Germany

The paradigm shift in Germany has been driven mainly by a comprehensive energy transition that is also known as Energiewende. The term was born in the 1970s in an attempt by opponents of nuclear power to show that an alternative energy supply was possible. A key milestone in this paradigm shift has been the Integrated Energy and Climate Program (IECP) of 2007, the so-called “Meseberger Programm”, which gave an overall framework for climate friendly energy supply in Germany and provides explicit sectoral emission reduction targets until 2020. In 2010, the German government initiated a new Energy Concept, a comprehensive strategy covering both medium (2030) and long (2050) term strategies, which has driven the energy policy since then. It proposes a substantial transition of energy use to reduce carbon emissions in all these sectors simultaneously, which mixes previous strategies and climate policy packages in one national strategy. The nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima was an additional policy push to move forward this paradigm shift. A societal and political consensus in Germany emerged against nuclear and the energy transition was accelerated. The main issues regarding energy in Germany are:

• Germany's GHG emissions in 2013 were estimated at 954.7 million tons of CO2 equivalents, the largest of EU countries.
• Highly oil dependence
• Energiewende is often narrowly associated with a power sector transformation

The main national discourse is the Energy Concept in September 2010, in which the Federal Government set out guidelines for ensuring an environmentally sound, reliable, and affordable energy supply, thus mapping the transition into the age of renewables.