• Energy Research

This IASS study takes an in-depth look at Covid-19's impacts on the global energy sector, and then zooms in to the country level to see individual country effects and responses. The case studies are compiled by energy researchers in Argentina, China, Germany, India, Israel, and the United States.

The expansion of renewable energies not only lowers carbon emissions, it also redistributes resources among actors. This article argues that green industrialization – specifically, manufacturing and the development of renewable energy technologies — creates economic gains that impact political processes and increase renewable energy policy ambition. Building on a combined framework of policy feedback and global value chain literature, we see domestic value creation as a key determinant of coalition strength and learning effects for policymakers. We analyze the relationship of value chain involvement to policy ambition using panel data on countries’ manufacturing and innovation activities in the wind and solar industry from 2010 to 2018. The results show a positive technology policy feedback mechanism, implying that higher local value creation leads to more ambitious renewable energy policies. These first large-N findings support previous case studies on the importance of green growth for raising policy ambition; it implies that transformative policies fostering value creation could create a virtuous cycle for policy ambition. We further propose an interdisciplinary research agenda to shed light on the role of value chain dynamics for policy feedback mechanisms across different political economies.

This is the deliverable for NFDI4Energy, Task Area 2, Deliverable D2.2.2.1: Data on policy support for renewable electricity and electric vehicles. The data associated with this deliverable is published with CC BY-SA 4.0. Please cite it as: Weko, S., Malhotra, P., Bold, F., Chaianong, A., Günkördü, D., Kurt, A., Milioritsas, I., and Lilliestam, J. (2025): Data on policy support for electric vehicles (Version 1, February 2025). Sustainability Transition Policy Group, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15477180 Weko, S., Malhotra, P., Bold, F., Chaianong, A., Günkördü, D., Kurt, A., Milioritsas, I., and Lilliestam, J. (2025): Data on policy support for renewable electricity (Version 1, February 2025). Sustainability Transition Policy Group, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15476330. The authors of this article have used various preparatory works from the NFDI4Energy to create this portrait, and references have been made where possible. Thanks to all those who are not named. The authors would like to thank the German Federal Government, the German State Governments, and the Joint Science Conference (GWK) for their funding and support as part of the NFDI4Energy consortium. The work was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) – 501865131 within the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI, www.nfdi.de).

This dataset was developed by Aksornchan Chaianong and Puru Malhotra (Sustainability Transition Policy Group, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) from 2024 to February 2025. Aksornchan Chaianong led the work, which was supported by Ioannis Milioritsas, Silvia Weko, and Johan Lilliestam (Sustainability Transition Policy Group, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg). The data is published with CC BY-SA 4.0. Please cite it as: Chaianong, A., Malhotra P., Milioritsas, I., Weko, S., and Lilliestam, J. (2025): Data on climate targets (Version 1, February 2025). Sustainability Transition Policy Group, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15476049. The authors would like to thank the German Federal Government, the German State Governments, and the Joint Science Conference (GWK) for their funding and support as part of the NFDI4Energy consortium. The work was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) – 501865131 within the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI, www.nfdi.de). Aksornchan Chaianong would also like to thank the Office for Equal Opportunities for Women in Science and the Arts at the School of Business, Economics, and Law at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg for the Individual Career Development funding. 

This is the deliverable for NFDI4Energy, Task Area 2, Measure 2.2, Deliverable D2.2.1.1: Data on landscape and environmental regulations for energy production and infrastructure The data associated with this deliverable is published with CC BY-SA 4.0. Please cite it as: Chaianong, A., Milioritsas, I., Malhotra P., Günkördü D., Weiß, J., Weko, S., and Lilliestam, J. (2025): Data on landscape and environmental regulations for energy production and infrastructure (Version 1, February 2025). Sustainability Transition Policy Group, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15474054. The authors of this article have used various preparatory works from the NFDI4Energy to create this portrait, and references have been made where possible. Thanks to all those who are not named. The authors would like to thank the German Federal Government, the German State Governments, and the Joint Science Conference (GWK) for their funding and support as part of the NFDI4Energy consortium. The work was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) – 501865131 within the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI, www.nfdi.de). The authors would also like to thank the interviewees listed in the Methodology section for their valuable input.

Many developing countries have made their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) conditional on receiving climate finance, technology transfer, and capacity-building support. Due to a lack of engagement from the private sector, countries from the ‘Global South’ face continued challenges in accessing low-carbon finance and technology. Technology transfer initiatives, including public-private partnerships or intellectual property rights (IPR) sharing platforms, have been suggested to bridge this ‘low-carbon technology gap’ and promote the technology transfer needed for energy systems transformation. This paper assesses whether such initiatives address the technology gap, as well as other imperatives such as climate justice or carbon lock-in prevention. The paper finds that many low-carbon technology transfer initiatives focus on transferring multiple kinds of technologies to countries that are facing electricity access and governance challenges. Yet these initiatives do not all address the key capacity-building components of knowledge transfer, and countries with poor intellectual property rights (IPR) protections have fewer initiatives on average. Initiatives are also observed less frequently in climate-vulnerable countries. To meet the Paris climate goals, there is an urgent need for the international community to address the low-carbon technology gap by mainstreaming technology transfer into trade and finance.

This dataset contains detailed, machine-readable data on support policies for electric vehicle adoption from the years 2000-2024 for Germany, Greece, Ireland, and France. It contains information on the following policy instruments: Subsidies Tax incentives (rebates, exemptions) Fee decreases or exemptions Feebates or bonus/malus schemes Soft loans Tenders with additional financial support Incentives to promote user behavioral change Technology standards The work was performed by Silvia Weko, Puru Malhotra, Aksornchan Chaianong, Ioannis Milioritsas, Dogukan Günkördü, Ayda Kurt, Franziska Bold, and Johan Lilliestam, during 2024-2025. The work was led by Silvia Weko and data were cleaned by Puru Malhotra and Silvia Weko. Data were gathered by PM, IM, DG, AK, FB, and SW. AC and JL contributed to the research structure and process. The data is published with CC BY-SA 4.0. The dataset should be cited as: Weko, S., Malhotra, P., Bold, F., Chaianong, A., Günkördü, D., Kurt, A., Milioritsas, I., and Lilliestam, J. (2025): Data on policy support for electric vehicles (Version 1, February 2025). Sustainability Transition Policy Group, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. DOI 10.5281/zenodo.15476330. The authors would like to thank the German Federal Government, the German State Governments, and the Joint Science Conference (GWK) for their funding and support as part of the NFDI4Energy consortium. The work was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) – 501865131 within the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI, www.nfdi.de). Silvia Weko would also like to thank the Office for Equal Opportunities for Women in Science and the Arts at the School of Business, Economics, and Law at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg. 

This dataset was developed by Aksornchan Chaianong, Ioannis Milioritsas, Puru Malhotra, Dogukan Günkördü, and Johannes Weiß (Sustainability Transition Policy Group, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg) from 2024 to February 2025. Aksornchan Chaianong led the work, which was supported by Silvia Weko and Johan Lilliestam (Sustainability Transition Policy Group, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg). The dataset includes regulations on where energy assets can be built and operated. It includes regulations on solar panels, wind turbines, and electric vehicles (EVs) as well as EV charging infrastructure. The data is published with CC BY-SA 4.0. Please cite it as: Chaianong, A., Milioritsas, I., Malhotra, P., Günkördü, D., Weiß, J., Weko, S., and Lilliestam, J. (2025): Data on landscape and environmental regulations for energy production and infrastructure (Version 1, February 2025). Sustainability Transition Policy Group, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15474054 The authors of this article have used various preparatory works from the NFDI4Energy to create this portrait, and references have been made where possible. Thanks to all those who are not named. The authors would like to thank the German Federal Government, the German State Governments, and the Joint Science Conference (GWK) for their funding and support as part of the NFDI4Energy consortium. The work was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) – 501865131 within the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI, www.nfdi.de).

This is the deliverable for NFDI4Energy, Task Area 2, Measure 2.2., D2.2.2.2 Data on climate and renewable electricity targets. The data associated with this deliverable is published with CC BY-SA 4.0. Please cite it as: Chaianong, A., Malhotra P., Milioritsas, I., Weko, S., and Lilliestam, J. (2025): Data onrenewable electricity targets (Version 1, February 2025). Sustainability Transition Policy Group,Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15476149. Chaianong, A., Malhotra P., Milioritsas, I., Weko, S., and Lilliestam, J. (2025): Data on climatetargets (Version 1, February 2025). Sustainability Transition Policy Group, Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.15476049 The authors of this deliverable have used various preparatory works from the NFDI4Energy to create this portrait, and references have been made where possible. Thanks to all those who are not named. The authors would like to thank the German Federal Government, the German State Governments, and the Joint Science Conference (GWK) for their funding and support as part of the NFDI4Energy consortium. The work was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) – 501865131 within the German National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI, www.nfdi.de).