Headline: RIFS Blog October 2021

The blog of the Research Institute for Sustainability (RIFS) contains contributions from employees in all RIFS departments and covers a huge range of themes. In addition to discussing the latest research findings and events, the blog authors comment on political developments.

 

A "Blue Deal" for Germany – Marine Policy as a Future Project for the New Coalition Government

The issue of marine conservation was hardly mentioned in the election campaign and the exploratory coalition talks that followed. This despite the fact that, for years, scientists have agreed that the climate crisis cannot be successfully combated without active marine conservation. Yet with the start of the coalition negotiations, this could now change. A look at the election programmes of the Green Party and the liberal FDP offers hope that a "Blue Deal" – a sustainable marine policy that is in line with the 1.5-degrees target and could improve the livelihood of those living in coastal regions – will be one of the future projects of the new coalition government.

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Energy Transition in Africa

Partnerships and Networks to Strengthen North-South and South-South Interventions

"Cooperation needs to be fair, transparent, accountable, and with excellent coordination in order to succeed." This was the bold message shared by the speakers in the opening session of the DAAD TU Berlin Alumni Online Seminar, Energy Transition on Africa, an event organized by TU Berlin in cooperation with the African Center of Excellence in Energy for Sustainable Development (ACE-ESD) and hosted by the TU Berlin Alumni Program, together with HEDERA Sustainable Solutions and with the support of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies e.V.

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Ending Subsidies Slows the Growth of Wind and Solar Power

Falling prices for renewables such as wind and solar are prompting policymakers at the national and European levels to consider phasing out support mechanisms. In a new scientific study, we show that discontinuing these instruments could have negative effects on the growth of these renewables. We arrived at this conclusion with the aid of a model in which we have integrated empirical investor preferences for the first time.

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German Election

The Desire for Continuity in Change

The SPD's success in the Bundestag elections is surprising, even though the polls predicted this outcome in the days and weeks leading up to the election. In July, polls by infratest-dimap and the Elections Research Group suggested that the SPD could win as little as 15-16 percent of the vote and a neck-and-neck race between the CDU/CSU and the Greens seemed likely. But things turned out differently, and now the Social Democrats are the victors, even though the SPD's 25 percent win is a far cry from the results returned by previous SPD chancellors.

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