"Helios to the Rescue" – This is what Sascha Müller-Kraenner and Martin Kremer recommend to the economically weak Greeks in their "Internationale Politik" online article of the same title. What makes Greece so especially capable of producing renewable energy and what is preventing progress in this direction? Müller-Kraenner, Advisor of Ecologic Institute, and Kremer, Senior Fellow at the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, analyze these issues and caution against passing up timely opportunities for investment and growth.

To date, developing countries have only participated in the carbon market as suppliers of offsets: through projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, they generate credits that are then sold to industrialised countries that have not acieved their mitigation targets. Since climate change is becoming an ever more pressing problem, however, mitigation in developing countries will need to go beyond offsets. At the same time, developing countries need to meet their responsibilities for the social welfare of their growing populations; scaled-up mitigation efforts will hence require time, capacity building, and large-scale investment. The so-called "Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions" (NAMAs) have been discussed as a way to enhance mitigation efforts in developing countries while taking into account their national circumstances and development priorities.

The German nuclear phase-out and shift to renewable energy is of great interest in other countries, including China. An article by Jane Feng 冯洁in the "Southern Weekly" 南方周末, Guangdong, cites R. Andreas Kraemer of Ecologic Institute on grid expansion, reserve capacities, and future electricity prices.

"Nobody wanted anything from Europe, nobody needed to negotiate with Europe." This is how Sascha Müller-Kraenner summarizes the role of the European Union at the Copenhagen climate summit. In his article "After Copenhagen – A new start for Europe’s climate diplomacy," published in "Jahrbuch Ökologie 2011," Ecologic Institute's advisor and co-founder analyzes the new distribution of power at international climate negotiations.