Workshop on Energy Policy and Energy Security in Europe and USA

Heidelberg University’s Center for American Studies (HCA) will be holding a workshop on energy security and energy policy from 27 to 28 May 2011. The central topic of the meeting is the direction in which energy policy is moving in the USA and Canada compared to Germany and Europe. “Given climate change and the increasing demand for energy, the USA today is faced by problems similar to those of the Europeans,” says Dr. Martin Thunert, organiser of the HCA workshop. “But in their energy and environment policies, America and the European countries pursue different priorities and interests.” Against the backdrop of the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, the participants of the workshop set out to analyse these difficulties and challenges and to discuss potential solutions.

Alongside the repercussions of the Fukushima catastrophe, the workshop at Heidelberg University will also address a variety of other topics, including relations with Russia and Canada as energy suppliers, the role of NATO in energy security matters and the DESERTEC project in the Sahara as a source of solar energy. Experts from Germany, the USA and Canada will discuss these subjects from the perspectives of science, politics and political consultancy. Germany’s Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology is providing financial support for the event, entitled “Energy Policy and Energy Security – Transatlantic Perspectives”, which was co-organised by Dr. Karin Smith Stegen of Jacobs University Bremen. Admission is free of charge, but participants are required to register beforehand at erp3@hca.uni-heidelberg.de. The two-day workshop will be held (in English) at the Curt und Heidemarie Engelhorn Palais, Hauptstrasse 120, Heidelberg. For more information, go to www.hca.uni-heidelberg.de.


Contact
Dr. Martin Thunert
Heidelberg Center for American Studies
phone: +49 6221 543877
mthunert@hca.uni-heidelberg.de

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