Blog

• Waste
• Batteries
• Biodiversity
• CircularEconomy
• CO2
• COP
• Digitalisation
• Ecotranslator
• Electromobility
• FinalStorage
• Energy
• Food
• EU
• FactcheckNuclearPower
• Kantineathome
• NuclearPower
• ClimateProtection
• Consumption
• Land-use transition
• Livingwithoutacar
• ValueAddedTax
• Enquired
• Oeko-Institut
• Economy
• plasticfree
• Podcast
• Resources
• sociallyjust
• transdisciplinary
• EnvironmentalLaw
• TransportTransition
• TransportTransitionMyths
• Forest
• HeatTransition
• Hydrogen
• Living
• VisionsoftheFuture

Energy

• 

  Guzman Renovable: How a tiny village is powering Spain’s local energy transition

  Blog 12/01/2025

  One of Spain's first rural energy communities has been established on the Burgos plateau. Dr Sibylle Braungardt describes how the community achieved this in this blog post.

• 

  Who pays for carbon? Germany’s answer to the landlord–tenant dilemma

  Blog 10/27/2025

  As Europe prepares for the start of ETS 2, the Emissions Trading System covering road transport and buildings, policymakers across the continent are facing a difficult question: How can carbon pricing be made socially fair – especially for those who have little control over their energy consumption?

• 

  Building Better Climate Futures: What Makes Citizen Participation in Local Climate Action Work

  Blog 08/12/2025

  From local ownership to social innovation, meaningful citizen participation is essential for climate transformation – but what makes it effective? We summarize the results from the ACHIEVE project.

• 

  Fellowship program with renewable energy experts from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan successfully completed

  Blog 11/19/2024

  Two distinguished researchers, Dr Bahtiyor Eshanov (Uzbekistan) and Dr Abylaikhan Soltanayev (Kazakhstan) have taken part in a joint fellowship program on Living Lab research on renewable energies by Oeko-Institut, SPCE Hub, and ISoG BW.

• 

  Cost comparisons in international hydrogen trade: The PtX Business Opportunity Analyser (PtX-BOA)

  Blog 10/02/2024

  Hydrogen is high on policy agendas around the world. In Germany, the federal government adopted a hydrogen import strategy in July and long-distance transmission network operators are setting up essential infrastructure for a hydrogen transport network. Current estimates indicate that Germany will need to import 50 to 70 per cent of its hydrogen requirements in 2030.

• 

  “Cooperation delivers positive change”

  Blog 09/19/2024

  Preventing double counting while ensuring good governance and environmental integrity – Mandy Rambharos knows what makes a good climate change mitigation project. At EDF, the Environmental Defense Fund, she is working hard to enhance the quality of carbon credits.

• 

  Sustainability dimensions of hydrogen in specialist discourse – an inventory

  Blog 09/03/2024

  Hydrogen is a key factor on the path to climate neutrality in Germany. This requires “green hydrogen” – produced in a climate-neutral way and, in the long term, also in many countries of the Global South. The fact that it should be sustainable is increasingly undisputed. However, there are different views on the dimensions that contribute to the sustainability of hydrogen and its derivatives.

• 

  Striking a Balance – The Role of Sufficiency in the Energy Transition

  Blog 09/19/2023

  Sufficiency has been an important topic at the Oeko-Institut for over a decade. In this context, the Oeko-Institut, together with Vito / EnergyVille and for the EEA, has written a study on the term „sufficiency“. The key findings are presented in this article.

• 

  International climate policy under the war on Ukraine

  Blog 10/12/2022

  In this blog, we discuss some of the impacts which are related to climate policies.

• 

  The nuclear phase-out – myths about stretchout operation and extension of lifetimes

  Blog 09/06/2022

  The nuclear phase-out is a done deal. However, in response to the gas crisis, it is once again being discussed. In this two-part blog article, we explain why Germany should abide by its commitment to phase out nuclear power. Part One: The energy industry.

• 

  RED III greenhouse gas balance methodology: an important element of the IPCC rules is missing

  Blog 08/01/2022

  The methodology for GHG balances in the Renewable Energy Directive RED II and in the proposal for amendment of RED III has a major gap in this regard. This blog piece explains the technicalities.

• 

  Lithium mining: The transformation of energy systems should not be achieved at the expense of communities in the Global South

  Blog 06/17/2022

  Electromobility series: Pia Marchegiani from the argentine foundation FARN explains how resource extraction can impact on indigenous communities.

• 

  Factsheets: The reform of the EU Emissions Trading System – a closer look

  Blog 05/17/2022

  In July 2021, the European Commission presented a series of legislative proposals as part of the Fit for 55 package to align energy and climate policy instruments with the new climate target of reducing emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels. Researchers at the Oeko-Institut have taken a closer look at the proposals for the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and have produced four factsheets with summaries and comments.

• 

  Energy policy in times of the Ukraine war: Nuclear power instead of natural gas?

  03/23/2022

  Anke Herold, Dr Roman Mendelevitch and Dr Christoph Pistner on the impacts of the war in Ukraine on German and European energy and climate policy – and whether nuclear power should replace Russian gas.

• 

  Is the EU heating sector “fit for 55”?

  Blog 07/14/2021

  Without putting the heating sector on track, the EU cannot reach net zero. The Green Deal provides the opportunity to set the course towards making heating fit for 55. Dr. Sibylle Braungardt explains why and how this can succeed.

• 

  How environmentally friendly are books?

  Blog 10/13/2020

  The search engine of a large online bookseller finds 695 books matching the search term “Greta Thunberg”. Reading about her climate activism is wonderful, but does she approve, we wonder? After all, the printing of all those pages is itself a source of CO2 emissions. We mark the Leipzig Book Fair by asking which factors influence the ecological footprint of books and e-book readers. The answer will help readers to decide how climate-friendly they can make their reading. Carl-Otto Gensch of the Oeko-Institut has done a few calculations.

• 

  Building sustainability into the national hydrogen strategy

  Blog 12/23/2019

  The planned national hydrogen strategy will include a roadmap for the market launch of electrolysers. However, the exemption from levies and charges currently being discussed is the wrong approach, writes Christoph Heinemann from the Oeko-Institut.

• 

  The Madrid climate talks failed to deliver. What now?

  Blog 12/17/2019

  Tangible results are hard to find. Countries failed to agree on a clear roadmap for enhancing the ambition of climate targets in 2020 and delayed several important decisions, in particular rules for international carbon market mechanisms. In this blog, the Oeko-Institut team provides a viewpoint from inside the negotiations.

• 

  Repair or replace?

  Blog 04/04/2019

  [Translate to English:] How can appliances be kept in service for as long as possible? When are they worth repairing – and when does it makes sense to buy a new and efficient appliance? The Oeko-Institut provides answers to these questions in a new background paper.

• 

  Erosion of European sustainability requirements for bioenergy

  08/21/2018

  [Translate to English:] Extending the European Union’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED) on solid and gaseous biomass is being used to roll back sustainability requirements. This is the wrong path, say Dr. Klaus Hennenberg and colleagues, in their recent article in Nature Ecology and Evolution.