Alexandra Purkus – författare

This book addresses the interactions between Germany’s energy transition and the EU’s energy policy framework. It seeks to analyze the manifold connections between the prospects of the proclaimed “Energy Union” and the future of Germany’s energy transition, and identifies relevant lessons for the transformation at the EU level that can be learned from the case of Germany, as a first-mover of transforming energy systems towards renewables. The various repercussions (political, economic and systemic) from the national transition are explored within the EU context as it responds to the German transition, taking into account both existing frictions and potential synergies between predominantly national sustainability policies and the EU’s push towards harmonized policies within a common market. The book’s overall aim is to identify the most critical issues, in order to avoid pitfalls and capitalize on opportunities.

This book provides an in-depth economic analysis of the challenges associated with bioenergy use and production. Drawing on New Institutional Economics and the theory of economic policy, it develops theory-based recommendations for a bioenergy policy that strives for efficiency and sustainability. Further, it shows how to deal with diverse uncertainties and constraints, such as institutional path dependencies, transaction costs, multiple and conflicting policy aims, and interacting market failures, while also applying the resulting theoretical insights to a case study analysis of Germany’s bioenergy policy. As such, the book aims to bridge the gap between practical bioenergy policymaking on the one hand, and neoclassical theory-based concepts that strictly focus on a minimization of greenhouse gas mitigation costs on the other.