Jan Christoph Steckel

We will host the Global Conference on Environmental Taxation this year in #Berlin. Please send us your abstracts until April 15th. More info and how to apply at www.gcet27.de

⏰New Paper!
"The Economics of a Just Transition"
✍️ Ireri Hernandez Carballo, Elena Verdolini @jansteckel.bsky.social Massimo Tavoni & Francesco Vona

This paper links debates about a 'just transition' with findings from environmental economics:
🔗 www.ifo.de/en/cesifo/pu...

China's official news agency Xinhua puts the country's coal peak at "around 2027" and oil peak "around 2026", also referencing the commitment to "gradually reduce" coal consumption that has been missing from recent policy papers.

Large far-right German delegation to visit Washington, Trump ally says The invitation to the capital comes as Alternative for Germany politicians seek to build closer ties to the U.S. government.

Diplomatically unprecedented.

The German far-right opposition has reportedly been invited to Washington for an official strategy session with Republicans in the US Congress.

potsdam.pi-asp.de/bewerber-web/?xsrf=8A7EDA763340E1F39D4664EC5F04C1C7&company=PIK-FIRMA-ID&tenant=&lang=E&jobdesign=#position,id=b991f59f-bef7-4bf6-925c-f61cd2310a56,popup=y

🚨Job Alert 🚨

Interested in working with us @pik-potsdam.bsky.social (Berlin based RD5, formerly MCC)? We are looking for a new #PhD student in my team, working on #policyevaluation, #politicaleconomy and #development.

3 years funded. Focus on research. No teaching obligations.

More information 👇

We published a new @cesifo.org working paper today. Based on a new dataset covering >1.5 M households from 88 countries we analyse why households are affected and how they could be compensated effectively using detailed HH level information&ML.

Check it out here 👇
www.ifo.de/en/cesifo/pu...

potsdam.pi-asp.de/bewerber-web/?xsrf=8A7EDA763340E1F39D4664EC5F04C1C7&company=PIK-FIRMA-ID&tenant=&lang=E&jobdesign=#position,id=b991f59f-bef7-4bf6-925c-f61cd2310a56,popup=y

🚨Job Alert 🚨

Interested in working with us @pik-potsdam.bsky.social (Berlin based RD5, formerly MCC)? We are looking for a new #PhD student in my team, working on #policyevaluation, #politicaleconomy and #development.

3 years funded. Focus on research. No teaching obligations.

More information 👇

potsdam.pi-asp.de/bewerber-web/?xsrf=F26E083F225F6B52D0ABF1399FBAA225&company=PIK-FIRMA-ID&tenant=&lang=E&jobdesign=#position,id=d9a50796-9e3a-4079-b183-9f9608b858c2,popup=y

We're looking for 1-2 new research assistants in my group @pik-potsdam.bsky.social. Mostly interesting for Berlin-based students. Pls apply before November 23rd.

8/ In other words — this isn’t just analysis of language; it’s analysis of the run-up to transition decisions. Understanding discourse is understanding transition timing.

Read the paper #openaccess here:

doi.org/10.1016/j.er...

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7/ Why this matters beyond South Africa: we see discourse as part of policy sequencing. Before policies shift, narratives shift. Discourses shape what becomes politically thinkable, when coalitions emerge, and how “windows” for phase-out open (or close).

6/ Media space is dominated by Eskom, political elites, and major coal firms. Civil society, labour, and international actors appear far less. Sentiment toward mining and “transition politics” is generally positive — reinforcing continuity over disruption.

5/ Renewables are framed largely as grid relief, not replacement for coal. Carbon-management technologies (CCS, hydrogen, offsets, “clean coal”) often appear as future-fix narratives that sustain incumbency. Explicit coal-exit discourse is rare — except briefly around the #JETP announcement.

Shares of topic clusters over time. The shares represent the sum of individual topic shares within each topic cluster and are smoothed over a 3-month rolling average. Refer to the legend for the topic cluster labels.

4/ The core insight: coal remains discursively entrenched. Coverage centres on mining, politics, and the energy crisis — not coal phase-out. “Transition” language rises, but is mostly tied to crisis response and technology narratives, rather than structural change.

3/ We combine dynamic topic modelling, named-entity recognition, and sentence-level sentiment analysis, supported by careful manual reading and validation. This lets us track not just what is being said over time, but who says it and in what tone - without losing interpretive depth.

2/ We analyse ~8,000 national news articles (2010–2024) to understand how South Africa’s #coal transition is narrated — and what that reveals about #power, #politics, and pathways for change.

🚨Excited to share our new paper "Dirty talk: Media discourse and the struggle over South Africa’s coal transition", published today in #ERSS @elseviersej.bsky.social with my great @pik-potsdam.bsky.social colleagues Charlotte S. Bez and Giacomo Raederscheidt.

A quick thread 🧵1/

Call for two Stephan Klasen Fellowships at the University of Göttingen,
for postdoctoral researchers in development economics from low- and middle-income countries.

Applications close 16th November 2025.

www.uni-goettingen.de/en/632637.html

Some personal news 👇

🌎 We are glad to announce the 𝗘𝗔𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲 which provides financial assistance for a visiting period ranging from a minimum of 3 months to a maximum of one year at a university or research institute abroad

#VisitingProgramme #environmentaleconomics #careersupport #PhD #postdoc

🎓 Say hello to our newest network member, @jansteckel.bsky.social , from Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)! ‬‬

Learn more about his work in climate policy and economics: www.pik-potsdam.de/members/stec...
More Details: www.ifo.de/en/cesifo/ne...

Juniorprofessur für "Angewandte Statistik und Data Science", JP/004/25 - Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin bietet Stelle als Juniorprofessur für "Angewandte Statistik und Data Science", JP/004/25 in Berlin - jetzt bewerben!

Are you into statistics and econ/business applications?

Come work with us in Berlin, on a tenure-track professorship. We have a great athmosphere at the department, and want to learn about your research.

Please pass it on to friends, too.

#Econsky

www.academics.de/jobs/juniorp...

Opinion | We Warned About the First China Shock. The Next One Will Be Worse.

“We Warned About the First China Shock. The Next One Will Be Worse.”

Essay in the NYT by MITs David Autor and Harvard’s Gordon Hanson, who did a lot of the groundbreaking research on the first China shock.

www.nytimes.com/2025/07/14/o...

Happy to be in Munich @cesifo.org this week. Pls reach out if you are around and want to chat.

Very warm congratulations to @linusmattauch.bsky.social! Very well deserved.

🏆𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗿𝗼𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗰𝘀 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗔𝗴𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗙𝗼𝗿𝘁𝘆🏆

We are delighted to announce the winner of the 2025 European Award for Researchers in Environmental Economics under the Age of Forty: Linus Mattauch (TU Berlin & Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research)

Very happy that so many @pik-potsdam.bsky.social colleagues made it to Bergen #eaere2025 this year @eaere.bsky.social.

https://eaere-conferences.org/index.php?p=515

#EAERE2025 is here! This morning, we already had an excellent pre-EAERE workshop on Climate Policy in Low-and Middle Income countries. Now, I am looking forward to an interesting conference and meeting many old friends and making new ones @eaere.bsky.social

Most people in Germany clueless how new EU carbon price will affect heating costs – survey Many people in Germany have no idea that the planned expansion of EU carbon pricing could significantly push up their fossil fuel heating costs, in some scenarios by well over 1,000 euros per year, a survey by heat pump company Aira has found. While a large majority could not adequately predict cost increases, nearly a quarter of respondents had not even heard of the upcoming reform, the company said.

Most people in Germany clueless how new EU carbon price will affect heating costs – survey

Large majority could not adequately predict cost increases, nearly a quarter had not heard of upcoming reform

Ich habe die Innenministerien gefragt, ob die vielen Meldungen über mutmaßlich rechtsextremistische Vorfälle an Schulen gerade Zufall sind - oder ein Trend, der sich mit Zahlen belegen lässt. Ergebnis siehe ⬇️ - und heute in der ZEIT

Great overview of what's going on with global coal by @cshearer19.bsky.social et al. as usual.

Tl:dr: Global net coal capacity still increases by 19 GW but falls outside China.