Welcome to the COPE (Covid-19 Policies Evaluation) Project
About
COPE Objectives
The COPE (Covid-19 Policies Evaluation) project aims to elicit expert evaluations and recommendations on the economic, financial, and climate impact of the policy responses to the Covid-19-crisis implemented in Germany.
Research background
Germany has gradually won international recognition for its leadership in the energy transition worldwide after engaging in energy policy trajectories beyond nuclear power.
Moreover, it has been drawing international attention because of (i) the active development and application of green technologies and (ii) the peculiarity of its most famous federal investment bank, i.e., the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW), through its potential role in shaping new markets and supporting the Energiewende. However, despite the decisive role of public funding and the mobilization of private renewable energy investments in the past decades, and the progressive reduction of GHG emissions, the country faces difficulties meeting the desired targets.
Against this backdrop, we aim to assess whether the policies implemented to contain the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic will have an impact on the country's climate goals of contributing to the Paris Agreement's target of reducing global temperature increase to well-below 2°C (compared to the pre-industrial age).
The research aims to gather qualitative information on the impact of economic (both rescue and recovery measures) and Germany's financial policies since March 2020. Data will be collected by conducting an expert survey on the policies adopted to contain the adverse effects of the Covid-19 pandemic in Germany.
The project's results will help understand the extent to which the implemented policies are aligned with the country's climate change mitigation objectives - as defined in the Paris Agreement and the BMU Climate Action Plan 2050 - and whether they could contribute to the increase of climate-related financial risks. The latter is of particular relevance in the context of the German transition to a low- carbon economy, as an increase in the exposure of the German financial sector to non-green assets could lead to financial instability issues in the case of the materialization of physical and transition risks.
Therefore, shedding light on the policy measures' alignment to the country's climate targets and Paris Agreement is highly relevant.
Who we are
Dr. Paola D’Orazio, project coordinator
Michelle Alfers, project assistant
Miriam Athmer, project member
Franziska M. Hoffart, project member
Dr. Florian Lewalder, project member
Christian Stehr, project member
Contact
Dr. Paola D’Orazio
Chair of Macroeconomics, Faculty of Economics and Management
Ruhr-Universität Bochum
Room GD 03/313
Universitätsstrasse, 150
D-44781 Bochum (Germany)
E-mail: cope-project@ruhr-uni-bochum.de