International Energy and Climate Change Policy

Our focal topics of Energy and Climate Change Policy are

Sustainable Economies

Besides the reinforcement of adaptation strategies and significant emissions reductions a fundamental paradigm change is needed to sustainable economic and social models. FES measures in this area address how today’s industrialised societies can be environmentally restructured and modernised or new national economies constructed in developing countries on the basis of renewable energies, while at the same time promoting growth and development. The FES supports an exchange between industrialised, developing and emerging countries on sustainable economic models in which environmental and climate change policy are no longer considered to be burdensome cost factors and brakes on growth, but instead are viewed in terms of future-oriented industrial policy, innovative coping strategies and smart location policy within the framework of international competition. In the transition from the previous fossil-fuel and resource-intensive type of national economy towards the low-carbon economy sustainable production systems, products and infrastructures play as important a role as the future energy mix. The key question is what energy sources are most appropriate for the various countries and regions in terms of sustainability and climate-friendliness, competitiveness and security of supply and how they can be promoted. In addition, there must be a debate on how the environmental restructuring of national economies can be used as an opportunity for »green growth« and for the emergence of »green jobs«.

Climate Change Justice

In order to ameliorate climate change and to limit global temperature rises to 2 degrees Celsius, in future economic activity must be pursued in a more environmentally friendly manner: in other words, industrial production, energy supply and the transport and housing sectors must be organised at a much lower level of greenhouse gas emissions. This requires an agreement on the maximum permissible greenhouse gas emissions – that is, what is at issue is how economic growth is to be shared between different states. Given the historical responsibility of the industrialised countries as principal initiators of climate change they need to cut back so that the economies of developing and emerging countries can grow. How emissions limits can be organised globally in a fair way and what level of financial and technological support should be made available to developing and emerging countries to enable them to cope with structural transformation in terms of economic and energy policy, as well as climate change-related adaptation measures, is a key issue in our work. Also important in this context is the question of how the individual climate change-policy financing mechanisms and instruments are to be assessed from a development-policy standpoint. In addition, issues of climate change justice arise not least with regard to climate change and trade: almost a quarter of all global emissions arise from the manufacturing of goods which are traded internationally. Via trade, the industrialised countries relocate emissions to a considerable extent to emerging and developing countries in order to make the latter, in turn, responsible for their reduction.

Governance Structures among Global Climate-Change, Environmental and Energy Institutions

The tough negotiations on a new, internationally binding climate change agreement as successor to the Kyoto Protocol has made it clear that the UN climate change process has come up against the limits of its institutional capacities. It also shows that the UN’s Environmental Programme (UNEP) is in urgent need of reform. A solution must urgently be found to the question of how the institutions of global environmental policy under the UN umbrella can be developed in such a way that the logjams which emerged once more in Copenhagen can be permanently broken. Otherwise, non-binding and voluntary approaches threaten to establish themselves as a real alternative. In order to fashion a just and transparent governance system with regard to global environmental and climate change policy and thereby to broaden the range of options for a global climate change agreement there must be dialogue between all the participating states and actors on what this agreement will be like. FES measures in this area are aimed at supporting the realisation of a global agreement on climate change and the reform of the international governance system with regard to global environmental and climate change policy. The FES is calling for a dialogue between decision-makers from the industrialised, developing and emerging countries and working out concrete practical options and policy recommendations.