Can Trump Destroy the Paris Agreement and Thus the Earth’s Climate System?

Posted on June 1, 2017 by Bill Hewitt

I have a Spanish friend who likes to use the expression: “Is complicate.” When it comes to the climate crisis, the transition to clean energy, and international politics one can safely say: “Is complicate.” I tried to convey a real sense of optimism in my book, A Newer World, and some of the hopeful trends I identified then have proven even more robust than I could have imagined at the time I was researching and writing it. We are spending a great deal of money, globally, on clean tech, and that’s only going to continue. Continue reading →

The German Sustainability Revolution

Posted on June 22, 2015 by Bill Hewitt

I just wanted to flag the fact that I led a group of grad students to Berlin at the end of May and we had a fabulous six-day series of tours and briefings. I’ll be writing with a bit of depth about the trip here soon, but in the meantime, you can see my post at our NYU Center for Global Affairs blog, The Global Citizen.

“The Global Threat of Our Time”

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Bill Hewitt

That’s what the President of the United States called climate change today at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. With Chancellor Angela Merkel on the podium beside him, he said: “The effort to slow climate change requires bold action. And on this, Germany and Europe have led.” Truer words were never said. “Our dangerous carbon emissions have come down. But we know we have to do more — and we will do more.” President Obama was referring to the US here in his speech. Continue reading →

Driving Die Energiewende

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Bill Hewitt

The revolutionary “energy transition” that Germany is undergoing is being driven by a lot of forces: a very progressive public that fully embraces the concept of high tech and far fewer GHGs, a political establishment that backs the project – across the entire spectrum from right to left, and a number of visionaries like the late Hermann Scheer. I have written about the Energiewende for my old blog and for the new one.

Another one of Scheer’s generation of leaders on renewables is Rainer Baake. He’s heading up a project called the Agora Energiewende which is, among other things, supporting the transition with advanced technical thinking on a range of issues and is also helping to spread the gospel of 100% renewable electricity globally. Continue reading →

Germany’s Energy Transition

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Bill Hewitt

I’ve written about Germany’s remarkable transition to renewable energy a number of times. I had the opportunity to hear Jochen Flasbarth, the President of the Federal Environment Agency of Germany, speak about this last April. I followed up with the stunning news in June that Germany had, for one day, supplied half of its power from photovoltaic. The Germans continue to set the pace for the rest of the world. Continue reading →

The Sun Shines on Germany

Posted on June 19, 2012 by Bill Hewitt

I wrote in April about Germany’s ambitious goal of deriving 100% of its electricity from renewables by 2050. It seems to me that they’re going to get there a lot sooner than 2050.

Solar electricity world record: Germany cranks half its power with PV was the headline recently from SmartPlanet. Germany hit a breathtaking 22.15 gigawatts of PV output on May 25^th. There are several astonishing things about that, one of which is that the US may get to 3 GW of installed capacity this year, a drop in the bucket compared to Germany’s herculean output. Continue reading →

A Newer World

on the policy, politics, science and economics of environmental protection, sustainability, energy and climate change

Tag Archives: Germany