Neue Handlungsspielräume erschließen: Die Notwendigkeit einer Außenpolitik für die Energiewende

Up until today, the question of Germany's energy transition ("Energiewende") has been thought of as a domestic political issue. As 2014's debate about amendments to EEG (Germany’s renewable energy law) has shown, this issue is being discussed above all in cost terms (increasing EEG surcharges, network charges, KWKG surcharges) and in infrastructural terms (integration of increasingly random proportions of renewable energy into the existing electricity grid). Here, however, the political discourse has for a long time been affected by quarrels over jurisdiction between ministries, especially between those for environmental and for economic affairs. Implementation will involve questions of financial, industrial, social, innovation and research policy – quite apart from the central importance of the energy transformation to the achievement of current climate policy's goal of reaching decarbonisation within a few decades. This article specifically addresses foreign policy challenges and opportunities that go along with the realisation of the "Energiewende".