Overcoming the Lethargy: Climate Change, Energy Security, and the Case for a Third Industrial Revolution
Alexander Ochs
SD Strategies
Alexander Ochs was a DAAD/AICGS Research Fellow in 2008. He is a sustainable development strategist. He is the CEO of the Berlin-based consultancy SD Strategies and Senior Director of Climate and Energy at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C. Alexander currently also acts as President of the Forum for Atlantic Climate and Energy Talks (FACET) and is Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. He was a steering committee member of the Low Emission Development Global Partnership (LEDS GP) and is the Founding Chair of the LEDS GP Energy Working Group. Alexander also serves on the Clean Energy Solution Center’s expert roster and as an adviser to the German Government’s International Climate Initiative as well as a number of other international initiatives. In 2011, he received the Sustainable Future Award of the Austrian Academic Forum for Foreign Affairs.
Alexander researched and taught at Princeton University, CUNY, George Washington as well as Humboldt and Freie University in Berlin. He studied at the Universities of Cologne and Munich where he graduated with an M.A. in political science, philosophy and literature. He is fluent in German and English.
Policy Report 34
Climate change is one of the most important challenges that the world faces today. In addition to the war in Iraq, climate policy was also one of the primary causes of the transatlantic rift. President George W. Bush’s refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol in 2002 was met with complete European incomprehension; in turn, international cooperation on policies combating climate change lacked key U.S. support in the following years. But a new U.S. administration in 2009 could offer a new signal for U.S.-European cooperation on policies combating global warming. Germany, at the forefront of developing alternative energy sources and energy efficient technology, leads European efforts to decrease green house gases—making German-American cooperation on climate policies essential…
