Worldwatch Institute Staff

Biography

Alexander Ochs, Director, Climate and Energy Program

Email: aochs@worldwatch.org
Phone: +1 (202) 452-1992 x511

Alexander Ochs is Director of the Worldwatch Institute's climate and energy program. He provides strategic leadership on climate and energy policy, represents the Institute before public and private decision makers and the media, leads the Institute's fundraising in the field, supervises program staff, and provides overall management and supervision of the Program. His areas of expertise include international climate negotiations; domestic climate and energy policies of the United States and Europe as well as China, India, and other major developing countries; opportunities and costs of a green new deal and a third industrial revolution; global governance and U.N. reform; as well as environmental security issues.

Until recently, Alexander was Director of International Policy at the Center for Clean Air Policy, a recognized world leader in climate and air-quality policy headquartered in Washington, D.C. He is the founding director of the Forum for Atlantic Climate and Energy Talks (FACET) and a Senior Fellow at Johns Hopkins University. Between 2001 and 2007, Alexander worked as a senior research associate in the global issues department of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) in Berlin. At the SWP, he co-founded and later directed the International Network to Advance Climate Talks (INTACT)

Alexander has held research and teaching positions at the City University of New York, Princeton University, and Munich University, as well as at the Freie and Humboldt Universities in Berlin. He has been a member of the German delegation to the U.N. climate negotiations and various advisory committees on both sides of the Atlantic. A co-editor of two books and author of numerous scholarly articles and policy papers, Alexander contributes frequently to public media, e.g., as a regular commentator for Deutsche Welle, Germany's public international broadcaster, and Grist Magazine. He received various scholarships and research grants, was named a Young Leader by the Aspen Institute and served as elected member of tt30, a think tank of the Club of Rome. A graduate of Munich and Cologne universities, Alexander speaks fluent English, German, and French.

Selected Publications

Towards a Global Green Recovery - Supporting Green Technology Markets. Report commissioned by the Policy Planning Staff of the German Federal Foreign Office, Atlantic Initiative (Berlin: August 2009) (with Jan Kallmorgen and Aaron Best)

America's Opposite Hand: Germany's Parties Agree on the Necessity of Environmental Protection and a Green New Deal (Washington, DC: AICGS, June 2009).

"Emerging countries as partners of German climate policy," in Günther Maihold and Stefan Mair, Germany's Cooperation with Leading Powers of the South (Baden-Baden: Nomos, 2008) (in German)

Overcoming the Lethargy: Climate Change, Energy Security, and the Case for a Third Industrial Revolution, AICGS Policy Report #34 (Washington, DC: AICGS, July 2008).

"European Climate Diplomacy: The Challenges and Opportunities Ahead," in European Council on Foreign Relations, European Foreign Policy Challenges (Brussels: 2008).

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly? Europe, the United States, and China at the World Climate Conference, FACET Commentary No. 6, February 2008.

"The Failures of American and European Climate Policy: International Norms, Domestic Politics, and Unachievable Commitments," Global Environmental Politics, November 2007, pp. 149-51.

International Climate Policy after Nairobi (Berlin: SWP, 2007) (in German)

"Conflict or Cooperation? Transatlantic Environmental Relations" (with Markus Schaper), in Thomas Jäger, Alexander Höse, and Kai Oppermann, Transatlantic Relations (Wiesbaden: 2005), pp. 235-52. (in German)

Gleneagles: A New Opportunity for Climate Policy (Berlin: SWP, 2005).

"Wanted: Leadership," in Alex Riechel and Aldo Venturelli, Building a Foundation for Climate Policy (Villa Vigoni: Loveno, 2005), pp. 51-62.

"From Mars and Venus Down to Earth" (with Joshua Busby), in David Michel, Climate Policy for the 21st Century (Washington, DC: Brookings/SAIS, 2005), pp. 35-76.

"Global Governance in the Issue Area of Climate Change," in René Gradwohl and Christoph Pohlmann, Renaissance of Transatlantic Relations - Perspectives of a New Partnership (Berlin: 2004), pp. 13-21.

Towards a Transatlantic Consensus on Climate Change (Editor, with Aldo Venturelli), (Loveno di Menaggio: 2004).

Sustainable Climate Protection Policies (Editor, with Friedemann Müller) (Ebenhausen & Berlin: 2000).

 

Selected Presentations

"Climate (Policy) Change - Taking Stock of Where We Stand in the Decisive Year 2009," UN Sustainable Future Campaign, Austrian Embassy, Washington, DC, 21 September 2009.

"International Engineering Solutions and their Importance for the Copenhagen Deal" (Keynote speech), Danish Society of Engineers, Copenhagen, 3 September 2009.

"Components of, and Prospects for, a Global Climate Deal in Copenhagen," SAIS, Washington, DC, 13 July 2009.

"US Climate Policy before Copenhagen," Heinrich Boell Foundation, Washington, DC, 9 July 2009.

"Prospects for International Climate Policy," NABU/Heinrich Boell Foundation, Berlin, 15 June 2009.

"Sectoral Approaches - The Next Step of Industrialized Emerging Economies into a Global System?" SBSTA workshop, UNFCCC, Bonn, 12 June 2009.

"The Future of the CDM," ECN panel on "Confluence or Convolution of Mechanisms, Technology and Finance: How Can Streams Meet in Copenhagen?" UNFCCC, Bonn, 8 June 2009.

"Linking EU and US Emission Trading Systems," CEZ-IETA conference on "Climate Change: Implementing a Coordinated Response in Central Europe and Around the Globe," Prague, 24 April 2009.

"International Climate Negotiations: The Road to Copenhagen and Beyond," American Law Institute/American Bar Association conference on "Climate and the Law," Washington, DC, 3 April 2009.

"NAMAs and the Global Deal on Climate Change: Insights from CCAP's project  Assisting Developing Country Climate Negotiators through Analysis & Dialogue," CCAP/EGAP/UK DFID "GHG Mitigation Opportunities" workshop, Santiago de Chile, 25 March 2009.

"Views on Carbon Offsetting in the United States," Point Carbon's Carbon Market Insights Conference, Copenhagen, 18 March 2009.

"The European Perspective," U.S.-European climate change dialogue, Nixon Center, Washington, DC, 22-23 September.

"The Future of Transatlantic Climate and Energy Cooperation," German Foreign Office & InWEnt, Berlin, 30 September 2008.

"A Century of Climate Protection: How Global Warming Will Change Politics and Economics," German Embassy, Washington, DC, 13 March 2008.

"A Third Industrial Revolution or Three Degrees Warmer: Tomorrow's World in Two Scenarios," Luncheon Speech at conference "Connecting Across Boundaries: Enhancing Strategic Intelligence and National Security Readiness to Meet Global Energy and Environmental Challenges," organized by U.S. Department of Energy, CSIS, Republic of Italy, and U.S. Department of State, Italian Embassy, Washington, DC, 12 March 2008.

"The Third Industrial Revolution: Energy Security and The Economic Case for Climate Policy," Luncheon Talk, AICGS, Washington, DC, 3 December 2007.

"Global Climate - Changing South: The Global Warming Policies of Emerging Powers," BMW Center/Georgetown University, Washington, DC, 14 November 2007.

"Compatibilities and Incompatibilities in Transatlantic Climate Policies," European College for Liberal Arts/Oxford University, Berlin, 1 June 2007.

"Global Environmental Governance," Potsdam University, 31 May 2006.

"The Future of Climate Policy," Luncheon Talk, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, 17 January 2006.

"Global Governance and Climate Change," EGAP Graduate School for Public Administration, Monterrey, Mexico, 4 November 2004.

"Transatlantic Relations and Global Environmental Governance Challenges," Amerika-Haus, Berlin, 25 June 2004.

"The Global Challenge of Climate Change," University of North Carolina State, Raleigh, 21 April 2004.

"How Can Germany and the UK More Effectively Pursue Common Aims within the International Energy System?" 5th British-German Environment Forum, Berlin, 6 February 2004.

"Understanding U.S. and EU Climate Policy Making," Center for Transatlantic Relations, SAIS, Washington, DC, 19 September 2003.

"Global Environmental Politics," Fulbright Commission, Berlin, 27 March 2003.

 

Media Contributions:

Author of a series of dossiers on climate policy for the Heinrich Boell Foundation

Weekly commentator on the U.S. 2008 elections for DW World, Germany's public international broadcaster (until Nov. 2008)

Several articles for daily and weekly newspapers including Die Zeit and Grist Magazine

Numerous articles on various international topics as editor-in-chief of hp - histerismus und politikum

Freelancer for Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian public television, 2001), International Documentary Film Festival Munich (1996-2001), Discovery Channel (1999-2000), TV program matz (MCM productions Munich, 1997-99), etc.

Screenwriter & director, TV documentary "Aus den Medien - Aus dem Sinn? " premiere German broadcast on Kabel 6, 2 November 1998.

Interviews on climate and energy policy with Atlantic Community, Bloomberg, Die Zeit, El Norte, Financial Times Deutschland, FTSE Global Markets, New Energy, Handelsblatt, Leipziger Volkszeitung, Reuters.