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Rainer Baake, director of Agora Energiewende, to become Permanent State Secretary in the Economics Ministry
Rainer Baake, director of Agora Energiewende, will become Permanent State Secretary in the German Ministry of Economics, incoming minister Sigmar Gabriel announced.
Since early April 2012, Rainer Baake has been the head of Agora Energiewende, a Berlin-based think tank founded by the Mercator Foundation and the European Climate Foundation. It aims to use dialogue platforms, participation processes, and research projects to improve the foundation of knowledge via feasible paths to the renewables age. The Agora Energiewende team and the two foundations would like to congratulate Baake and wish him all the best.
“I look forward to the opportunity to work with Minister Gabriel and the new federal government on successfully achieving the energy transition in Germany. At the same time, I would like to thank the Mercator Foundation and the European Climate Foundation for the trust they have shown me in the last few years,” Baake says. "We here at Agora Energiewende were able to make important contributions to the energy discussion over the last two years.”
“We would like to congratulate Rainer Baake. The fact that he was asked to join the Ministry is an encouraging sign of the progress that can be made in continuing to implement the Energiewende. The successful work being done at Agora Energiewende will continue,” promises Bernhard Lorentz, managing director at the Mercator Foundation. “We’re very grateful to Rainer Baake for being a major player in the founding and growth of Agora Energiewende,” says Johannes Meier, CEO of the European Climate Foundation.
The Mercator Foundation and the European Climate Foundation worked together to found Agora Energiewende in early 2012 with the goal of supporting the implementation of the energy transition in Germany. The two foundations provided 14 million euros in funding to the organization.
About Rainer Baake
Baake, an economist, served as deputy district administrator of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Germany. In 1991, Joschka Fischer appointed him Permanent State Secretary in Hesse’s Environmental Ministry. From 1998 to 2005, he was Permanent State Secretary of the Federal Environmental Ministry under Jürgen Trittin in charge of the German government’s major projects related to environmental policy, such as the nuclear phase-out, the Renewable Energy Act, emissions trading, and the Kyoto Protocol. From 2006 to 2012, Baake was director of German Environmental Aid (Deutsche Umwelthilfe), where he focused on climate and energy issues. He became director of the think tank Agora Energiewende in April 2012.
Baake, an economist, served as deputy district administrator of the Marburg-Biedenkopf district in Germany. In 1991, Joschka Fischer appointed him Permanent State Secretary in Hesse’s Environmental Ministry. From 1998 to 2005, he was Permanent State Secretary of the Federal Environmental Ministry under Jürgen Trittin in charge of the German government’s major projects related to environmental policy, such as the nuclear phase-out, the Renewable Energy Act, emissions trading, and the Kyoto Protocol. From 2006 to 2012, Baake was director of German Environmental Aid (Deutsche Umwelthilfe), where he focused on climate and energy issues. He became director of the think tank Agora Energiewende in April 2012.