ENERGIEWENDE, 20 YEARS LATER

IN 2000, GERMANY launched a deliberately targeted program to decarbonize its primary energy supply, a plan more ambitious than anything seen anywhere else. The policy, called the Energiewende, is rooted in Germany's naturalistic and romantic tradition, reflected in the rise of the Green Party and, more recently, in public opposition to nuclear electricity generation. These attitudes are not shared by the country's two large neighbors: France built the world's leading nuclear industrial complex with hardly any opposition, and Poland is content burning its coal.