Topic Climate Policy

Five Essays in Macroeconomics

Heterogeneous-Agent New Keynesian models (HANK)---which replace the representative household by a whole distribution of households---are the about to become the new state-off-the-art model of modern monetary economics because they allow for more realistic consumption patterns of households and a rich description of income and wealth distributions. This PhD thesis contributes to the ongoing advancements ...

The Future Is Battery Electric: Climate Change Mitigation in Road Freight Transport

Road freight transport must switch to alternative drive technologies, such as battery-electric or hydrogen vehicles, to mitigate its impact on the climate. Preliminary results from an ongoing research project show that the fleet of battery-electric trucks as well as the number of models on offer have recently grown significantly, albeit from a very low level. This is not the case for hydrogen trucks. ...

Catalyzing the Transition to a Climate-Neutral Industry with Carbon Contracts for Difference: Commentary

Quantifying the Dunkelflaute: An Analysis of Variable Renewable Energy Droughts in Europe

Variable renewable energy droughts, also referred to as "Dunkelflaute", emerge as a challenge for realizing climate-neutral energy systems based on variable wind and solar power. Using data on 38 historic weather years and an advanced identification method, we characterize European drought events for on- and offshore wind power, solar photovoltaics, and policy-relevant renewable technology portfolios. ...

Coping with the Dunkelflaute: Power System Implications of Variable Renewable Energy Droughts in Europe

Coping with prolonged periods of low availability of wind and solar power, also referred to as "Dunkelflaute", emerges as a key challenge for realizing a decarbonized European energy system fully based on renewable energy sources. Here, we investigate the role of long-duration electricity storage and geographical balancing in dealing with such variable renewable energy droughts. To this end, we combine ...

The Price Elasticity of Natural Gas Demand of Small Consumers in Germany during the Energy Crisis 2022

Understanding how consumers respond to turbulent market conditions is crucial for planning security of natural gas supply. This paper estimates the price elasticity of demand of small consumers in Germany in the period with both high price fluctuations and a fear of natural gas shortage in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Using granular data between 2018 and 2023, we estimate an Auto ...

Impacts of Electric Carsharing on a Power Sector with Variable Renewables

Electrifying the car fleet is a major strategy for mitigating emissions in the transport sector. As electrification cannot solve all negative externalities associated with cars, reducing the size of the car fleet would be beneficial. Electric carsharing could reconcile current car usage habits with a smaller fleet, but this may reduce the potential of electric cars to align their grid interactions ...

Power Sector Benefits of Flexible Heat Pumps in 2030 Scenarios

Heat pumps play a major role in decreasing fossil fuel use in heating. They increase electricity demand, but could also foster the system integration of variable renewable energy sources. We analyze three scenarios for expanding decentralized heat pumps in Germany by 2030, focusing on the role of buffer heat storage. Using an open-source power sector model, we assess costs, capacity investments, and ...

Energy-Efficient Building Renovation: Price‑Adjusted Investments Declining; Trend Reversal Needed to Reach Climate Targets

In light of rising oil and gas prices, investments in energy-efficient building renovation in Germany have risen recently in nominal terms. In 2023, around 72 billion euros were spent on the energy-efficient renovation of residential, public, and commercial buildings, about 12 billion more than in 2021. Nevertheless, investments declined by over six percent in price-adjusted terms, as construction ...

Sufficiency as a “Strategy of the Enough”: Curbing Ecological Crises and Injustices: A Summary of the German Advisory Council on the Environment’s Discussion Paper

A recent discussion paper Sufficiency as a “Strategy of the Enough”: A Necessary Debate by the German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) aims to intensify the debate on sufficiency, a central but neglected element of future-oriented policy. It defines sufficiency as the need to limit the consumption and production of ecologically critical goods and services, mainly by the economically rich, ...