16920

SoSe 24: Power and welfare: German energy politics

Daniel Louis Nethery

Hinweise für Studierende

Workload and assessment: During the semester you will be required to read on average 20 pages each week and pass a midterm test. You will qualify for 5 ECTS points if you engage with the course materials, your attendance is satisfactory, and you pass the examination at the end of the semester. Schließen

Zusätzl. Angaben / Voraussetzungen

Is this course for me? This course is open to all students. There are no prerequisites.

Kommentar

Subject: On 26 March 2023 residents of Berlin had the opportunity to vote in a climate referendum. Proponents claimed that a yes-vote would require the Berlin city–state government to implement a socially-just transition to climate neutrality by the year 2030. Although supported by a majority of voters, the referendum attracted too few yes-votes to achieve the necessary quorum. The failure of the Berlin climate referendum came at the beginning of a federal parliamentary session marked by controversy surrounding the federal heating law which came into effect on 1 January this year. Program: We will take the proposal put to Berlin voters as a starting point for an analysis of German energy policy and (geo)politics. We will consider the importance of technological, environmental, (geo)political and other social factors in influencing changes in the German energy mix since the oil shock of 1973. Should the German federal government have responded to widespread anti-nuclear sentiment by phasing out nuclear power ahead of coal? Is coal power more carbon-intensive than natural gas? Is the supply of renewable energy in Berlin and across Germany limited by technology or, as those behind the climate referendum claimed, by a lack of political will? These are some of the questions which the course will address. Schließen