Sybille Reitz

Ph.D. Title: Politics of Industrial Survival: How Coal Industry Actors Shape the Behavior of National Governments in EU Decarbonization Negotiation

Decarbonization is a central element of the EU’s energy policy. The transition away from a fossil fuel driven economy has a major impact on carbon-intensive industries and particularly the coal sector. Considering that two EU member states, Germany and Poland, are among the world’s largest coal consuming countries, the question occurs, how actors with interest in coal production and consumption are responding to demands for a rapid low carbon energy transition, why we see differences in the behavior of these coal consuming states in EU energy policy negotiations, and what we can learn from these differences for efforts to further drive the energy transition? As theoretical starting point, Sybille applies Pieter Bouwen’s “Theory of Access” to analyze how theoretical expectations change in the case of a “threat to their industrial survival”.

She has been working at the Institute for Environmental and Climate Policy at the TUM School of Public Policy in the interdisciplinary Copernicus project Evidence-based Assessment for the Design of the German Energy Transition (Ariadne) since August 2020. Within the Ariadne project, TUM's specific research focus is the investigation of local negotiation arenas and interactions with national frameworks. Thereby, policy processes are as much in the focus of the investigation as the distribution of benefits and burdens in society associated with the energy transition as well as the role of intermediary actors.

Sybille has been a PhD Candidate at the Bavarian School of Public Policy at the Technical University of Munich since November 2016. Previously, she worked as press officer for the Frankfurt-based European Insurance and Occupations Authority, and from 2000 to 2010 she was Senior Director and Global Head of Public Relations of Dow Jones Indexes, based in New York City.

Ms. Reitz holds an M.A. degree in European Studies from the University of Leipzig and a B. A. degree in Political and Administrative Science and Sociology from FernUniversität Hagen.

 

Publications

Reitz, Sybille (2018): Rezension: Klimakulturen und Raum. Umgangsweisen mit Klimawandel an europäischen Küsten (Book Review: Climate Cultures and Space. Handling Climate Change at European Coasts), pol-int.org.

Reitz, Sybille (2017): Die Energiesicherheit Deutschlands und Polens im Kontext der EU. Strategien, Gemeinsamkeiten, Unterschiede und Konfliktpotential (Energy Security in Germany and Poland in the context of the European Union. Strategies, Communalities, Differences and Conflict Potential), Leipziger Universitätsverlag, Leipzig.

Reitz, Sybille (2016): Rezension: Deutschlands Energiewende und Polens Einstieg in die Kernenergie? (Book Review: Germany’s energy transition and Poland’s Introduction of Nuclear Energy?), pol-int.org.

Reitz, Sybille (2016): Energiesicherheit in Deutschland und Polen (Energy Security in Germany and Poland), pol-int.org

Research Interest

German-Polish relations, energy policy, energy relations, European integration, state influence and behavior, negotiation and bargaining.