Headline: RIFS Blog

A symphony composed by the melting arctic deeply touches an audience of policymakers at COP25. A photograph inspires a political scientist to expand her research on the Amazon with a performance set in a Berlin city forest. And a museum about possible futures doesn’t just have an education team running workshops for its exhibitions but dedicates a whole floor to a lab where scientists and artists can “go nuts” in collaborative projects.

Without a doubt, the COP26’s coal commitment was a major disappointment. The “phase-out” was made a “phase-down”, which is salt in the eyes of many given the massive consequences global warming is already having. However, and many commentators agree on this (Abnett and Volcovici 2021, Jotzo 2021), the resolution does send a clear signal. The writing is on the wall – a new narrative has begun that foresees an end to coal in the medium to long term.

Are the annual Conference of Parties (COPs) for global agreements on climate change reinforcing a false sense of security?

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow is an important meeting for all countries. Research conducted at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) tackles many of the issues addressed in the negotiations. Some of our researchers attended the Climate Conference in person or virtually. We share some of their observations here.

A brightly coloured dome stands out among the lights of Kigali: The convention centre shines in the Rwandan national colours of blue, yellow and green. For the Rwandan ambassador to Germany, Igor Cesar, its image symbolises progress and the spirit behind it: "When you fly over Kigali at night, you can see how far our electrification efforts have come. Rwanda is characterised by its will to advance technologically, but we don't want to lose our origins, our identity in the process." The architecture of the convention centre represents the Rwandan path between preservation and new beginnings: a modern building whose shape is reminiscent of a traditional hut.

How do you conduct a survey in a country you’ve never been to, where you don’t speak the language, and where household surveys are almost unheard of? Add to that, that the country has been on lockdown for a year and a half. Our answer: it’s all about the local partners!

The Covid-19 pandemic has imposed new challenges for the off-grid renewable energy sector and intensified existing ones. At the same time, it has also provided opportunities by highlighting the importance of electrification during crises and demonstrating the resilience of the sector.

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.

"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.

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.

They advocate climate protection, criticise daily experiences of racism, and work toward fairer structures in world trade: The scope of German NGOs is highly diverse. But their personnel are not: They are mostly made up of white academics. It is time for this to 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.

The Nigerian government and German energy company Siemens AG signed the Nigerian Electrification Roadmap (NER) partnership, also known as the Presidential Power Initiative (PPI) in 2019. The Roadmap contains technical and commercial proposals for financing, implementing, and executing projects to revive the Nigerian power sector and manage Nigeria’s future electricity requirements.

Advancements in new technologies open up new ocean industries and possibilities to explore the ocean. Some of these new technologies, such as swarms of underwater mini robots to map the seafloor or sensors on automated underwater vehicles, assist scientists in their work and produce growing quantities of ocean data.

The urgent need to forge a path towards a climate-neutral future is finally being acknowledged in Germany’s courts, parliaments, and business sector. With its ruling earlier this year on the Climate Protection Act, the Federal Constitutional Court has issued a landmark decision on climate justice.

Local retail profits from the mobility transition and should advocate it.