Abstract
The ‘Energiewende’ of 2011 is the dominant issue in German energy policy, and therefore energy security is almost solely linked to domestic developments. More specifically, the major and immediate concern is system stability in the electricity sector. Nonetheless, mid- and long-term challenges for energy security are identified in the oil and gas markets. Overall though, energy security is framed in commercial rather than strategic terms. Meanwhile, Russia’s reliability remains a mantra for German energy policy. In contrast, the transatlantic relationship with regard to energy security receives little attention in Germany, and the US path of energy policies is perceived as diverging significantly from the German trajectory.
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Working Group on Energy Balances, March 2012, https://doi.org/www.bmwi.de/BMWi/Redaktion/Binaer/Energiedaten/energiegewinnung-und-energieverbrauch2-primaerenergieverbrauch, property =blob,bereich=bmwi,sprache=de,rwb=true.xls (accessed June 27, 2012).
Nevertheless, the pivotal role of individual energy companies should not be understated —it is the investment decisions of the private sector that ultimately determine the exact composition of national energy mixes.
See in more detail: John D. Duffield and Kirsten Westphal, ‘Germany and EU Energy Policy: Conflicted Champion or Integration?’, in Toward a Common European Union Energy Policy: Problems, Progress and Prospects, ed. Vicki L. Birchfield and John S. Duffield (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), 169–86.
The goal of increasing energy efficiency by 20% was not binding originally, however, the energy efficiency directive of June 2012 makes this objective now obligatory.
EU Statistical Pocket Book 2010 — EU Energy and Transport in Figures, Sections 2.6.1 and 2.6.6, https://doi.org/www.ec.europa.eu/energy/observatory/statistics/statistics_en.htm(accessed June 27, 2012).
Duffield and Westphal, ‘Germany and EU Energy Policy’, 169–86.
For comprehensive information on the 2011 Energy Concept see https://doi.org/www.bmu.de/english/transformation_of_the_energy_system/resolutions_and_measures/doc/48054.php (accessed June 27, 2012).
International Energy Agency. World Energy Outlook 2010 (Paris: International Energy Agency, 2010).
Frank Umbach, ‘The Intersection of Climate Protection Policies and Energy Security’, Journal of Transatlantic Studies 10, no. 4 (2012): 374–87.
Michael Rühle, ‘NATO and Energy Security: From Philosophy to Implementation’, Journal of Transatlantic Studies 10, no. 4 (2012): 388–95.
See Kirsten Westphal, ‘Russian Gas, Ukrainian Pipelines, and European Supply Security: Lessons of the 2009 Controversies’, SWP Research Paper 2009/RP 11 (Berlin: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, 2009).
See Kirsten Westphal, ‘Security of Gas Supply’, SWP Comments 2012/C 17 (Berlin: Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, 2012).
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Sybille Röhrkasten is doctoral researcher in the Global Issues Division at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP). She holds master’s degrees in International Economics and Political Science from the University of Tübingen. Her research focuses on international energy relations and on emerging powers in global governance. In her Ph.D. at the Free University Berlin, she analyses the views of the German and the Brazilian governments on challenges and policy solutions in global renewable energy governance.
Dr Kirsten Westphal is based at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin, Germany. She is assigned for International Energy Relations and Global Energy Security. She has published widely on international energy relations and EU external energy relations with the most recent book on Global Energy Governance in a Multipolar World (with Dries Lesage and Thijs van de Graaf); and the following publications on ‘The Four Great Challenges for the European Gas Market’ in European Energy Review 2 July 2012 (online); ‘EU-Russia Gas Relations’ in SWP Comments 2012/12 (with Ralf Dickel).
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Röhrkasten, S., Westphal, K. Energy security and the transatlantic dimension: a view from Germany. J Transatl Stud 10, 328–342 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1080/14794012.2012.734669
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/14794012.2012.734669