Michèle Knodt

• PhD
• Professor at Technical University of Darmstadt

The Role of Low Carbon Hydrogen: The use of low carbon hydrogen based on nonrenewable sources is communicated as a necessary transitional solution for the renewable hydrogen market ramp-up, but associated with risks and challenges for climate mitigation. Strategy: A long-term strategic approach clarifying the role of non-renewable low carbon hydro...

This open access book aims at discussing the manifold consequences that the War against Ukraine bears for the European Union and EU Studies. It takes stock of the fact that the Russian Attack on Ukraine and the ensuing War not only affects the Global Order, but also has challenged a number of established narratives and convictions for the European...

The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has brought EU energy security to the forefront of the agenda, leading to a potential shift away from climate objectives. Our contribution provides a preliminary assessment of the first eighteen months of EU reactions to the war and discusses its transformative effect on EU energy policy. Short-term res...

This book delves into the profound implications of Russia’s war against Ukraine for both the European Union (EU) and the field of EU Studies. It systematically addresses three overarching themes. 1) The Evolution of Theories and Approaches: This volume scrutinises how the ongoing war reshapes the landscape of EU Studies and how the war against Ukra...

In modern warfare, digitalization has blurred the line where civilian ends and military begins. Embedded in the participative warfare theoretical paradigm, this article looks into how the information and communication technologies (ICT) enable civic resilience under the conditions of the foreign armed aggression. Specifically, the authors explore h...

This contribution delves into the transformative effects of the Russian–Ukrainian war on the discourse surrounding German hydrogen. Employing structural topical modeling (STM) on a vast dataset of 2192 newspaper articles spanning from 2019 to 2022, it aims to uncover thematic shifts attributed to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The onset of the wa...

Wasserstoff ist durch seine vielfältigen Nutzungsmöglichkeiten ein Schlüsselelement der Sektorenkopplung auf dem Weg zur Klimaneutralität. Damit Wasserstoff aber für unter-schiedliche, momentan noch nicht abschließend definierte Anwendungsbereiche genutzt werden kann, sind entsprechende technologische Infrastrukturen notwendig. Diese um-fassen die...

Auch die 24. Ausgabe des Jahrbuchs ist ein breit angelegtes Kompendium, das den Leser:innen – primär in Politik, Verwaltung, Wissenschaft, Forschung, Lehre, Studium sowie in der interessierten Öffentlichkeit – in 36 Beiträgen einen aktuellen und zusammenfassenden Überblick über verschiedene Aspekte föderaler und regionaler Struktur und Politik biet...

With the need to decarbonize sectors that have hard-to-abate emissions, hydrogen as an energy carrier has increasingly gained attention. Within the European Union (EU) and its member states, hydrogen is assumed to be key for decarbonizing different sectors in the fight against climate change. Hence, state and private actors have engaged in a variet...

The latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) warns of an increase in heavy rainfall events due to global warming and climate change, which can result in significant economic costs for insurance companies and businesses. To address this challenge, insurance companies are focusing on developing new risk management strateg...

The war in Ukraine and the looming threat of climate change are driving the strategic need to diversify sources of energy, including renewables. Therefore, the European Union aims to develop energy relations with non‐EU member states, and Morocco has become a key priority. Both Brussels and Rabat are pursuing ambitious green policies and cooperatio...

With the National Hydrogen Strategy, the German government defined an initial framework for the integration of hydrogen into the energy system. At the subnational level, most Länder have also adopted individual hydrogen strategies. This article examines the coherence between the different strategies. We find a fragmentation of the different strateg...

Contributing to the ‘narrative turn’ in International Relations and offering an answer to the question ‘What makes a strategic narrative efficient?’, this article adds to the methodological theorization of the formation and projection phases of the narrative’s lifecycle. We suggest that the impact of the constructed image in the narrative can be re...

Hydrogen has set high hopes for decarbonization due to its flexibility and ability to decarbonize sectors of the economy where direct electrification appears unviable. Broad hydrogen policies have therefore started to emerge. Nevertheless, it is still a rather niche technology, not integrated or adopted at scale, and not regulated through particula...

A long-lasting, large-scale power blackout has a huge impact on the infrastructure of public life, as well as on critical infrastructure including electricity and water supply. At the same time, it can be observed that the share of renewable energies, and thus the possibility of self-sufficiency, has increased enormously in recent years. This contr...

Generally speaking, disaster risk management (DRM) aims to mitigate the impact of disasters and refers to the four stages prior and post to a crisis event namely response, recovery, prevention and preparedness. Measures taken in this context are manifold and apply to the natural and the built environment, governance, economics and society. With no...

Auch die 24. Ausgabe des Jahrbuchs ist ein breit angelegtes Kompendium, das den Leser:innen – primär in Politik, Verwaltung, Wissenschaft, Forschung, Lehre, Studium sowie in der interessierten Öffentlichkeit – in 36 Beiträgen einen aktuellen und zusammenfassenden Überblick über verschiedene Aspekte föderaler und regionaler Struktur und Politik biet...

Die Herausforderungen für das Regieren in Europa und insb. in der EU und in ihren Mitgliedstaaten werden nicht geringer; im Gegenteil, Entwicklungen wie die Finanz- bzw. Schuldenkrise, der Austritt Großbritanniens aus der EU, die COVID-19-Pandemie, starke anti-europäische Tendenzen in einzelnen Mitgliedstaaten oder der Angriff Russlands auf die Ukr...

Will private households owning a photovoltaic system share their electricity during a long-lasting power outage? Prior research has shown that our energy systems need to become more resilient by using dispersed energy sources—a role that could well be performed by these private photovoltaic systems, but only if their owners decide to share the prod...

Die Umsetzung der Energiewende verteilt sich auf viele Akteure. Neben der Bundesregierung, den Ländern und Ministerien spielen auch Bundesämter, Behörden und Expertengremien eine immer wichtigere Rolle. Nicht zuletzt findet die deutsche Energiepolitik in einem EU-Rahmen statt.

Der russische Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine ist ein Konflikt zwischen Demokratien und Autokratien, zwischen dem liberalen Westen und einem autoritären Russland. Er stellt die Europäische Union (EU) in mehrfacher Hinsicht vor immense außen- und innenpolitische Herausforderungen. Außenpolitisch ist die EU durch den Krieg mit neuen Realitäten konfro...

The final chapter draws on the findings from this handbook, particularly the country studies. We present energy policy in Europe by examining statistical data on the development of the European energy system and examples from individual countries. We first assess the long-term development of Europe’s energy mix and then continue with a closer look...

Purpose This study aims to update a 2017 review of trends, barriers and outlooks for the future of the energy advice services market in Germany, as perceived by market actors. With growing national and European ambitions for comprehensive energy renovations, lessons for a functioning energy sector management can be drawn that are valid at European...

his study aims to update a 2017 review of trends, barriers and outlooks for the future of the energy advice services market in Germany, as perceived by market actors. With growing national and European ambitions for comprehensive energy renovations, lessons for a functioning energy sector management can be drawn that are valid at European and inter...

In the history of European integration, common energy policy seems, in addition to trade policy, to be one of the earliest “European” issues, as exemplified by the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC) and the European Atomic Energy Community (EURATOM). Instead, energy policy entered the treaties as a policy area of its own only with the Lisbon...

Die Notwendigkeit einer stärkeren Kooperation zwischen Bund und Ländern in der Energiewende wird im Koalitionsvertrag der neuen Bundesregierung explizit hervorgehoben. Im Bereich des Wasserstoffes buchstabiert der Koalitionsvertrag hier jedoch keine konkreten Schritte aus, obwohl dem Energieträger mit der im Juni 2020 verabschiedeten Nationalen Was...

Electrical energy is the bloodline of the modern world. Especially the densely populated urban areas of cities have a strong dependency on the steady flow of energy in order for infrastructures to supply residents, businesses and industries. But what if this necessity is disrupted in a blackout? Many actions that can be taken in preparation for or...

Die Beiträge des vorliegenden Bandes gedenken Rainer Schmalz-Bruns‘, indem sie drei wesentliche Dimensionen seines Denkens weiterverfolgen: In Teil I stehen Anschlüsse an Rainer Schmalz-Bruns‘ Werk im Zentrum. Teil II dient einer umfassenden und kontroversen Diskussion der Politischen Theorie und Ideengeschichte und ihrer Beziehung zur Politikwisse...

Dieses Ariadne-Kurzdossier identifiziert zentrale Probleme der staatlichen Governance der deutschen Klimapolitik, insbesondere auf Bundesebene und mit Blick auf sektorübergreifende Koordination. Anschließend diskutieren wir lösungsorientiert Optionen, um (a) die Zuordnung von Kompetenzen und Koordinationsaufgaben in der Regierungsarbeit zu verbesse...

The resilience of critical infrastructures in cities is key to being prepared for future crises. The challenge of enhancing critical infrastructure resilience addresses a multitude of actors. However, we lack conceptual, as well as empirical, understanding of how these different actors are coordinated. Therefore, this contribution asks how the diff...

In der deutschen energie- und klimapolitischen Debatte herrscht der noch recht junge Konsens, dass Strom aus erneuerbaren Quellen (EE-Strom) zum Rückgrat der Sektorenkopplung und damit der zukünftigen Energieversorgung werden muss. Grundsätzlich besteht zudem Einigkeit darüber, dass es dabei beider Elektrifizierungsformen bedarf: Die direkte Elektr...

When facing major crisis events, such as earthquakes, flooding, or attacks on infrastructure, people start to organize within their neighborhoods. While this has historically been an analog process, people now use collaboration or messenger apps to support their self-organization. Unfortunately, these apps are not designed to be resilient and fail...

Mit dem Ziel der Klimaneutralität ist der Einsatz von Wasserstoff zu einem zentralen Thema der Energiewende geworden. Die Bundesregierung hat dem mit einer Nationalen Wasserstoffstrategie Rechnung getragen, deren Umsetzung eine zentrale energiepolitische Aufgabe der neuen Koalitionsregierung sein wird. Wasserstoff ist folgerichtig auch in den Wahlp...

The European Green Deal aims at decarbonizing the European Union’s economies by 2050. This implies stepping up policy actions to support both renewable energy and energy efficiency, two domains in which the body of EU law has recently changed. These changes raise the question of stakeholder support for more ambitious policies. To assess such suppor...

The European Commission's “Fit for 55” package of July 2021 provides for a significant increase in renewable energy and energy efficiency targets in the European Union (EU). However, the EU’s competences in the energy sector are severely limited and subject to sovereignty. Already in 2018, the EU adopted a Governance Regulation that provides for a...

Wie sieht der Verkehr von heute und die Mobilität von morgen aus? Elektroautos sind auf dem Vormarsch und werden für viele Verkehrsprobleme als zentrale Lösung angepriesen. Allerdings greift dieser Wechsel der Antriebstechnologie zu kurz, denn er bringt neue soziale und ökologische Probleme für die Rohstoffpolitik und die globale Wertschöpfungskett...

Wie sieht der Verkehr von heute und die Mobilität von morgen aus? Elektroautos sind auf dem Vormarsch und werden für viele Verkehrsprobleme als zentrale Lösung angepriesen. Allerdings greift dieser Wechsel der Antriebstechnologie zu kurz, denn er bringt neue soziale und ökologische Probleme für die Rohstoffpolitik und die globale Wertschöpfungskett...

While various forms of soft governance have been long in the making, there is a growing introduction of new policy elements in order to ‘harden’ soft governance arrangements. These new forms of ‘harder’ soft governance (HSG) vary in the degree of hardness in different settings. This special issue aims to derive lessons for climate and energy policy...

In this text, knowledge about climate change is first summarized using the 2014 “key messages” of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Section 6.3 examines the question of “manifestation, detection and attribution”—how climate change presents itself in data, to what extent the diagnosed changes remain within the framework of nat...

Technically produced energy is a “basic resource”: a supply of cheap and safe energy is indispensable for mankind to maintain physical subsistence. Energy is needed to process and provide drinking water and sufficient food. Large parts of the world would not be habitable without a constant flow of energy to heat or cool the living environment. Tech...

It is recognized that energy contributes significantly to the well-being of our society.

The current global situation in the energy sector is characterized by the dominance of fossil fuels, particularly in the area of electricity generation. Per capita, final energy consumption varies greatly depending on a country’s level of development. Almost 1.3 billion people remain without access to modern forms of energy supply, especially elect...

The development and preservation of human beings is closely linked to the production of useful energy. Basic considerations must be taken into account here: To satisfy their needs for food, clean air and drinking water, humans and all living beings depend on intact ecosystems today and in the future (sustainably). Energy systems must therefore be r...

The politically determined goal of decarbonization, primarily for reasons of avoiding anthropogenic greenhouse gas and other pollutant releases, is the primary normative basis for the assessment of future energy technology. Other key points of reference for the following recommendations are climate protection, resource conservation, protection of t...

The initiation of an internationally binding climate agreement in Paris 2015 serves as a wake-up call for a rapid transformation of the world’s energy system (UNFCCC 2015). Reframing the goal of a temperature increase below 2 °C as a dynamic investment signal for renewable energy (RE) paves the way towards a joint undertaking that bridges the North...

In this chapter we start out in Sect. 7.2 from stating what we consider to be the major global energy problems. Energy problems in poor countries are different from those in rich countries. In particular the problem in poor countries is access to electricity for poor people mainly in the countryside. In contrast, in rich countries the major problem...

In 2016, the Commission proposed an ambitious governance strategy in order to further the transformation of the European energy system towards the Unions’ 2030 climate and energy targets. Therein the EU adopted the Regulation on the Governance of the Energy Union in 2018 to harden its otherwise soft governance. This contribution firstly aims at cha...

Soft law and governance captured the attention of scholars in the 2000s, and new policy challenges and the novel introduction of ‘harder’ elements now drive a (re)turn to these discussions. This article explores the extent to which dynamics leading towards ‘harder soft governance’ (HSG) appear in the EU’s renewable energy governance by comparing th...

Im Energie- und im Verkehrssektor spielen sich gegenwärtig weitreichende sozio-technische Innovationen ab, insbesondere die Elektrifizierung des automobilbasierten Individualverkehrs führt zu einer Sektorkopplung, das heißt stärkeren Integration der Sektoren Energie und Verkehr. Sektorkopplung wirft Fragen der technischen Umsetzung, der Infrastrukt...

This book offers an authoritative analysis of the state-of-the art in energy and climate research and policy. It starts by describing the current status of technologies that are expected to have an influence on the energy systems of the future. For an adequate evaluation, it presents the latest findings on the effects of energy supply and consumpti...

The 100th volume of this series presents a collection of overall observations on selected core elements of the cohesion of the European Union, written by particularly committed members of the working group on European integration from the fields of political science, law, economics, the social sciences and history.

Der Beitrag fragt nach den Anpassungen der politischen Steuerung der europäischen Energietransformation. Die Energiepolitik der EU ist auf europäischer Ebene mit eingeschränkten Kompetenzen ausgestattet, für einen Eingriff in die nationalen Energiepolitiken besitzt sie keine Kompetenz. Zudem ist das Politikfeld durch einen Konflikt zwischen den Mit...

On 24 December 2018, the Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 on the governance system of the Energy Union and Climate Action entered into force. The Governance Regulation provides the European Union with a new regulatory regime for renewable energies and energy efficiency. It has the function of an ‘Umbrella Regulation’ which aims at the overarching control...

This article addresses the future of coal in the European coal heartland, i.e. in the area of Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic, which together account for nearly 57% of coal consumption and 87% of coal-mining jobs in the EU. It approaches the problem within the interpretative tradition of social research and explores the coverage of the futur...

Um Proteste gegen den Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien zu verstehen, ist es notwendig, Technologien auch von einer sozialwissenschaftlichen Seite zu betrachten. Dafür muss man sich mit der Frage auseinandersetzen, wie das transformierte Energiesystem ausgestaltet werden soll. Um gesellschaftliche Lösungen zu finden, ist daher eine Integration der gesel...

Die deutsche Energiewende scheint von einem Paradox gekennzeichnet zu sein: Obwohl deliberative Verfahren der Bürgerbeteiligung auf den unterschiedlichen Governance-Ebenen durchgeführt werden, kommt es bei der Umsetzung konkreter Infrastrukturprojekte häufig zu Protesten, die sich auch gegen die Verfahren der kollektiv-verbindlichen Entscheidungsfi...

Die sozialwissenschaftliche Energieforschung erörtert unter dem Begriff der Akzeptanz die „soziale Seite“ von Energiesystemen. Dieser Beitrag gibt einen Überblick über den Stand der Forschung und erörtert, welchen Beitrag der vorliegende Band dazu leistet. Dessen Ziel ist, die soziale Seite von Energiesystemen aus unterschiedlichen disziplinären Pe...

The role of newsmakers as intermediaries in the shaping of external perceptions and reception of narratives advanced by different actors remains sparse in EU studies. This contribution fills this gap and addresses the personal images of the EU of newsmakers. We contribute to the understanding of those personal perceptions and their link to professi...

This chapter deals with a new trend in European governance which combines soft governance mechanisms with harder elements in order to enhance the EU’s capacity to steer in areas with limited European competences. It first develops theoretically a new type of governance, the ‘horizontal joint decision-making+’ in comparison with other types of multi...

A small but growing literature has started to analyse the European Union (EU) ‘as an effective peacemaker’. We make a contribution to this field by investigating EU mediation effectiveness in the Russia–Ukraine conflict. The focus is on perceptions of effectiveness. Based on information from semi-structured interviews, we compare EU self-images wit...

Our contribution reviews the impact of the European energy governance regulation on the German energy transition (Energiewende). The German energy transition has largely been conceived as a national project of system transformation. Based on a close policy fit, the national strategy is aligned to European targets and policies, but still has only ta...

Das Kopernikus-Projekt ENavi hat im Forschungsschwerpunkt Transformation des Stromsystems untersucht, wie der Stromsektor zur Erreichung der Klimaziele beitragen kann. Aktuell gilt es, den Kohleausstieg ökonomisch effizient und ökologisch zu organisieren. Seine Ergebnisse hat das Team der von der Bundesregierung eingesetzten Kommission für Wachstum...

This Handbook provides the most comprehensive account of energy governance in Europe, examining both energy governance at the European level and the development of energy policy in all European countries. Authored by leading scholars from around the globe, the first part of the book offers a broad overview of the history and theories of energy rese...

Der inter- und transdisziplinäre Band steuert einen innovativen Zugang zu den Begriffen Akzeptanz und politische Partizipation bei, der den Fokus auf die gesellschaftlichen Bestimmungsfaktoren und Systemgrenzen der Energietransformation legt. Die Beiträge erörtern Definitionen, Konzepte, Akteure und Ausprägungen und stellen die soziale Seite von En...

The recent EU-Ukraine Summit in July 2018 demonstrated that the leaders of the EU and Ukraine have committed to further deepen the political association and economic integration of Ukraine with the EU. Yet, this “strong partnership,” based on a joint association agreement, has been overshadowed by Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea and its insti...

Schriftenreihe zur wissenschaftsbasierten Politikberatung, hg. v. acatech – Deutsche Akademie der Technikwissenschaften e. V. Online verfügbar unter https://energiesysteme-zukunft.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Publikationen/pdf/ESYS_Stellungnahme_Energieunion.pdf

With the interinstitutional agreement of June 2018 on key directives of the EU Winter Package, the outline of the 2030 framework of EU climate and energy policies is clearly set. This contribution presents an overview on the outcomes of the negotiations in the fields of governance, energy efficiency and renewable energies. We review the supporting...

Nach dem Beschluss des Europäischen Rates aus dem Jahr 2014, im Rahmen der Energiepolitik für die Mitgliedstaaten eine größtmögliche Souveränität und Flexibilität zu wahren, und nach dem von der Europäischen Union im Jahr 2015 unterzeichneten Pariser Übereinkommen hat die Europäische Union (EU) ein neuartiges Governance-System für eine Europäische...

The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) aims to develop ‘privileged relations’ with the eastern and southern ‘neighbours’ of the enlarged EU. What exactly these privileged relations entail is still not clear, and the tailored Action Plans do little to clarify this point. Twelve years after launching the ENP, it is time to take stock of the relation...

The increase of right-wing populist parties, post-truth politics, and local resistance challenges the policies and politics of sustainable energy transformation. The contributions of this Special Issue address at least one of these political phenomena in the context of sustainable energy transformation. They show that populism, especially right-win...

This article focuses on how the European Union's (EU) mediation activities during the Russia-Ukraine and Israel-Palestine conflicts are perceived by local elites. Our analysis is based on recent interviews with decision makers in Ukraine, Israel and Palestine. Consistent with this special issue, we investigate perceptions of EU roles, strategies an...

The new governance mechanisms of the European energy policy proposed by the European Commission in its "Winter Package" will redefine European energy and climate governance. This contribution reviews the proposal, its supporting documents and overall stakeholder positions according to the criteria of the efficiency, effectiveness and acceptance of...

The German Energy Transition is one of the most important and largest infrastructure projects and one of the most significant challenges to German policy-making. Empirical studies provide evidence for the notion that participation in the decision making process shapes local acceptance of renewable energy technology expansion. In the context of the...