Polish-German Energy Platform started!

Project that I have been developing for the past 3 years – let it be helpful for both countries to enhance mutual understanding and work together towards carbon neutrality! :-)

From the press release of dena on its website:

Deutsch-Polnische Energieplattform stärkt die europäische Energiewende

Die dena und die polnische Nationale Energieagentur KAPE starten Plattform zur grenzübergreifenden Zusammenarbeit

Die Energieagenturen der beiden Länder werden über die Plattform ihre Expertise bündeln und ihre Netzwerke zusammenschließen. Ziel ist es, zur Verständigung zwischen Polen und Deutschland beizutragen und so einen gemeinsamen Weg zur Klimaneutralität zu gestalten.

Energiegemeinschaften im Fokus

Zunächst liegt der Fokus auf Energiegemeinschaften. Gemeinsam mit Städten, Organisationen und Unternehmen beider Länder fördert die Plattform den Erfahrungsaustausch und entwickelt Projekte. Eine Energiegemeinschaft ist der Zusammenschluss lokaler Akteure zur gemeinsamen Produktion und Verwertung von Energie. Es soll analysiert werden, wie Energiegemeinschaften in beiden Ländern jeweils ausgestaltet sind und wie die Rahmenbedingungen dafür verbessert werden können. Darauf aufbauend wird untersucht, wie eine grenzübergreifende Energieregion funktionieren könnte, die Kommunen, Unternehmen und Bürgerinnen und Bürger auf beiden Seiten der Grenze zusammenbringt.

Über die Webseite www.d-p-plattform.de stellt die Deutsch-Polnische 
Energieplattform aktuelle Informationen bereit.

Book chapter on Polish energy and climate policy

My book chapter “Poland’s Clash Over Energy and Climate Policy: Green Economy or Grey Status Quo?” has been published in the book “The European Union in International Climate Change Politics. Still Taking a Lead?” edited by Rüdiger K. W. Wurzel, James Connely and Duncan Liefferink. More informatione here.

Workshop: “Still Taking a Lead? The European Union in International Climate Change Politics” in Hull on 24-25 September 2015

I took part in the workshop via phone conference. The title of my presentation and draft chapter title for the planned book publication is “Green economy or grey status quo – a Polish clash over climate and energy policy”.

The workshop was organised by the Centre for European Union Studies (CEUS) at the Univeristy of Hull on 24-25 September in Hull in Great Britain.

The purpose of the workshop was to discuss the draft chapters for an edited book publication “Still Taking a Lead? The European Union in International Climate Change Politics”. The book is going to be edited by Rüdiger Wurzel and James Connelly (both Hull University) and will be published probably next year.

Here you may find my Powerpoint presentation.

Speech during the Intensive Programme of the MA in Euroculture “European Environments: How a New Climate is Changing the Old World”

The Intensive Programme of the MA in Euroculture ”European Environments: How a New Climate is Changing the Old Wolrd” is going to take place at the Jagiellonian University in Cracov from 22 to 29 June. I am going to give a speech during the opening panel: “The Climate of European Politics”. The title of my speech is: “Bringing energy to the people: what Poland, Europe and the world really need”.

Some European states and the European Union are widely seen as leaders in global environmental issues. Various European states have gone furthest in moving toward sustainable energy policies; EU environmental standards are among the most stringent in the world. But the politics surrounding climate change are highly complex. Within Europe, there are wide differences among European states’ responses to environmental change, and in how voters and political leaders perceive the issue. Increased public awareness of the dangers of climate change does not seem fundamentally to have changed voting behavior on the national or European level. On the global level, complex issues of political, economic, and soft power make it unclear whether the EU is really able to offer global leadership in promoting sustainable development.

Here students are invited to explore the issues and themes in which European integration, international politics, and global environmental issues meet and intersect. How does climate change affect the EU’s relations with, for example, China, Russia, Brazil, or the United States? How is the warming of the Arctic (raising the prospect of ice-free summers in the near future) affecting European energy, security, and trade policy? Are there European success stories like international cooperation in cleaning up the Rhine, or the development of European emission standards that can inspire transnational environmental cooperation elsewhere? Or does Europe’s current crisis undermine the Union’s ability to take up a leadership role? Does the rest of the world even want such leadership? Within the EU, can environmental crisis be a force that deepens European integration, or only a further strain on the Union? How, for example, will the EU respond to the expected influx of so-called climate refugees, driven from their homes by rising sea levels or desertification? What links Europe’s financial crisis and the crisis of European institutions to the problems of climate change? Could so-called ecological economics offer fresh solutions to the crisis of the eurozone? Finally, how can we best understand the interplay of local, national, European, and global forces that drive European governments’ responses (or lack thereof) to ecological concerns?

More information about the conference as well as its programme are available on the website of the Intensive Programme of the MA in Euroculture.

Conference “The EU Renewable Energy Policy: Challenges and Opportunities”

ffu-logo-final1The conference is going to take place at the Free University of Berlin on 9 May. The title of my conference paper and presentation is: “Poland at the energy policy crossroads – a superficial Europenization?”.

The organizer, the Forschungszentrum für Umweltpolitik (FFU) [Environmental Policy Research Centre] at the Free University of Berlin, about the conference:

Das Forschungszentrum für Umweltpolitik (FFU) der Freien Universität Berlin organisiert mit finanzieller Unterstützung der Fritz Thyssen Stiftung eine Konferenz zum Thema “The EU renewable energy policy: challenges and opportunities”. In der Konferenz gehen junge AkademikerInnen aus dem Bereich der Umwelt- und Energiepolitik der Frage nach, wie und in welchem Ausmaß die erneuerbare Energien-Politik der EU die nationalstaatliche Ebene beeinflusst und damit die Transformation der Mitgliedsstaaten in Richtung eines nachhaltigen, auf erneuerbaren Energien basierenden Energieversorgungssystems vorangetrieben hat.

More information about the conference as well as its programme is available on the website of the FFU.