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Not Only a Mild Winter: German Consumers Change Their Behavior to Save Natural Gas: Commentary

Open-source modelling of the future role of renewable hydrogen in Germany and Europe

The final workshop of the Einstein research project “Open-Source Modeling of the Role of Renewable Hydrogen in Germany and Europe” will take place as part of this year's InfraDay, a free conference organized annually by TU Berlin. The research project (project website) has been running since November 2021 and will be completed at the end of October. The aim of the project, which was carried out...

Green Premiums Are a Challenge and an Opportunity for Climate Policy Design: Comment

Adjusting green public support programmes to green premiums can reduce public spending, yet this is challenged by uncertainty. Underfunding green technologies can delay the green transition, and overfunding them can increase transition costs. Both risks of under- and overfunding can be reduced using responsive adjustments.

How Communication Makes the Difference between a Cartel and Tacit Collusion: A Machine Learning Approach

This paper sheds new light on the role of communication for cartel formation. Using machine learning to evaluate free-form chat communication among firms in a laboratory experiment, we identify typical communication patterns for both explicit cartel formation and indirect attempts to collude tacitly. We document that firms are less likely to communicate explicitly about price fixing and more likely ...

A Renewable Energy Pool Brings Benefits of Energy Transition to Consumers

German companies view high and uncertain electricity prices a major challenge. A Renewable Energy Pool (RE-Pool), wherein the favorable conditions of competitive tenders for new wind and solar power projects are passed on to electricity consumers, could hedge such price risks. Consumers’ electricity prices are thus hedged for the share of their consumption that corresponds to the RE-Pool’s generation ...

New Coal Mines in the Australian Galilee Basin Are Not Economically Viable and Are Prone to Become Stranded Assets

To limit the effects of climate change, we must significantly curtail the trading and use of coal as an energy source. Although the rise of renewable energy sources has already led to a reduction in the demand for and use of coal, new export-oriented coal mine projects are still being approved, and they often receive strong political support. However, whether these projects are economically viable ...

Broad Electricity Price Subsidies for Industry Are Not a Suitable Relief Instrument

The sharp rise in electricity prices has led to a discussion on possible subsidies for companies in the form of an industrial power tariff. The subsidies should help companies remain internationally competitive and prevent them from relocating overseas. Although German electricity prices for (industrial) firms are around the European average due to many tax exemptions, they are significantly higher ...

Sustainable Finance Taxonomies: Enabling the Transition towards Net Zero? A Transition Score for International Frameworks

A plethora of sustainable finance taxonomies are emerging worldwide to support shifting trillions for climate action. Employing a qualitative research approach, we use document analysis to assess 26 sustainable finance taxonomy frameworks worldwide that are in the developing phase or have been published and/or adopted. Based on literature and data we build a transition score (TS) to evaluate the framework’s ...

Loss of Russian natural gas can be compensated for

Sanctions against Russian Gas Would Not Endanger EU or German Gas Supply

As a result of the Russian attack on Ukraine, natural gas prices skyrocketed in 2022 and Germany in particular felt the impact of its strong dependency on Russia. Prices have since relaxed, the European natural gas industry has overcome the uncertainty due to the energy crisis in 2022, and the industry also survived the slump in Russian natural gas imports without supply interruptions. However, Russia ...