Alexander Franke
banner
al-f.bsky.social
Alexander Franke
@al-f.bsky.social
Interested in climate and transport policy, especially urban mobility, energy transitions, digitalization et al. Working for BMWE/BMUKN. Views are my own.
Reposted by Alexander Franke
German auto summit tomorrow.

The sole focus on the EU combustion engine phase-out, which is 10 years away, is baffling because German cars have a demand problem today

Berlin worries a new EV subsidy scheme would be fiscally too expensive.

But demand-side support is a fiscal no-brainer here.

1/
October 8, 2025 at 12:30 PM
Helsinki goes a full year without a traffic death.

"A lot of factors contributed to this, but speed limits are one of the most important"

yle.fi/a/74-20174831
Helsinki goes a full year without a traffic death
A city traffic engineer credits the success to lower speed limits and smarter design.
yle.fi
July 30, 2025 at 5:24 PM
Reposted by Alexander Franke
Great and balanced thread on the implications of the US-EU deal for the European automotive sector - including all the loose nuts and bolts.
European automakers will face 15% tariffs on auto imports under the new U.S.-EU trade deal, compared to the previously threatened 25-30%. This represents a six-fold increase from pre-2025 levels of 2.5%. 1/12
July 29, 2025 at 7:45 PM
What is so maddening about this: MAGA Republicans publicly argued that the US needed to onshore manufacturing and they proposed an ill-conceived tool to do so: tariffs.

All the while they had a successful policy in place to onshore green manufacturing. They are now repealing this policy.
Since the IRA passed, companies have made plans to invest over $843 billion in clean energy projects. But just one-third of that has actually been invested, new data shows. Much of the rest is now at risk.

On the new House Republican plan to dismantle the IRA, with @harrystevens.bsky.social
A Clean Energy Boom Was Just Starting. Now, a Republican Bill Aims to End It.
www.nytimes.com
May 22, 2025 at 9:32 PM
"Basic to the Constitution is habeas corpus, the notion that the government cannot seize your body without a legal justification for doing so. If that does not hold, then nothing else does."
"the president defied a Supreme Court ruling to return a man mistakenly sent to a gulag... and spoke of sending Americans to foreign concentration camps.
This is the beginning of an American policy of state terror, and it has to be identified as such to be stopped"
snyder.substack.com/p/state-terror
State Terror
A brief guide for Americans
snyder.substack.com
April 15, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Lieblingssatz aus dem Koalitionsvertrag bisher: "Auch die Meere sehen wir als digitalen Chancenraum."
April 9, 2025 at 6:30 PM
Reposted by Alexander Franke
Trumpists want to argue for a future-world that doesn't yet exist, in which the tariffs create a perfect equilibrium for US growth. But the tariff plan announced yesterday does exist. We can read it. It does not make sense and is not defensible on its own terms.

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
April 3, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Trump will offensichtlich globale Degrowth-Politik.
April 3, 2025 at 6:45 AM
Reposted by Alexander Franke
"Das ist mir neulich erst so richtig bewusst geworden: Dass es fast nichts gibt, was Trump und die Leute in seinem Umfeld nicht sagen oder tun. (...) Man muss, so ist das leider, mittlerweile das Schlimmste für möglich halten."

Neuer Newsletter:
Man muss das Schlimmste für möglich halten
Immerhin nicht zu jeder Zeit und überall
beimwort.substack.com
March 8, 2025 at 1:19 AM
Gerhard Schröders Agenda 2010.
Angela Merkels Flüchtlingspolitik 2015.
Friedrich Merz' gelöste Schuldenbremse.

Grundlegende politische Veränderung ist meist dann möglich, wenn die Partei sie durchsetzt, welche sonst Widerstand organisieren würde - der dadurch gesellschaftlich demobilisiert wird.
March 4, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Reposted by Alexander Franke
The Leader of the Free World und daneben Trump und Vance.
Trump: "You're in no position to dictate... You've allowed yourselves to be in a very bad position... You don't have the cards... What you're doing is very disrespectful"

Zelensky: "I'm with all respect."

Vance: "In this entire meeting have you said thank you?"
February 28, 2025 at 6:40 PM
Die Ausübung des Wahlrechts muss für alle StaatsbürgerInnen möglich sein.

Man sollte ernsthaft die Einführung von Auslandswahlkreisen erwägen, um solches organisatorisches Chaos zukünftig zu verhindern.

www.spiegel.de/politik/bund...
(S+) Bundestagswahl: Probleme mit Wahlunterlagen für Deutsche im Ausland
Viele im Ausland lebende Deutsche haben ihre Wahlunterlagen noch nicht bekommen. Für sie wird es fast unmöglich, noch rechtzeitig zu wählen. Manche setzen sich nun kurzerhand in den Flieger.
www.spiegel.de
February 19, 2025 at 6:18 PM
Reposted by Alexander Franke
It makes me feel better personally as a political scientist but worse as a citizen that even @adamprz.bsky.social is struggling to understand the radical transformation of the American political system. Must read Substack.
I am keeping a diary of daily events, as they unfold open.substack.com/pub/adamprze... It is available to everyone. I am new to Substack, so please let me know if something is wrong with the link or the file.
Diary
Week 1
open.substack.com
February 19, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Carl Schmitt, 1.8.1934:
"Der Führer schützt das Recht vor dem schlimmsten Mißbrauch, wenn er im Augenblick der Gefahr kraft seines Führertums als oberster Gerichtsherr unmittelbar Recht schafft."

Donald Trump, 15.2.2025:
"He who saves his Country does not violate any Law."
„Trump und der neue Faschismus"

Elon Musks Team übernimmt zurzeit in Windeseile die technischen Systeme der US-Bundesverwaltung, teils durch Überrumpelung und Einschüchterung.

Ein hochgefährlicher Vorgang, meint RAINER MÜHLHOFF (@rainermuehlhoff.bsky.social).

verfassungsblog.de/trump-und-de...
February 15, 2025 at 11:36 PM
Reposted by Alexander Franke
Der frühere Bundesinnenminister Gerhart Baum ist tot. Er war aktiv und mischte sich bis ins hohe Alter ein. Und er litt bis zuletzt an seiner FDP.
Gerhart Baum (FDP) ist tot: Nachruf auf den letzten aufrechten Liberalen
Der frühere Bundesinnenminister Gerhart Baum ist tot. Er war aktiv und mischte sich bis ins hohe Alter ein. Und er litt bis zuletzt an seiner FDP.
www.spiegel.de
February 15, 2025 at 7:55 PM
"The IMF estimates that Europe’s internal barriers are equivalent to a tariff of 45% for manufacturing and 110% for services. [...] trade across EU countries is less than half the level of trade across US states. As activity shifts more towards services, their overall drag on growth becomes worse."
Recent weeks have provided a stark reminder of Europe’s vulnerabilities, writes the former president of the European Central Bank and former prime minister of Italy www.ft.com/content/13a8...
February 14, 2025 at 10:15 PM
Wie hoch ist wohl foresight von normalen Haushalten bei Investitionsentscheidungen wie Heizungstausch oder Autokauf und damit Wirksamkeit von BEHG/ETS2, wenn selbst Spitzenkandidaten bei der Bundestagswahl bei Belastung und Entlastungsbedarf von CO2-Preisen um eine Größenordnung danebenliegen? 🤔
Merz verspricht im #Duell gerade ein Klimageld von 200 Euro pro Kopf und Monat. Vermutlich meinte er pro Jahr - aber selbst das scheint wenig wahrscheinlich, weil die Union die CO2-Einnahmen ihrem eigenen Wahlprogramm zufolge zunächst für die Senkung des Strompreises verwenden will.
February 9, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Reposted by Alexander Franke
One of the few countries with a national carbon tax -- one that rebates to taxpayers, the way carbon tax proponents want -- is getting ready to scrap it in exchange for a system of incentives. The *liberal party* is proposing this.

This settles the debate over the political economy of a Ctax, no?
Carney says he'll scrap the carbon tax, introduce green incentive program if he becomes leader | CBC News
Liberal leadership candidate Mark Carney says he will abandon his party's consumer carbon tax and replace the policy with an incentive program that rewards Canadians for making green choices.
www.cbc.ca
February 3, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Fantastischer, jährlicher Must Read zum globalen Stand der Dekarbonisierung.

Man verliert sich manchmal in Detailfragen und im Tagesgeschäft, diese Folien helfen Entwicklungen einzuordnen.
My annual decarbonization presentation is here.

200 slides, covering everything from water levels in Lake Gatún to sulfur dioxide emissions to ESG fund flows to Chinese auto exports to artificial intelligence. www.nathanielbullard.com/presentations
February 2, 2025 at 8:30 AM
Reposted by Alexander Franke
One thing important to understand about the CA/MX tariffs is that while overall impact is likely to be modest in terms of inflation and output, they’ll have extremely concentrated negative effects in specific sectors. Autos are the best example given how many times parts cross those borders.
February 1, 2025 at 3:26 PM
Reposted by Alexander Franke
Stromerzeugung aus Kohle so niedrig wie vor 67 Jahren!
Die Bruttostromerzeugung aus Braun- und Steinkohle lag 2024 bei ca. 108 TWh. Das hatten wir zuletzt im Jahr 1957.
www.energy-charts.info/downloads/St...
January 24, 2025 at 9:41 AM
Reposted by Alexander Franke
I really hope everyone understands what is going on with Elon and Wikipedia.

Wikipedia is one of our last remaining bastions of evidence-based consensus reality.

The MAGA narrative is fundamentally threatened by evidence-based fact, and Wikipedia is a repository of evidence-based fact.
This is ABSOLUTELY factual! Musk’s gesture WAS compared to a Nazi salute or a fascist salute. Musk DID deny any meaning behind the gesture. Musk’s argument appears to be with reality.
January 22, 2025 at 3:23 AM
Reposted by Alexander Franke
Ein Zurückrudern bei der E-Mobilität würde besonders die Produktionsstandorte in Ost-🇩🇪 hart treffen, die in den vergangenen Jahrzehnten mühsam aufgebaut wurden.
👉 Das Aufheben des Verbrenner-Verbots wirkt wie die Botschaft „Kauft jetzt bloß keine e-Autos!" 👈
hbapp.handelsblatt.com/cmsid/100100...
Handelsblatt
hbapp.handelsblatt.com
January 20, 2025 at 12:16 PM
Another fun statistic: China installed more solar power in 2024 (277 GW) than had been installed globally and cumulatively until 2015 (227 GW).
So, China installed more solar last year (277 gigawatts) than the entire world installed in 2022.
Just out: Solar power additions in China in 2024 exceeded expectations, again, with a whopping 277 GW installed in just one year! This was up 28% on the already towering 217 GW added in 2023.

Wind power made a new record as well, with 79 GW added to the grid, up 5% on year.
January 21, 2025 at 10:34 AM
January 16, 2025 at 7:05 PM