Headline:
IASS summons experts to chart Energiewende course: view video of public hearing here
One year after Germany resolved a complete reformation of the energy system, a complexity of questions has arisen in charting the path to change. At a public hearing in Berlin on June 28th, experts and former members of Germany’s Ethics Commission entered into a dialogue process to examine the scientific, technological and social requirements and ramifications of the Energiewende. Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the IASS and former co-chairman of the Ethics Commission “Secure Energy Supply.“ Reinhard Hüttl, President of the National Academy of Technology and Science and former member of the Ethics Commission, and Robert Schlögl, Director of the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society, opened questions to participating experts from the scientific, economic, social and industrial sectors.
While the Energiewende has advanced far into societal discussion, there is still no tangible course of action, and many concrete questions remain open. How far has the Energiewende come? What opportunities are offered to us by the sustainable reformation of our energy system? What technological requirements must we fulfill, and what scientific breakthroughs can we achieve? What will it cost? The hearing’s examination of such questions in turn opened further questions that are hoped to ultimately shape the course to be taken.
The public hearing, intended by its joint-organizers IASS, acatech and MPI, launched a dialogue process to study the scientific, technological and social consequences of the Energiewende. Recognizing the tantamount significance of science, together with the communal effort between all societal actors and science, the hearing appealed for interdisciplinarity and multidisciplinarity between the natural and social sciences together with the humanities.
Additionally. the support of German citizens is crucial in achieving the goals of the Energiewende. Despite negative representation in the media, society still perceives the transformation process as positive. The consequent question arose of how to organize the trust of diverse stakeholders in the process.
To enlighten a course of action into the next stages of energy-system reformation, hearing participants stated that a communally-formulated roadmap is required, and for this, we need a consensus of basic concepts.
The hearing concluded with the general consensus that this form of hearing is constructive, and that similar hearings should be organized at regular intervals to accompany us through transformative stages.
Link to video
Participating experts:
Anke Kaysser-Pyzalla, Wissenschaftliche Geschäftsführerin, Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (HZB)
Sibylle Günter, Wissenschaftliche Leiterin, Max-Planck-Institut für Plasmaphysik
Ulf Gehrckens, Senior Vice President Corporate Energy Affairs, Aurubis AG
Jan Wollesen, Leiter Energieeffizienz, REWE Group
Tobias Münchmeyer, Stellvertretender Leiter der Politischen Vertretung, Greenpeace e.V., Berlin
Lucia A. Reisch, Department of Intercultural Communication and Management Copenhagen Business School, Kopenhagen (DK) und Mitglied des Rates für Nachhaltige Entwicklung
Ortwin Renn, Abteilung für Technik- und Umweltsoziologie des Instituts für Sozialwissenschaften an der Universität Stuttgart
Peter M. Herzig, Direktor, GEOMAR | Helmholtz-Zentrum für Ozeanforschung Kiel
Britta Buchholz, Leiterin Business Development Smart Grids Central Europe, ABB AG
Milan Nitzschke, Vice-President und Konzernsprecher, SolarWorld AG
Alf Henryk Wulf, Vorstandvorsitzender ALSTOM Deutschland AG, Mannheim
Leonhard Birnbaum, Vorstand, Kommerzielle Steuerung (CCO), RWE AG
Peter Biesenbach, Direktor, Leiter Zentralabteilung Außenangelegenheiten, Regierungs- und Politikbeziehungen, Robert Bosch GmbH
Ines Zenke, Fachanwältin für Verwaltungsrecht und Partnerin der auf Energiefragen spezialisierten Sozietät Becker Büttner Held
Ewald Woste, Vorstandsvorsitzender, Thüga AG und Präsident des Bundesverbandes der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft (BDEW)
Hans-Joachim Ziesing, Geschäftsführer, Arbeitsgemeinschaft Energiebilanzen e.V. und Mitglied der Kommission zum Monitoring-Prozess „Energie der Zukunft“
Christoph Bals, Politischer Geschäftsführer, Germanwatch e.V.