Draft:Rainer Baake

• Comment: Has Baake ever held elected office, or has it all been internal work with the Greens or hired work as staff in the Ministry of the Environment? Bkissin (talk) 14:41, 29 July 2024 (UTC)

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Rainer Baake (2020)

Rainer Baake (born August 15, 1955 in Witten) is a German politician (Green Party). He is considered an expert on climate and energy issues.

Baake has worked as a full-time Green politician in the environmental administration since 1985 and was State Secretary for Environmental and Energy Issues for almost 20 years. He is currently Director of the Climate Neutrality Foundation. Baake works as the German government's Special Envoy for the German-Namibian Climate and Energy Cooperation and for the "Just Energy Transition Partnership" (JETP) with South Africa..

Life

After graduating from high school, Rainer Baake worked as a community organizer in Chicago from 1974 to 1978. He studied economics in Marburg in the early 1980s and graduated with a degree in economics.

In 1983, Baake joined the Green Party. In 1985 he became the first Green to hold a full-time elective office: after the conclusion of coalition negotiations between the SPD and the Greens, the parliament of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district elected Baake as First District Councilor and Deputy District Administrator. Among other things, he was also responsible for the environment.

Rainer Baake was State Secretary in the then Hessian Ministry for the Environment, Energy and Federal Affairs (1991 to 1998) under Minister Joschka Fischer. Together with Fischer, he shut down the Hanau nuclear power plants and fought a tough dispute with the Essen-based RWE Group over the safety of the Biblis nuclear power plant. Baake developed strategies to promote renewable energies and increase energy efficiency.

After Fischer's move to federal politics, Baake remained in Hesse. In preparation for the 1998 federal elections, he developed a plan to end the use of nuclear energy in Germany without compensation. Maximum lifetimes, obligatory safety inspections should be laid down in law, the obligation to take financial precautions against accidents should be increased, the reprocessing of spent fuel elements and the plutonium industry should be ended.

From 1998 to 2005, he was State Secretary under Federal Minister Jürgen Trittin in the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety. There he helped negotiate the 2002 Nuclear Phase-out Act. During his seven years in office at the Federal Environment Ministry support programs and laws for the expansion of renewable energies were introduced, an emission trading system was established and a climate protection program was developed. Rainer Baake is regarded as one of the pioneers of renewable energies, particularly photovoltaics - he is often referred to as the "manager of the energy transition".

Together with Trittin, Baake led the negotiations on behalf of the German government on the Kyoto Protocol.

In 2006, Deutsche Umwelthilfe e. V. (DUH) appointed Rainer Baake as its Federal Managing Director.

After Chancellor Angela Merkel promised a 40% reduction in greenhouse gases in Germany by 2020 (compared to 1990), Baake pointed out the contradiction to the construction of a new generation of coal-fired power plants, which Angela Merkel supported. Under Baake's leadership, the DUH helped citizens' initiatives, local politicians and state governments in disputes against 30 planned coal plants. At the same time, Baake called for an expansion of the grid infrastructure because he considered this to be  a key issue for the further development of renewable energies. DUH developed concrete proposals for transparent planning and public participation in grid expansion.

In summer 2008, the incumbent Prime Minister of Hesse, Roland Koch (Christian Democratic Union), appointed Baake as an honorary advisor to the Sustainability Advisory Council of the Hessian state government.

In September 2008, under Baake's leadership, an "interim assessment of the nuclear phase-out and proposals for action" was commissioned by the federal executive committee of Bündnis 90/Die Grünen.

After the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel first extended the maximum operating times of the remaining nuclear power plants in December 2010 and then decided on the "second nuclear phase-out" following the reactor disaster in Fukushima at the beginning of 2011, Baake became the founding director of “Agora Energiewende”, an independent think tank. Agora set itself the goal of identifying scientifically sound paths to a successful energy transition, independent of lobby interests and party politics. Under Baake's leadership, the Agora quickly became one of the most important players in energy policy.

In October 2013, Baake presented a think tank concept for a reform of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG 2.0), in which he advocates, among other things, prioritizing the more cost-effective generation of electricity from onshore wind energy and solar power over the more expensive options of biomass and offshore wind.

Baake's concept for an EEG 2.0 was the subject of the exploratory talks between the CDU/CSU and the Greens after the 2013 federal election. After these talks failed and a grand coalition between CDU/CSU and SPD was formed, the Merkel/Gabriel government appointed Rainer Baake as State Secretary for Energy in January 2014. As a result of a rapid reform of the EEG in the first half of the year, there was a record expansion of onshore wind energy in 2014 (4,700 MW), which continued in the following years and peaked in 2017 at 5,500 MW. A total of 18,400 MW was added during the four year legislative period.

Baake drew criticism from lobby associations and the Greens when he proposed switching the remuneration of installations under the EEG from politically set prices to competitive tenders. The reform of the law was passed by the CDU/CSU and SPD in the federal parliament in 2016 against the votes of Bündnis90/Die Grünen.

Under Baake's leadership, first a Green Paper, then a White Paper on the further development of the electricity markets were produced. The aim was to make the market fit for growing shares of weather dependable renewable energies. The federal parliament subsequently passed a law on electricity market reform in June 2016.

With this law a egal basis was created for a platform of the Federal Regulatory Agency that uses graphics to show in real time how the German electricity market functions and how the exchange with neighboring countries takes place (SMARD platform).

On March 17, 2016, ZEIT published an article by Baake in which he outlined what the implementation of the Paris Climate Agreement would mean for the production and consumption of oil, coal and natural gas. He demanded that "our production and consumption must become CO2-neutral" and pleaded "to use this challenge as an opportunity for a comprehensive modernization of our economy." In order to avoid stranded investments, industrial companies, vehicles and buildings must be converted to CO2-free alternatives in good time.

After the 2017 federal elections, Baake took part in the exploratory talks for a Jamaica coalition between CDU/CSU, Greens and FDP. After the FDP broke off the talks, another grand coalition was formed and Peter Altmaier, a member of the conservative party, was to become Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy. On March 5, 2018, Baake wrote Altmaier a letter requesting that he be relieved of his duties once the government had been formed[18]. Baake did not want to support the climate policy of the new grand coalition, which he considered to be inadequate.

After the European Union agreed on the goal of climate neutrality by 2050, Rainer Baake and Bernhard Lorentz founded the think tank "Climate Neutrality Foundation", which began its work in July 2020. Baake became Director of the Climate Neutrality Foundation

On April 26, 2021, the Climate Neutrality Foundation, together with Agora Energie- und Verkehrswende, published a scientific study showing how Germany could become climate neutral by 2045. This would require a 65% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 (compared to 1990). This would save the atmosphere an additional billion tons of CO2  compared to the 2050 target (Climate-neutral Germany 2045). Three days later the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany declared parts of the Grand Coalition's Climate Protection Act unconstitutional because it violated the rights of younger generations. Shortly afterwards the German government adopted the proposals of Climate Neutrality Foundation. With an amendment to the law, the goal of climate neutrality by 2045 and a 65% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2030 was set.

On June 17, 2021, the Climate Neutrality Foundation, together with Agora Energie- und Verkehrswende, published 50 policy proposals with which the raised climate target for 2030 could be achieved. The proposals were based on a large number of scientific studies and legal opinions, which the three institutions had commissioned in advance. Many of the proposals were included in the coalition negotiations following the federal elections in September 2021.

After Federal Minister Robert Habeck and Namibian Energy Minister Tom Alweendo concluded a cooperation agreement in the field of the hydrogen economy between Germany and Namibia in March 2022, Baake was appointed Special Envoy of the Federal Government for the German-Namibian Climate and Energy Cooperation. In July 2022, Rainer Baake visited the country and held talks with the Namibian President and government representatives.

Since then, Baake has been the link between the German and Namibian government in the development of a hydrogen economy. The main plan is to produce green ammonia and green iron from wind and solar energy.

At the same time, Baake is working as a the Special Envoy of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development for the Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) with South Africa. As part of the Paris Climate Agreement, the German government, together with the USA, the UK, France and the EU, has agreed a partnership with South Africa for a socially just energy transition. Germany is supporting investment in renewable energy infrastructure and policy reforms with more than one billion euros. At an event organized by the South African government at the climate conference in Dubai (2023), Baake openly addressed the opportunities and challenges of the energy transition.

Private

Baake grew up in the Ruhr town of Witten and graduated from the Albert-Martmöller Gymnasium in 1974. He is married to the former Norwegian opera singer and current journalist Ranveig Eckhoff. Baake and Eckhoff traveled to Africa, South and North America and Australia from 2018 to 2021. They published a book in 2021 entitled "New Horizons - An Exploratory Journey Around the World".

During his trip through Africa, Baake made a documentary film for the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) entitled "Renewable Energy Impact in Southern Africa".

Literature

▪  Baake, R. (Head) et al.: Zwischenbilanz Atomausstieg und Handlungsvorschläge. Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, October 1, 2008, p. 36

▪  Rainer Baake and Patrick Graichen (responsible): A radically simplified EEG 2.0 and a comprehensive market design process. Concept for a two-stage process 2014-2017. (PDF; 1.0 MB) October 9, 2013, accessed February 11, 2014.

▪  Rainer Baake and Ranveig Eckhoff: Neue Horizonte - Eine Erkundungsreise um die Welt, Europabuch 2021, ISBN 979-12-201-1255-0

Weblinks

Commons: Rainer Baake - Collection of photos

▪ Lunch with Mr. Energiewende: Rainer Baake is Back in Berlin by Paul Hockenos, 19 August 2020, Energytransition.org