Disentangle the EU energy transition: Clean Energy Wire goes Europe

For more than five years, we at the Clean Energy Wire have worked tirelessly to support journalists from across the globe in reporting on the energy transition in Germany. The “Energiewende” has served as a case study for the necessary steps to move to a climate-neutral economy.

Colleagues and partner institutions have also long been pushing us to look beyond Germany. The support requests we get frequently seek ideas or contacts on energy policy and business topics on a European or even global level. Our recent user survey showed again: For many fellow journalists (and other readers), extending our offering to a European level could be a significant help.

The case for looking beyond borders has never been stronger: Germany’s climate and energy policy is firmly rooted within that of the EU. With the presentation of the new European Commission’s Green Deal policy programme in 2019, climate action has become a number one priority for the union, with the goal of becoming the first climate-neutral continent by 2050.

The reporting about European policy may look complete for an inside circle of experts. But media and broader public (and many domestic politicians, officials and business representatives) in member states and the rest of the world often have little understanding of how Brussels operates and how the interplay with domestic energy and climate policies work. EU (and other transnational) proceedings remain opaque, difficult to research and are often hampered by language barriers. Fewer and fewer media can afford correspondents in Brussels, let alone in every EU country.

Clean Energy Wire now wants to provide an offer to journalists that makes research of transnational, cross-border or EU-level stories easier, and increases access to institutions, players and experts needed for strong energy transition stories.

As the COVID-19 pandemic has made in-person meetings and journalists study tours all but impossible, we start with a series of web events over the coming months – deep dives on key issues, providing up-to-date insights on top European climate and energy events such as leaders’ meetings, as well as providing the basics on how European decision-making works. Finally, we will host informal talks with colleagues to exchange experiences, tips and tricks or just a bit of gossip out of the capitals.

For the first round of web events, we will team up with the European Climate Foundation and Ecologic Institute, our trusted partners with whom we already ran a successful journalist research tour on the inner workings of the European Union in December 2019.

With the help of our network of energy transition journalists, we aim to make reporting on European energy and climate policy easier. To this end, we flag key reporting events and developments with a timeline, including concise background information necessary to jump-start coverage. We are working to include energy and climate experts, relevant institutions and researchers from across the continent in our database to ease the hunt for the right person to speak to.

Hopefully, this is only the start to a journey to become the reporter’s guides to the European energy transition.