German Ideas on Global Renewable Energy Governance

Abstract

This chapter enhances a sound understanding of the German government’s action and ideas on global renewable energy governance. German policies to promote renewable energy received worldwide attention in the aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear accident in 2011, when the German government decided to phase out nuclear power and expand its investments in renewable energy. However, the German ‘Energiewende’ did not start in 2011 but rather dates back to the first term of the government coalition of the Social Democratic Party (Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, SPD) and the Alliance 90/The Greens Party (Bündnis 90/ Die Grünen, the Greens) between 1998 and 2002 (see also Röhrkasten, Westphal 2012a:332f., Schreurs 2013). Since then, the German government has also undertaken several initiatives to strengthen transboundary cooperation on renewable energy. On the sidelines of public attention, it has successfully pushed for the creation of a new international organization for renewable energy, the IRENA (Röhrkasten, Westphal 2013:3).