Scientific Exchange on the Energy Transition and Climate Change
Events
05.06.2026
Fourteenth Mannheim Conference on Energy and the Environment at ZEW Mannheim
On 19 and 20 May 2026, around 100 energy and environmental economists from Germany and abroad participated in the fourteenth 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 policy design and evaluation, the economics of the energy transition — including electricity markets, industrial decarbonization, and electric vehicles — distributional and labor market impacts of energy and environmental policies, as well as health effects of air pollution, green finance, and the emerging role of AI in decarbonization.
Professor Sebastian Rausch, head of ZEW’s Research Unit “Environmental and Climate Economics”, opened the conference. With Natalia Fabra (CEMFI & CEPR), Simon Dietz (London School of Economics), and Stephie Fried (Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco), ZEW was once again able to welcome renowned international environmental economists as keynote speakers. In her keynote, Natalia Fabra discussed policy responses and distributional consequences of the energy crisis. The second keynote, by Simon Dietz, focused on optimal climate policy, taking the economic decarbonization seriously. Stephie Fried's concluding keynote underscored how environmental attitudes connect with optimal climate policy in electrifying households. All three keynotes underlined the importance of appropriate environmental policy during the energy transition.
International speakers and audience
In addition to the three keynote lectures, the scientific programme of the conference consisted of 78 contributions selected from around 340 conference submissions. The presentations were organised in six blocks with four parallel sessions each. The conference attracted many international guests: 44 percent of the speakers came from other European institutions, 48 percent from Germany, and about 8 per cent came from universities in the US, Canada, or China. In its fourteenth 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 12th and 13th, 2027, ZEW will again invite researchers to discuss the key aspects of energy and environmental economics.
