We have just returned from our Mosaic trip to Germany! Those of us taking an independent study as apart of this program also conducted surveys with 10 German residents on our respective topics.<\/p>\n
For my topic, I am researching how\u00a0has the German government included support for workers in the coal industry in the legal and policy frameworks during its transition away from coal. Looking at this issue from an environmental justice perspective, I have noted how important it is to have stakeholder input in government aid legislation, and the need to include all populations in a just transition.\u00a0The literature I have reviewed outlines how social security and retirement benefits are a large part of support, with hard coal workers being able to retire early due to the age of the workforce. Further, the Coal Commission was one of the first steps towards a bottom-up approach with stakeholders included. I have seen how the German government layers its support, with more overarching federal support in terms of social security and safety net extensions, while some state governments have put more funds into moving their coal-dependent communities towards other initiatives.<\/p>\n
In my surveys, I found that few people felt that there was adequate government support for coal workers. Most of their knowledge was of repurposing coal plants into tourism areas, which is largely the work of states. Some felt there was some support directly to people but most did not know of this or felt there was not enough. Germany plans to phase out its coal plants by 2038 at the latest, which is the framing for my research: Will workers in this industry be supported? However, given the current energy crisis in Germany, I included a question about how the current war and atrocities in Ukraine have affected this transition. The underlying feeling I gleaning from my surveying was that coal was harmful but that Germany was left without options.<\/p>\n
Overall, it was great to see the differences in German infrastructure and culture I experienced there. The public transportation is something I continue to return to, as it was incredibly developed when compared to my home country. I think Germany displayed a stronger culture of sustainability than the U.S., with much more parks and preserved areas, but their current energy crisis has upset many of their plans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
We have just returned from our Mosaic trip to Germany! Those of us taking an independent study as apart of this program also conducted surveys with 10 German residents on our respective topics. For my topic, I am researching how\u00a0has the German government included support for workers in the coal industry in the legal and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4851,"featured_media":139,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-138","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/advancedenvironmentalresearchandtransformativesustainabilityexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/advancedenvironmentalresearchandtransformativesustainabilityexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/advancedenvironmentalresearchandtransformativesustainabilityexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/advancedenvironmentalresearchandtransformativesustainabilityexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4851"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/advancedenvironmentalresearchandtransformativesustainabilityexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=138"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/advancedenvironmentalresearchandtransformativesustainabilityexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/advancedenvironmentalresearchandtransformativesustainabilityexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/advancedenvironmentalresearchandtransformativesustainabilityexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=138"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/advancedenvironmentalresearchandtransformativesustainabilityexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=138"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/advancedenvironmentalresearchandtransformativesustainabilityexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=138"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}