Government announces members of new expert council on climate issues
Clean Energy Wire
Germany’s federal government has appointed the members of the “Expert Council on Climate Issues”, an independent body that is to advice the government on the implementation of the Climate Action Law that came into effect in December 2019.
The five members are Marc Oliver Bettzüge, professor of economics at the University of Cologne and managing director of Institute of Energy Economics (EWI), Thomas Heimer, professor for Innovation Management and Project Management at the RheinMain University of Applied Sciences, Hans-Martin Henning, Director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems (ISE), Brigitte Knopf, Secretary General at the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC) and Barbara Schlomann, Head of the Energy Policy Division in the Energy Policy and Energy Markets Competence Centre at the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI).
Roles of the expert council include examining greenhouse gas emission data, the effects of CO2 reduction measures, and climate action programmes. The experts will also be heard on changes to annual emissions budgets. The German Bundestag (federal parliament) can commission the expert council to prepare special reports on critical issues.
Germany’s framework Climate Action Law is part of an extensive climate package (also including the coal exit, CO2 pricing, renewables expansion and e-mobility support) introduced at the end of 2019 to ensure that the country can reach its 2030 climate targets. With the law, the greenhouse gas reduction target of minus 55 percent compared to 1990 by 2030 has been made legally binding and it also shows the actual amounts of CO2 that each sector may emit.
