19 November 2021

The American Chamber of Commerce in Germany (AmCham Germany’s) event “Decarbonizing the Economy and Enabling Green Growth,” hosted virtually on 18 November 2021, illuminated key areas of overlap between the United States and Germany’s green transitions as well as areas for further collaboration. As part of AmCham Germany’s new virtual series “Transatlantic Talks 2021: Paving the Path Ahead,” the event facilitated an exchange between speakers Anna Shpitsberg – Deputy Assistant Secretary for Energy Transformation, U.S. Department of State – and Brice Raisin – Vice President, Heavy Duty Gas Turbine Sales, GE Gas Power EMEA.

The dialogue between Shpitsberg and Raisin made it clear that both the public and private sectors in Germany and the US are serious about the green transition and that achieving their sustainability commitments will require facilitation from the government, especially regarding innovation. “Green technologies need to drop in cost, which means someone needs to pay more on the front end” Shpitsberg said.

As global leaders on the path towards net-zero emissions, Germany and the US have a critical role to play in shifting the world towards carbon neutrality. In addition to sharing insights into topics such as transitioning their electricity grids and designing decarbonization policy instruments, the two countries should cooperate on lowering the cost of green technologies and bringing emerging economies into the innovation process. Germany and the US need to ensure that developing countries are included in the conversation on technologies that are not yet commercially viable and form part of their supply chains, otherwise large swaths of the world run the risk of getting left behind in the green transition.

Read more about the Transatlantic Talks series on the AmCham website: https://www.amcham.de/events/transatlantic-talks-2021