Nuclear, gas, renewables: What powers the EU's 'Franco-German engine' in the future?

The European Union’s two largest economic and industrial leaders, Germany and France, have spearheaded efforts to put the EU ahead in the global scramble for green industry leadership and decarbonisation technologies. Despite differences in how they produce energy, both Berlin and Paris have closed ranks in response to competition from the U.S. and China. Yet, in spite of an impressive set of goals to broaden industry cooperation, Franco-German efforts to revive European industry are being held back by unresolved differences over hydrogen production, batteries, and installation of renewable energy. The success of this endeavour cannot be ensured by a new “Airbus” or other isolated EU projects alone but requires close alignment of the two countries’ path towards industrial decarbonisation, experts from both countries agree. Read the article here.

Concerns over the impacts of climate change and demand for mitigation policy are high in France and Germany alike, which is hardly surprising given their geographic proximity and similar economic structure. However, the French and the Germans differ in their preferred approaches to climate action and their willingness to trust various actors to implement it. Parties in both countries are exploiting an underlying pushback against climate action and undermining consensus to act. Read the factsheet here.

Germany and France are the most populous countries in the EU and also the bloc's largest energy consumers. While France boast much lower energy sector emissions than the EU's top emitter Germany, both struggle to meet national and European greenhouse gas reduction targets. The two countries have been leading in formulating EU energy and climate policy and are pivotal to sustaining a coherent European position in international negotiations. This factsheet provides an overview of both countries' national emissions reduction policies and their approaches to meet joint European policy landmarks.
Read the factsheet here.

The two most influential members of the EU, Germany and France, agree on the urgent need to jointly decarbonise Europe’s energy system and put supply security on a safer footing after the tumultuous energy crisis year 2022. Russia’s war on Ukraine has forced both Paris and Berlin to come clean on the contradictions in their national energy strategies and spell out how Europe can achieve its ambitious climate targets. For key EU projects such as the Green Deal to succeed, the dispute about fundamentals of future energy supply at the height of the energy crisis must mark a turning point in the 'Franco-German engine’s’ energy cooperation, many citizens, policymakers and government officials agree. But concepts in Berlin and Paris for how to arrive there suffer from dependencies on two different paths taken in another energy crisis some 50 years earlier - and which now prevent the pair from formulating a joint vision for the EU. Read the article here.

The role of nuclear power within Europe’s energy transition is a clear point of contention between Paris and Berlin. However, there is much more agreement between the EU’s two largest powers on major strategic priorities, including the need for expanding renewable power sources or energy transition technologies like battery or hydrogen production. According to Thomas Pellerin-Carlin, director of the EU Programme at the Paris-based Institute for Climate Economics (I4CE), the debate over Europe’s energy future should focus more on common ground instead of disputes and underline the EU's ideal of “unity in diversity.” Read the interview here.