It is telling that the high-level international conference is organised by and held at Germany's foreign office, which clearly wants to promote the global Energiewende – and with it the export of German renewable technology across the world.

Germany's climate concerns no doubt remain real, but it does help that 70% of what the country's renewable industry produces is for export, as the executive director of the German Renewable Energies Federtion (BEE), Hermann Falk, points out.

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