International Dialogue on Energy, Climate and Environment at ZEW
Conferences
27.05.2025
Thirteenth Mannheim Conference on Energy and the Environment at ZEW
On 15 and 16 May 2025, around 90 energy and environmental economists from Germany and abroad participated in the thirteenth Mannheim Conference on Energy and the Environment at ZEW Mannheim. For two days, international researchers discussed various topics of energy, climate and environmental economics. This year, the conference focused on climate policies, directing innovation towards green sectors, decreasing private and firm emissions, air pollution, energy conservation and behavioural aspects of decarbonization.
Professor Sebastian Rausch, head of ZEW’s Research Unit “Environmental and Climate Economics”, opened the conference. With Matti Liski from the Aalto University, David Hèmous from the University of Zurich and Eugenie Dugoua from the London School of Economics, ZEW was once again able to welcome renowned international environmental economists as keynote speakers. In his keynote, Matti Liski discussed how different uncertainties affect the dynamics of the energy transition. The second keynote, by David Hémous, focused on his pioneering research on the directed technical change framework. It shows how research subsidies, alongside carbon taxes, can be used to steer the economy towards the green transition. Eugenie Dugoua's concluding keynote underscored how governmental funding for research into various energy technologies has spurred innovation across different US administrations. All three keynotes underlined the important role of innovation during the energy transition.
International speakers and audience
In addition to the three keynote lectures, the scientific programme of the conference consisted of 76 contributions selected from around 200 conference submissions. The presentations were organised in six blocks with four parallel sessions each. The conference attracted many international guests: 46 per cent of the speakers came from other European institutions, 47 per cent from Germany and about 7 per cent came from universities in the US.
In its thirteenth year, the Mannheim Conference on Energy and the Environment, as one of the most important and renowned international conferences for energy and environmental economists, was able to maintain the high quality of contributions from previous years. On May 19th and 20th 2026, ZEW will again invite researchers to discuss the key aspects of energy and environmental economics.
