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Chair of Sustainability Transition Policy
At the Chair of Sustainability Transition Policy, we explore the policies needed for a transition to a climate-neutral future. Our work is rooted in transition studies, but is strongly interdisciplinary, building on theories and methods from different disciplines, including political science, economics and other social sciences.
Our focus lies on climate and energy policies, often with an empirical focus, both in research and teaching.
Schöller Fellows 2025 - From targets to actions: The climate policy nexus
On May 22nd, 2025, Aksornchan Chaianong was awarded the Schöller Fellowship 2025 at Hirsvogel Hall in Nuremberg. She is working on the research project “From targets to actions: The climate policy nexus” by exploring the interactions between renewable energy, energy efficiency, and climate targets, policies, and performance. She will examine causal links and sequencing within and across fields across diverse countries, including understudied ones. Findings will improve understanding of target-setting, inform policy sequencing, and provide insights for achieving climate goals.
More information: https://www.schoeller-forschungszentrum.de/en/
In the Summer Semester 2025, we are offering six courses. All are relevant to “Sustainability Transitions” which is our core interest. Master & Bachelor course
• Thesis Seminar Sustainable Transition Policy, to be announced, Zoom
Bachelor courses
• International Politics: Global Sustainability, Mondays 15-1630; exercises Tuesdays in the afternoon) in FG 0.015 (exercises in LG and FG)
• International Politics II, Wednesdays 8-9.30; exercises Wednesdays in the afternoon) in LG H6 (exercises in LG and FG)
• Technology assessment, Tuesdays 15:00-18:15 in LG 5.152 (except Jun 24 is at FG 2.024)
• Global Energy Politics, Thursdays, 13:15-14:45 in KH 0.024 (in Erlangen!)
• Trade and Sustainability, Mondays 13:30-17:00 in LG 5.152 (except from July in FG 0.016)
For the full details and link to the StudOn pages: https://www.transitionpolicy.rw.fau.de/teaching/courses/
Moniek de Jong answered questions from Belgian Knack.be about the drivers behind the current high European gas prices, what they mean for consumers, and what we can do to minimize our dependency on foreign gas supplies. You can find the interview here (in Dutch): https://www.knack.be/nieuws/belgie/europese-gasprijs-piekt-consumenten-met-een-vast-energiecontract-hoeven-zich-niet-al-te-veel-zorgen-te-maken/.
In the RadioEins science programme "Die Profis", Johan Lilliestam was interviewed about myths and realities around challenges in the ongoing expansion of wind power. You can listen to the interview here (in German, until January 2026): https://shorturl.at/tlkpd.
The main task of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is to provide comprehensive assessments of climate science, including climate policy options, holistically and objectively. We analyse the sources of all climate policy-related statements in the IPCC reports and Summaries for Policymakers since 1990 to investigate the influence of Integrated Assessment Models, a particular type of climate-economic model. We show that although both reports and SPM are broad and diverse, IAMs are strongly overrepresented in the evidence presented: IAMs are cited at least 10 times more often in the reports than their share of the scientific climate policy literature, and 20 times for often in the politically influential Summaries for Policymakers.
