Hot Topics, Cold Realities: The Green Energy Transition – Dead in its Tracks?

The shift away from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources has been unfolding over decades. While the idea of sustainable energy emerged in the 20th century, it accelerated in the new millennium, driven by rising environmental concerns, growing awareness of climate change, and the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Under President Biden and his signature climate legislation and the European Green Deal aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050, the global momentum for a green transition gained significant momentum.

However, the war in Ukraine and new governments in the United States and Germany have ushered in a political shift from clean energy to more secure and affordable energy sources. President Trump’s push to “Drill Baby, Drill” and the priorities of Germany’s incoming Chancellor Merz on defense capabilities over climate concerns in a new geopolitical era, raise questions about the future of the green energy transition.

Join 1014 and the ACG on March 27 to discuss this development with Cameron Abadi, Deputy Editor at Foreign Policy and Co-Host of FP’s Ones and Tooze podcast, and Dr. Kira Vinke, Head of Center for Climate and Foreign Policy at the German Council on Foreign Relations.

Cameron Abadi is a deputy editor at Foreign Policy and co-host of FP’s Ones and Tooze podcast. He previously worked at the New Republic and Foreign Affairs and as a correspondent in Germany and Iran. His writing has appeared in Bloomberg Businessweek, the New Yorker, the New Republic, and Der Spiegel.

Dr. Kira Vinke is head of the Center for Climate and Foreign Policy at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). She is also a member of the Advisory Board to the Federal Government for Civilian Crisis Prevention and Peacebuilding, which she co-chaired from 2018 to January 2025. From 2014-2022, she worked at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). Before joining DGAP, she headed the East Africa Peru India Climate Capacities (EPICC) project there.

She completed her doctoral dissertation (summa cum laude) at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin on the subject of climate change and migration; her studies were funded by the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes.