In his keynote speech, Dr. Peter Hefele, director RECAP, recalled twenty years of German and European energy and climate change mitigation policies, their achievements and shortcomings.

In his opinion, three dimensions are of outmost importance towards a successful transition into a low-carbon economy:

• System integration: beyond technical improvements, ie . grid expansion and integration, a coordinated upgrading of hardware and „software“, such as regulations or economic incentives is crucial for successfully open the way towards a more sustainable development.
• Economic incentives and rationale: despite tremendous investments in renewable energies, the German and European energy systems still massively rely on fossil energy sources. This is even more the case in emerging countries. Therefore efforts have to be made both by making traditional power sources more efficient as well as broadening the market access for different sorts of renewable sources. Lock-in situations and market distortions, which often come along with subsidies, have to be avoided by prudently creating right economic incentives and stable expectations for producers and consumers.
• Policy coordination and coherence: energy transformation has to seen as part of a greater economic and social transformation. It requires a comprehensive policy approach and broad legitimation in public. A pure top down policy implementation will never unleash the full potential in innovation. Whilst stable and transparent rules have to be set by governments, it is companies and the society, which must find economically viable and efficient solutions.