Katherina Reiche

Rather surprisingly, Katherina Reiche rose to become one of the most important players in energy and climate policy this year when Friedrich Merz appointed the former member of the Bundestag and former energy manager as Economics Minister. After starting her term in office with much advance praise and hopes for a new direction in energy policy, especially from parts of the economy, disillusionment is now spreading among many observers. Whether gas-fired power plants, GEG reform or EEG amendment: little has happened so far with many announced projects. And in the energy transition monitoring, which was supposed to form the basis for the government's future energy policy, Reiche disregarded the experts' findings on key points in her conclusions.