Professor Klaus Töpfer assumes chairmanship of the Agora Energiewende Council

IASS Executive Director Professor Klaus Töpfer is the new Chairman of the Agora Energiewende Council. He is taking over the chairmanship from Rainer Baake, who has been appointed Permanent State Secretary for Energy in the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology. In the Agora Energiewende Council, which is a think tank founded in 2012, top representatives from politics, business, organisations, civil society and science meet to discuss with their different perspectives the implementation of the Energiewende – the energy transition. “The chairmanship of the Agora Council offers an excellent opportunity to more closely tie Agora’s work, which is oriented towards implementing the energy transition, with our own energy policy activities with the Transdisciplinary Panel on Energy Change at the IASS, and thus contribute to the success of the Energiewende,” explained Klaus Töpfer.

The Transdisciplinary Panel on Energy Change, which was founded in March 2012 at IASS Potsdam, draws on the proposals of the “Secure Energy Provision” Ethics Commission and works with different formats: public hearings, thematic working groups and workshops, bilateral discussions with experts from Germany’s partner countries as well as its own research on various issues concerned with the Energiewende. The Transdisciplinary Panel on Energy Change is based in the Global Contract for Sustainability research cluster, which is headed by IASS Executive Director Professor Klaus Töpfer.