem zentralen Wachstumsmotor, von enormer Wichtigkeit”, sagt Alexander Ochs, Leiter der Klima- und Energieabteilung des Worldwatch Institutes, einem Forschungsinstitut in Washington. “Es gibt den Herstellern erneuerbarer Energien, grüner Autos und sauberer Industrieanlagen die notwendige Planungssicherheit für Investitionen im Milliardenbereich.”

Dem Umwelttechnologie-Sektor am Pazifik hat AB 32 einen Wachstumsschub verschafft, so stark wie keinem anderen Bundesstaat der USA. Mehrere Studien, unter anderem der kalifornischen Arbeitsmarktagentur, zeigen, dass gerade die Green Tech-Branche überdurchschnittlich stark wächst und Arbeitsplätze schafft. Allein in den Jahren 2007 und 2008 schaffte die Branche nach Angaben der kalifornischen Initiative “Next10” fünf Prozent mehr Jobs – während der Rest des Arbeitsmarkts im Schnitt nur um ein Prozent wuchs.

Gebannt schaut daher der Rest der USA – insbesondere Washington – auf die Entwicklungen in der Landeshauptstadt Sacramento. Denn der Zeitpunkt der Volksabstimmung ist brisant. Er fällt mit den bundesweiten midterm-elections, den Halbzeitwahlen zusammen, die klassischerweise ein Stimmungsbild für die Regierungsarbeit liefern. Präsident Obama hat nicht nur am Golf von Mexiko mit einer gigantischen Ölkatastrophe zu kämpfen, sondern will zudem sein Klimaschutzgesetz endlich durch den Senat bringen – was diesen Sommer wohl nicht mehr klappen wird. “AB 32 hat Vorbildcharakter für Washington”, sagt Ochs vom Worldwatch Institute. Würden die Kalifornier das Gesetz kippen, käme dies den Klimaschutz-Gegnern entgegen. “Die könnten sich die Hände reiben und sagen: Schaut her, selbst dort, wo die ganze grüne Industrie sitzt, wollen sie keinen Klimaschutz.” […]

Read the full article [here]

By how much should we expect renewable energy to replace fossil fuels over the next 20 years?

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Jul 132010

Contribution to Euronews CommentVisions

In 2007, renewable energy already provided 18% of the world’s total final energy supply, greatly exceeding earlier predictions. While global GDP increased by 156% between 1990 and 2007, energy demand “only” rose by 39%. A recent Worldwatch study has outlined a new, technologically and economically viable 2030 global low-carbon scenario. It demonstrates that energy demand can be reduced by another one third compared to the business-as-usual scenario produced by the International Energy Agency which is used by many as the “reference scenario”. In our scenario 50% – half! – of the remaining energy demand in 2030 can be provided by renewables decreasing energy-related CO2 emissions by 52%.

Natural gas will play a major role in covering the other 48%. Natural gas is widely available and produces less greenhouse gas emissions and less local air and water pollution than coal and gas. It also does not create the security, economic, and health burdens of nuclear energy. What is more, natural gas can serve as an important ally of renewables. Since gas power plants can be switched on and off relatively easily, we can make sure that the maximum amount of renewables are used despite their fluctuations on a given day. Environmentally such a major transition of the global energy system is a necessity if want to avoid catastrophic climate disruptions. Technologically and economically, our scenario is feasible. What is still lacking, is the political will to make it reality.

http://www.commentvisions.com/2010/07/01/topics/society-and-sustainability/progress-towards-sustainability/energy-the-next-20-years-part-1/

Sharp Decline in EU Emissions as Europeans Debate Reduction Target

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Jun 082010

Co-author: Shakuntala Makhijani

EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard

The European Environment Agency (EEA) yesterday released its greenhouse gas inventory for 2008, showing a two-percent fall from 2007 levels across EU-27 countries and an 11.3-percent reduction from 1990 levels. The new data also show that the EU-15 (the 15 only EU members in 1997 when the Kyoto Protocol was negotiated) have reduced emissions by 6.9 percent since 1990, putting those countries on track to meet their Kyoto Protocol commitment of reducing 2008-2012 emissions by an average of 8-percent below 1990 levels. The European Commission points out that the EU-15 emission reduction—a 1.9-percent drop from 2007 to 2008—came as the region’s economy grew 0.6 percent, suggesting that economic growth and emissions cuts can be compatible.

Just last month, the European Commission had announced that emissions covered under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) fell even more rapidly: verified emissions from covered installations were 11.6-percent lower last year than in 2008. EU Climate Action Commissioner Connie Hedegaard cautioned that these reductions are largely due to the economic crisis, as opposed to ambitious actions by covered industry. The crisis has also weakened price signals in the trading scheme and slowed business investment in emissions-reducing innovations.

Earlier this year, the European Commission began arguing that the Union should commit to deeper cuts than a 20-percent reduction from 1990 levels by 2020, calling instead for a 30-percent decrease. It released figures showing that, largely due to the economic crisis, the annual costs for cutting emissions will be lower than originally estimated by 2020. In 2008, the EU estimated that €70 billion per year would be necessary to meet the 20-percent target, but this cost estimate has now fallen to just €48 billion. For a 30-percent target during the same timeframe, the new projected annual cost is €81 billion—only €11 billion more than what EU countries have already accepted under the 20-percent target.

[Please read the rest of the blog on ReVolt]

Ma questa è l’unica via

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May 042010

A colloquio con Alexander Ochs, direttore del programma

È uno dei massimi esperti americani di politiche energetiche, nazionali e internazionali, e di sicurezza energetica. Il suo nome è Alexander Ochs e La Nuova Ecologia l’ha intervistato per fare con lui un punto sull’impegno, e sui risultati, di Obama sul fronte della lotta ai cambiamenti climatici.

Qual è lo stato della legislazione statunitense sui cambiamenti climatici?

Per chi non conosce il nostro sistema politico – la divisione del governo, i controlli e i bilanciamenti dei poteri esecutivo e legislativo – è difficile capire. La Camera dei rappresentanti ha approvato a giugno l’American clean energy & security act,

un documento con obiettivi modesti e a lunga scadenza su clima ed energia. È stata però la prima volta che una Camera ha approvato una legge per limitare le emissioni dei gas serra. Una legge, va sottolineato, passata per pochi voti: 219 contro 212, solo 8 quelli republicani. Ora tutta l’attenzione è al Senato, dove i democratici Barbara Boxer e John Kerry hanno portato a settembre il Clean energy jobs and american power act, una nuova legge sulle emissioni che implica massicci investimenti nelle energie pulite e nella ricerca e cattura dell’anidride carbonica. Vista con favore dagli ambientalisti, ha incontrato l’opposizione dei conservatori, che la ritengono troppo complicata, costosa e d’ampio raggio. Se passerà non sarà nella versione originale.

Ora che cosa accadrà?

Sono in discussione altre leggi. Innanzitutto il Carbon limits and energy for America’s renewal act, introdotto a dicembre dalle senatrici Maria Cantwell e Susan Collins. Con limiti più modesti sulle emissioni, questa legge cerca nuove strade nel dibattito sul cambiamento climatico e sull’energia. Prevede un sistema di tetti e dividendi che fornirebbe fino al 75% degli introiti della vendita all’asta dei permessi d’inquinare alle famiglie per compensare l’aumento dei costi energetici, che si presume saliranno dopo la regolamentazione delle aziende. Il rimanente andrebbe a un fondo di ricerca e transizione verso un’economia pulita.

[Si prega di leggere l’intera intervista qui]

Klimaschutz: Obama probt Neustart

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Apr 222010

■ Chance für Klima-Paket besteht nur vor US-Wahlen im November.
■ „Obama hat Tiefpunkt hinter sich.“

Wiener Zeitung: US-Präsident Barack Obama ist entschlossen, nach der Gesundheitsreform nun sein zweites großes Wahlversprechen, ein Gesetzespaket zum Klimaschutz,anzugehen. Wie stehen die Chancen dafür?

Alexander Ochs: Die Chancen stehen nach dem Beschluss der Gesundheitsreform besser als zuvor. Für zwei solcher Mega-Themen gleichzeitig ist in der Öffentlichkeit kein Platz, zumal es ja auch noch die Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise zu bewältigen gibt. Ob Obama allerdings beim Klimaschutz auch erfolgreich sein wird, ist schwer zu beurteilen, ich halte den Ausgang für völlig offen. Die Abstimmungen im Kongress warden erst in einigen Monaten, allenfalls im Frühsommer, stattfinden.

WZ: Also auf jeden Fall vor den Mid-Term-Wahlen im November, bei denen Obamas Demokraten herbe Verluste prophezeit werden?

AO: Ja, sicher, das ist Obamas einzige Chance für einen politischen Erfolg in diesem Bereich. Für eine progressive Klimaschutzpolitik gibt es nur vor diesen Wahlen noch eine Chance, weil die Demokraten Verluste hinnehmen werden müssen.

WZ: Wie passt dazu Obamas jüngste Entscheidung, mithilfe milliardenschwerer Kreditgarantien erstmals seit drei Jahrzehnten wieder neue Atomkraftwerke zu bauen?

AO: Das muss als Kompromissangebot an die Republikaner interpretiert werden. Obama versucht sich als Brückenbauer zwischen den beiden Parteien zu positionieren, indem er etwa 80 Milliarden Dollar in alternative Energieträger investiert und… [Read the rest of the interview here]

Copenhagen Ends with Minimum Consensus, not Binding Treaty

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Dec 242009

The Copenhagen UN climate conference ended last Saturday with a weak agreement, not the groundbreaking treaty many had hoped for. With more than 100 heads of governments and many more parliamentarians and dignitaries, COP-15 became the largest assembly of world leaders in diplomatic history. The Copenhagen conference had been planned out for two years in many small informal and large official meetings, following the 2007 Bali Action Plan in which nations had agreed to finalize a binding agreement this December. The outcome falls far short of this original goal. Delegates only “noted” an accord (“the Copenhagen Accord”) struck by the United States, Brazil, China, India, and South Africa that has two key components: first, it sets a target of limiting global warming to a maximum of 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial times; second, it proposes $100 billion in annual aid for developing nations starting in 2020 to help them reduce emissions and adapt to climate change.

2 degrees Celsius is seen by mainstream science as a threshold for dangerous climatic changes including sea-level rise and accelerated glacier melt, as well as more intense floods, droughts, and storms. Many scientists also believe that a majority of worldwide ecosystems will struggle to adapt to a warming above that mark, and more recently have set the threshold even lower, at 1.5 degrees Celsius. The accord, however, lacks any information on how this goal of preventing “dangerous” climate change, which had already been set by the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention, would be achieved. It is generally assumed that in order to keep global warming below 2 degrees, worldwide emissions have to Continue reading »

Hope’nhagen: Was ist vom Klimagipfel zu erwarten?

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Dec 092009

Lange Zeit sah es so aus, als ob die Klima-Karawane aus Regierungsdelegationen, Interessenvertretern und Umweltschützern nur auf der Stelle tritt. Beim letzten großen Zusammenkommen auf höchster Ebene im vergangenen Dezember wie auch bei den unzähligen Vorbereitungstreffen ging es so zaghaft voran, dass viele den UN-Klimagipfel schon abgeschrieben hatten.

Doch dann überschlugen sich in den vergangenen Wochen die Ereignisse: Die USA, China, Brasilien, Indonesien und Südafrika legten nationale Ziele vor, die teilweise deutlich über dem lagen, was man noch vor kurzem für möglich hielt. Am vergangenen Wochenende dann der nächste Hoffnungsschimmer, der Kopenhagen doch noch zum “Hope’nhagen” machen könnte: US-Präsident Barack Obama kündigte an, dass er am letzten Verhandlungstag, dem 18. Dezember, in die dänische Hauptstadt kommen will, um dem Treffen womöglich zum Durchbruch zu verhelfen. Obama zeigt damit klar, wie hoch die Klimapolitik inzwischen auch auf der amerikanischen politischen Agenda steht.

Hier geht’s weiter zu meinem Op-Ed in der Wiener Zeitung.

Successful Transatlantic Media Dialogue Ahead of Copenhagen Climate Summit

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Nov 172009

17__MediaDialogue__pic2,property=Inhaltsbild From November 9 to 11, around 25 German and U.S. journalists and climate policy experts met at the Aspen Wye Conference Center on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland to discuss the climate policy in Europe and the U.S. in view of the upcoming Copenhagen climate summit. The event was part of the Transatlantic Climate Bridge, and it not only aimed at providing journalists with the latest facts and figures on the summit but gave the participants the opportunity to exchange their views on the public debate in their respective countries, the status quo of the legislative process in Germany and the U.S., and the impact of climate change and respective policies on the economy and the international security, among others.

The World Looks to Americans and Europeans

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Nov 042009

: Photo courtesy of Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

As a former Minister of the Environment turned Chancellor, Angela Merkel had already proven those wrong who surmised that environment positions are a dead end to high-rising political aspirations; now she became only the second German politician (after Konrad Adenauer, the first head of a German government after the Second World War, in 1957) who received the honor to address the U.S. Congress; and as a widely respected leader on environmental issues who is, at the same time, the leader of a conservative party, she would be well positioned to appeal to cautious Republicans when talking about climate change and energy reformation—at least I had hoped so in a recent interview with Reuters.

Angela Merkel in her speech on Capitol Hill yesterday, just weeks after her reelection for a second term (this time as a leader of a center-right coalition) was moved by the honor and the standing ovations she received from U.S. lawmakers even before she had started her speech. Following up on her promises, she spent a good portion of her talk on climate change, urging Congress and the Obama administration to take bold steps to address the issue, in her view one of the “great tests” of the 21st century. “We all know we have no time to lose,” she said.

Read the rest of the story on Dateline: Copenhagen.

AICGS Podcasts – Alexander Ochs on the Copenhagen Climate Conference

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Oct 162009

Alexander Ochs, AICGS Senior Non-Resident Fellow and Director of the Climate and Energy Program at the Worldwatch Institute, talks about the parameters for success or failure at the upcoming Copenhagen conference on climate change with Dr. Jackson Janes. This AICGS Podcast premiered on October 16, 2009

http://www.aicgs.org/analysis/audio/ochs09.aspx

To download this AICGS Podcast directly, please click here.

Alexander Ochs Chosen to Head Worldwatch Climate and Energy Program

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Sep 302009

by Press on September 30, 2009, http://www.worldwatch.org/node/6273

Washington, D.C.-The Worldwatch Institute announced today that Alexander Ochs, a well-known expert on international climate and energy policy, has joined the Institute as Climate and Energy Program Director. Prior to joining Worldwatch, Alexander was the director of international policy at the Center for Clean Air Policy. He is the founding director of the Forum for Atlantic Climate and Energy Talks (FACET) and a senior fellow at Johns Hopkins University. He resides in Washington, D.C.

“We are extremely pleased to welcome Alexander Ochs to our team. His extensive background and expertise on both sides of the Atlantic will strengthen Worldwatch’s work during the run-up to the historic climate talks in Copenhagen this December,” said Christopher Flavin, President of the Worldwatch Institute.

Alexander Ochs was a senior research associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin from 2001 to 2007, where he co-founded and later directed the International Network to Advance Climate Talks. Ochs has held research and/or teaching positions at the City University of New York, Princeton University, Munich University, and the Freie and Humboldt Universities in Berlin. He has been a member of the German delegation to the UN climate negotiations and is co-editor of two books and author of numerous scholarly articles and policy papers. Ochs is a regular commentator for Deutsche Welle, Germany’s public international broadcaster, as well as Grist Magazine, and a member of various climate and energy advisory committees.

“After years of following Worldwatch’s pioneering work, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to contribute to this influential organization,” said Ochs. “Our immediate goal is to help advance the worldwide efforts to mitigate climate change in the lead up to Copenhagen and beyond.”

Towards a Global Green Recovery – Supporting Green Technology Markets

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Sep 212009

Two major global challenges – the financial crisis and climate change – make it urgent to rally the world behind the idea of a “green new deal” or a “global green recovery.” The financial crisis puts renewable energy projects and business at particular risk. The recession has caused a drop in energy and carbon prices that reduces the market competitiveness of clean technologies. In addition, the tightening credit markets mean that cleantech initiatives, which frequently face high capital costs and higher risk premiums, are struggling to find the necessary funding.

The risk of stagnation is especially disruptive to the cleantech industry as it comes on the heels of a rapid growth period prior to the financial crisis. In Germany, the cleantech sector grew 27% between 2005 and 2007, employed almost 1.8 million people, and now accounts for more than 5% of industrial production. From 2002 to 2007, global new investment in sustainable energy grew nearly 16-fold, from an annual US$7.1 billion to US$112.6 billion. The financial crisis created a severe investment shock in the cleantech sector, with new-investment levels in the first quarter of 2009 just under half what they were one year earlier.

This is absolutely the wrong time for a lull in cleantech investment. The International Energy Agency estimates that about 540 billion US dollars must be invested annually in renewable energy and energy efficiency if climate change is to be maintained at or below a 2°C increase in global average temperature. A significant expansion in investment will be required to reach these levels, with about 80% of the investment needed in just three key sectors: electrical power, transportation and buildings.

Several proven policies for expanding cleantech investment already exist, including feed-in tariffs, risk-mitigation policies, green-procurement policies, and government R&D spending, to name just a few. The key challenge for policy makers in trying to support the establishment of clean-technology markets is how to accelerate the implementation of these measures by obtaining the necessary funding and spending public monies wisely in a way that leverages the private sectors’ capability to shoulder the bulk of the needed investment.

To help G20 nations overcome these challenges, the German Federal Foreign Office asked Atlantic Initiative – a think tank on international politics and globalization based in Berlin and Washington, DC – to develop specific and actionable policy recommendations on how to provide effective international support to green technology markets and push the issue in the G20 framework. It was suggested that Germany, the UK and the US should be the main targets of these recommendations as they are well positioned to take a joint leadership role in setting the right incentives for a global green recovery and future growth path building on the idea of the Transatlantic Climate Bridge and taking into account London’s role as the G20 host. I was a co-author of the report. Please find it here.

Towards a Global Green Recovery – Supporting Green Technology Markets

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Aug 262009

Atlantic Task Force recommendations to the Policy Planning Staff of the German Federal Foreign Office

26 August 2009

Final Report

Prepared by the Atlantic Initiative, Berlin

Authors: Jan-Friedrich Kallmorgen, Aaron Best, Alexander Ochs

Please find the full report [here].

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