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Report
The conversion of electricity generation to renewable energies such as wind and solar is the most important building block for a climate-neutral economy and Germany's independence from energy imports. The energy crisis in the wake of the war in Ukraine shows that an acceleration of the energy transition is urgently needed. "Contracts for Differences" (CfDs) can be an effective means of promoting the ...
05.07.2023| Fernanda Ballesteros, Mats Kröger, Karsten Neuhoff, Jörn C. Richstein
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DIW focus
The energy and climate crisis enhance the need for energy savings. In the building sector, these savings can be achieved primarily through thermal retrofitting. So far, progress in this area has been slow. To date, less than one percent of the residential building stock in Germany is retrofitted each year. The existing support programs alone offer too little reliability for the necessary...
13.03.2023| Sophie M. Behr, Merve Küçük, Karsten Neuhoff
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In the media
The debate about making investments and the financial sector more sustainable often focuses on a narrow distinction between "green" and "brown" assets that does not match the situation in the real economy, writes Franziska Schütze from the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW). The sustainable finance expert says journalists need to read between the lines and make the many colours visible to ...
04.04.2022| Franziska Schütze
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Report
How can international public climate finance effectively support climate policy of partner countries? The four-year project of the Climate Policy Department sheds light on effective steps to achieve the Paris climate goals in cooperation with four other research institutes in Brazil, India, Indonesia, and South Africa.
DIW Berlin examines in a new study how international public climate finance (ICF) ...
13.07.2021| Karsten Neuhoff
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Report
This report offers insights to support key German stakeholders on the implementation of an innovative and promising policy instrument for the decarbonization of the basic materials sectors: project-based Carbon Contracts for Difference (CCfDs).
It analyses selected socio-economic impacts of introducing this policy instrument in Germany. The reports accounts for the perspective of all relevant groups ...
15.04.2021| Olga Chiappinelli
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Report
Last year, the Climate Friendly Materials Platform proposed an innovative policy framework to support the decarbonisation of the basic materials sector in the EU. A new policy brief from the platform focuses on one major component of this package: introducing the climate contribution to compliment the free allocation in the EU Emissions Trading System. The brief clarifies the concept and explains why ...
18.12.2020| Olga Chiappinelli
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Report
Carbon Contracts for Differences (CCFD) are one of the elements of the policy package developed by the Climate Friendly Materials Platform (CFMP) in order to help decarbonise European’s industry while preserving its competitiveness. CCfDs are a powerful tool for helping European industry transformation during the first stages of the transition period towards a low emission economy, and the current ...
12.11.2020| Olga Chiappinelli
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Report
Clear policy strategies are essential to guide corporate decision making and effective policy to achieve decarbonisation of European industry. This brief provides a much-needed overview of the current policy landscape in five EU Member States (Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain) by investigating how the path to climate-neutral industrial production is reflected in their key national plans. ...
12.11.2020| Olga Chiappinelli
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Report
Supporting investments in climate friendly production and recycling of materials as part of the European and national Covid-19 recovery packages can both achieve the short term objective of effective recovery spending for boosting the economy and creating jobs as well as deliver climate and long-term economic benefits. In order to realize the full economic and climate benefits of investment support, ...
25.06.2020| Olga Chiappinelli
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DIW focus
Already after the financial crisis in 2008/2009 there was a debate on whether elements aiming at sustainable development can be part of the stimulus packages and support the recovery of the economy. Despite the instinct of policy makers to prioritise battle-tested policies during a crisis, significant levels and different types of climate-friendly components were integrated in the 2009 stimulus...
11.05.2020| Olga Chiappinelli, Marius Clemens, Mats Kröger, Nils May, Karsten Neuhoff, Jörn C. Richstein, Xi Sun
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Report
The science is clear: global warming must be limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius to avoid catastrophic impacts. The Paris Agreement recognises the 1.5C-limit as well. The production of basic materials –cement, iron and steel, paper, aluminium, as well as chemicals and petrochemicals – is one of the main contributors to climate change, accounting for approximately 25% of global CO2 emissions, ...
30.10.2019| Olga Chiappinelli
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Personnel news
Vera Zipperer, who works at the Climate Policy department, has successfully defended her dissertation at the Technische Universität Berlin.
The dissertation with the title "Creating innovation incentives through environmental policies: An economic analysis" was supervised by Prof. Karsten Neuhoff, Ph.D. (DIW Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin) and Prof. Simone Borghesi, Ph.D. ...
12.09.2019
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Report
DIW Berlin, EUI-Florence School of Regulation, Technical University Berlin, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, University College London and Université Libre de Bruxelles are happy to announce a PhD Summer School on "Economic Foundations for Energy and Climate Policies".
The Summer School will be held from 9th to 13th September 2019 at DIW Berlin. The main objective of the School is to ...
25.02.2019| Olga Chiappinelli
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Weekly Report
The cost of renewable energy technology has plunged in recent years. But the extent to which electricity consumers can benefit from the reduced costs depends on the design of renewable remuneration mechanisms. Calculations of a financing model show that the current sliding premium is leading to increasingly higher risks for investments and in turn, increasing equity requirements. As a result, financing ...
11.07.2018| Nils May, Karsten Neuhoff, Jörn C. Richstein
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Personnel news
Nils May, who works at the department of Climate Policy, has successfully defended his dissertation at the Technische Universität Berlin.The dissertation with the title "The Economics of Financing and Integrating Renewable Energies" was supervised by Prof. Karsten Neuhoff, Ph.D. (DIW Berlin, Technische Universität Berlin) and Prof. Dr. Rolf Wüstenhagen (University of St.Gallen).
We ...
04.05.2018
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Report
More than two years after the “Paris Climate Deal” and the entry into force of the “Sustainable Development Goals”, is Europe ready to take sustainable finance to the next level, making finance work for sustainable development and for protecting our climate? This question was addressed at a high-level event in Berlin on February 22, 2018. The conference was organized by the ...
08.03.2018| Karsten Neuhoff
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Personnel news
Nils May, a DIW PhD candidate and Research Associate at the Climate Policy Department, has received a Subsidy from Verein für Socialpolitik (VfS). The prize was awarded for his presentation "Cost-Efficient investments? Policy Impacts on Financing Costs" at this year's European Assocation of Environmental and Resource Economists (EAERE) Conference in Athens.
15.12.2017
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Press Release
Public purchases can make a valuable contribution to decarbonizing the economy – Despite an upward trend, only 2.4 percent of public contracts in Germany include green criteria – Policy action is needed in order to fully exploit the potential
Green public procurement, by which public authorities choose their suppliers of goods and services not only based on price but also according to ...
12.12.2017
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Economic Bulletin
Due to increasing shares of renewable energies in electricity production, the cost-effective system integration of these installations is becoming more and more important. Technologies and locations are viewed as system-friendly when they are more cost-efficient and easier to integrate because they, unlike other installations, produce at times when electricity is more valuable. This report shows that ...
24.11.2017| Nils May, Karsten Neuhoff, Jörn C. Richstein
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Economic Bulletin
The costs of renewable energy technologies have fallen sharply. Now the financing costs of new installations are playing an increasing role in the overall cost of Germany’s energy transition. This has put the primary focus of support instruments for renewable energy on creating more affordable financing conditions for investments. This report compares the effects of various policy instruments ...
27.09.2017| Ingmar Jürgens, Nils May, Karsten Neuhoff