Alexander Ochs, Director, Climate and Energy Program
Program Director
Alexander Ochs is Director of Climate and Energy at the Worldwatch Institute in Washington, D.C. where he leads a growing team of researchers, is a member of the Institute’s management team, a chief editor of the renowned Re|Volt blog and a co-editor of the transatlantic newsletter Connected. A co-editor of three books, director of two documentary films, author of numerous scholarly articles, and frequent contributor to public media, Alexander currently also acts as President of the Forum for Atlantic Climate and Energy Talks (FACET), senior fellow at the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies at Johns Hopkins University, and adjunct lecturer at George Washington University.
Alexander studied at the Universities of Cologne and Munich where he graduated with a Magister Artium in political science, philosophy and literature. He held senior research and teaching positions at the Center for Clean Air Policy and the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) as well as CUNY, Princeton, Freie and Humboldt (both Berlin) universities. Alexander has been on many international advisory boards, was a member of the German delegation to the UN climate negotiations, an Aspen Institute Young Leader and an elected member of tt-30. In 2011, he received the Sustainable Future Award of the Austrian Academic Forum for Foreign Affairs. In 2012, he was appointed to a high-level commission evaluating the French National Research Agency (ANR). He is also currently acting as Energy Chair and member of the Steering Committee of the Low Emissions Development Global Partnership (LEDS-GP).
Alexander’s research interests include climate, energy and environment policies of municipalities, provinces, countries and regions around the world; international climate negotiations; low-emissions growth strategies; sustainable energy roadmaps; human development and indicators for societal progress; global governance and UN reform; transatlantic relations; North-South and South-South cooperation; environmental security.
Selected Publications
- Worldwatch Report 187 “Sustainable Energy Roadmaps: Guiding the Global Shift to Domestic Renewables” Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C., 2012 (with Shakuntala Makhijani, Xing Fu-Bertaux, Matt Lucky, and Sam Shrank)
- “A New Sustainable Energy Model,” in: Rachel Bristow (Ed.), Commonwealth Ministers Reference Book 2012, Henley Media Group Limited, London, 2012: 147-149.
- “Alternating Currents: How Global and Domestic Energy Trends will Affect the European Union, the United States, and the Transatlantic Partnership in 2020,” in : Dan Hamilton and Kurt Volker, Transatlantic 2020: A Tale of Four Futures, Washington, DC: Center for Transatlantic Relations, 2011: pp. 215-256. (with Shakuntala Makhijani)
- Josef Mantl, Alexander Ochs, Marc Pacheco (Eds), Communicating Sustainability, Vienna 2012
- "United States climate policy: What's next? EPA regulations as an alternative pathway to comprehensive federal action?" Working Papers 15/11, IDDRI, Paris, France (with C. Serre and E. Guerrin)
- "Active Innovative, Dissonant - and Effective? Multi-Level Climate Policy in North America" Climate Policy Volume 11,Issue 6, November 2011
- Country Perspective: The United States,” in: Nina Netzer & Judith Gouverneur (Eds.), Saving Tomorrow – Today? International Perspectives in the Run-Up to the UN Climate Change Conference 2011 in Durban, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung: October 2011, pp. 36-41.
- In German published as : “Länderperspektive: Die Vereinigten Staaten,”in: Nina Netzer & Judith Gouverneur (Hrsg.), Zwischen Anspruch und Wirklichkeit: Internationale Perspektiven vor der Weltklimakonferenz in Durban, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung: November 2011, pp. 41-53.
- "Value of Fossil Fuel Subsidies Declines, National Bans Emerging," in: Vital Signs, 11 May 2011
- "Green Growth in den USA: Die ideologische Spaltung steht der ökologischen Erneuerung Amerikas im Wege." Heinrich-Boell-Stiftung. 3 May 2011.
- "Mapping the Future: Why bidding farewell to fossil fuels is in our interests – and how it can be achieved," Climate Action 2010, London & Nairobi: UNEP & Sustainable Development International, November 2010
- "From Flop’enhagen to Can’tcun? US climate policy before the mid-term elections and the UN summit." Bridges vol. 27, October 2010.
- Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency in China: Current Status and Prospects for 2020, November 2010. Worldwatch Institute.
- Implications of a Low-Carbon Energy Transition for U.S. National Security, April 2010. Worldwatch Institute, Draft policy paper
- 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 Transatlantic Perspectives, 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, pp. 203-235 (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
- Europa Riding the Hegemon? Transatlantic Climate Policy Relations, in: Davis B. Bobrow & William Keller, Hegemony Constrained: Evasion, Modification, and Resistance to American Foreign Policy, Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2008: pp.144-166
- 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)
- "From Mars and Venus Down to Earth," in David Michel, Climate Policy for the 21st Century, Washington, DC: Brookings/SAIS 2005, pp. 35-76.
- Conflict or Cooperation? Transatlantic Environmental Relations, in Thomas Jäger, Alexander Höse, and Kai Oppermann, Transatlantic Relations (Wiesbaden: 2005), pp. 235-52. (in German)
- Wanted: Leadership, in Alex Riechel and Aldo Venturelli, Building a Foundation for Climate Policy, Loveno: Villa Vigoni 2005, pp. 51-62.
- 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.
