This book analyzes Germany's path-breaking Energiewende, the country's transition from an energy system based on fossil and nuclear fuels to a sustainable energy system based on renewables. The authors explain Germany's commitment to a renewable energy transition on multiple levels of governance, from the local to the European, focusing on the sources of institutional change that made the transition possible. They then place the German case in international context through comparative case studies of energy transitions in the USA, China, and Japan. These chapters highlight the multifaceted challenges, and the enormous potential, in different paths to a sustainable energy future. Taken together, they tell the story of one of the most important political, economic, and social undertakings of our time. 

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This book analyzes Germany's path-breaking Energiewende, the country's transition from an energy system based on fossil and nuclear fuels to a sustainable energy system based on renewables. The authors explain Germany's commitment to a renewable energy transition on multiple levels of governance, from the local to the European, focusing on the sources of institutional change that made the transition possible. They then place the German case in international context through comparative case studies of energy transitions in the USA, China, and Japan. These chapters highlight the multifaceted challenges, and the enormous potential, in different paths to a sustainable energy future. Taken together, they tell the story of one of the most important political, economic, and social undertakings of our time.

INTRODUCTION: GERMENY'S ENERGY TRANSITION IN CONTEXT 1 The Grassroots Origins of the German Energy Transition 2 Why Subnational Actors Matter: The Role of Länder and Municipalities in the German Energy Transition 3 Critical Junctures and the German Energiewende 4 The German Energiewende in a European Context 5 Avoiding Transitions, Layering Change: The Evolution of American Energy Policy 6 Exercising Power: China’s Transition to Efficient, Renewable Energy 7 Renegotiating Japan’s Energy Compact 8 Conclusion: Lessons from the German Energiewende Bibliography Index