Christoph Bertram

@christoph-bertram.bsky.social

940 followers 570 following 440 posts

Energy systems modeling & policy analysis - Associate Research Professor at Center for Global Sustainability, CGS @ctrglobsust.bsky.social at UMD @univofmaryland.bsky.social
German living and biking in DC, and with odd interest in basketball
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Economics 25%

Political science 22%

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Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · Sep 24

Great to see this product of work over the last half year with many great colleagues at @ctrglobsust.bsky.social launched.

What are possible high ambition emission pathways until 2035 for major countries, and their implications in the electricity sector and for fossil fuels? Find out 👇

Center for Global Sustainability @ctrglobsust.bsky.social · Sep 24

Just launched 📣
CGS's new flagship website on Country Climate Ambition offers critical insight for the Paris process through in-depth analyses and policy recommendations for major-emitting countries, as they set and seek to achieve ambitious 2035 #NDCs: www.country-ambition.cgs.umd.edu

A global map with colored dots indicating countries with analyses from a new CGS report. The text overlay reads: "Country Climate Ambition: High Ambition Pathways for National and Global Climate Goals; In the midst of the third round of the NDC cycle, the Center for Global Sustainability has launched a new flagship website on Country Climate Ambition, which provides in-depth analyses of plausible, high-ambition pathways and policy recommendations for 12 major-emitting countries towards 2035 and net-zero goals: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mexico, Republic of Korea, and South Africa.

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 16d

He gets 350 km of range which lasts him a full day driving in Sao Paulo, not least thanks to recuperation going down its many hills. So far he charges for 2 hours during his lunch break but still loves it. Many nice features for the passengers: USB charging, cup holder, sliding door, coat hanger. /2

Seat with cup holder, tissue dispenser and USB charging ports

Seat with cup holder, tissue dispenser and coat hanger

View of dashboard showing a small speed indicator behind the wheel

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 16d

First ride in an electric taxi powered by Brazil's very clean electricity (see country-ambition.cgs.umd.edu/brazil#elect...). Just wow on how much space this offers inside for what from the outside even for European standards is a compact car. Very cheap according to yhe very friendly Rogerio 1/2

White battery electric compact car driving into a hotel driveway

183 cm tall passenger in the fond trying his best to sit as upright as possible bit still not reaching the roof

Same passenger can stretch his legs as much as he wants, while a carry-on suitcase has conveniently been rolled in through the automatic sliding door on the right.
Personally also like the orange handle to ease entry and exit for passengers with knee issues (incl. me)

Reposted by Christoph Bertram

Lauri Myllyvirta @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social · 16d

China's formal submission of its new climate targets leaves out the commitment made in 2021 to gradually reduce coal consumption in 2026-30. It does reiterate the commitment to reduce carbon intensity, which is currently badly off track, but doesn't provide any progress update.

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Christoph Bertram

Kevin J. Kircher @kevinjkircher.com · 16d

The article doesn't say it, but this cool solar forecasting software uses no large language models, the thing people usually think of when they hear "AI." It uses a fairly simple convolutional neural network that's readily trained on a laptop. No data centers or LLMs involved. Research paper here:

Reposted by Neil Pederson, Christoph Bertram, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Carole V. Bell @cvbell.bsky.social · 17d

Some much needed good news. “Jamaicans Have Been Turning to Solar Power. It Paid Off After the Storm.” Guft link: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/08/c...

Jamaicans Have Been Turning to Solar Power. It Paid Off After the Storm.

www.nytimes.com

Reposted by Christoph Bertram

Meade Krosby @meadekrosby.bsky.social · 18d

Hey all you might want to check your "require alt text" setting - mine got turned off and it sounds like it's happened to others, too (presumably with recent updates).

And if you've never done this, now's a good time:

Settings → Accessibility → Require alt text before posting

Reposted by Christoph Bertram

Jan Christoph Steckel @jansteckel.bsky.social · 21d

🚨Excited to share our new paper "Dirty talk: Media discourse and the struggle over South Africa’s coal transition", published today in #ERSS @elseviersej.bsky.social with my great @pik-potsdam.bsky.social colleagues Charlotte S. Bez and Giacomo Raederscheidt.

A quick thread 🧵1/

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 22d

Thanks, Robert. Do you have any idea on when? Is that something that the UNFCCC does, or is that up to the party?
It seems that at least the NDCs in Spanish don't get an English translation (e.g. Chile submitted in September 2025, or Uruguay submitted in December 2024 are without translation)...

Reposted by Christoph Bertram, Gary Polhill

J. Doyne Farmer @doynefarmer.bsky.social · 22d

We're looking for a postdoc for our new project on forecasting technological change - more details below

Institute for New Economic Thinking, Oxford @inetoxford.bsky.social · 22d

JOB OPPORTUNITY: Post Doctoral Research Associate in the Economics of Technological Change (2yr) ➵ https://www.inet.ox.ac.uk/vacancies
Join the @oxmartinschool.bsky.social Prog. on Forecasting Technological Change, led by @francoislafond.bsky.social , @doynefarmer.bsky.social & @maxroser.bsky.social

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 22d

Good to see that China has now officially submitted its NDC with 2035 target, though the targets are still disappointing, see e.g. our analysis bsky.app/profile/chri...
Anyone aware of a good English translation?
@drsimevans.carbonbrief.org @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social @carbonbrief.org

Reposted by Rosie A. Fisher, Christoph Bertram

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 22d

Sales of non-diesel heavy trucks in the Chinese domestic market reached 57% of the total in September. LNG truck sales are still doing well, but the growth is largely in battery trucks.

Graph showing: China domestic sales of heavy trucks

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 25d

Halloween decoration in the neighborhood (photo taken a few days ago)

House with Halloween decoration, including 3 tombstones reading: "RIP Rule of Law", "Here lies democracy. She died in darkness 1776-2025", and more humoristically, and hopefully the only definite death: "The East Wing 1902-2025"

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 25d

The report is based on detailed sector policy modeling with the global GCAM model, and also explicitly addresses the role of Canada as a fossil fuel exporter, showing that the country is at a crossroads of either locking-in further dependence on fossil exports, or embracing modern technologies. 2/2

Figure 4. A) Key climate policy metrics in 2035 relative to 2021 across scenarios. Due to shared assumptions, the Current Policies, Climate First, Moderate Ambition, and High Ambition scenarios fully coincide at 100% ZEV sales shares of LDVs. Similarly, for ZEV sales shares of freight trucks, the Fossil First and Current Policies scenarios coincide at 3% and Climate First, Moderate Ambition, and High Ambition at 30%. B) Oil and gas exports in 2035 relative to 2021 across scenarios.

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 25d

Great work by our own team Canada, Kowan O'Keefe and Xavier Nelson-Rowntree. They show how Canada can overachieve their 2035 NDC ("Mod Amb"), but also discuss in detail the political difficulties, and crucial impact of whether regulation changes favor fossils or mitigation technologies. 1/2

Figure 2. A) Economy-wide net GHG emissions compared to historical emissions from Canada’s National Inventory Report. B) Absolute change in net GHG emissions by sector from 2021

Reposted by Peter Thorne, Wolfgang Crämer, Christoph Bertram

Valérie Masson-Delmotte @valmasdel.bsky.social · 26d

The economic case for methane action is clear.

- Global methane abatement yields large net global economic benefits.
- The benefit-cost ratio of methane action is at least 3—rising to more than 6 when health cobenefits are included.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Net present value of climate benefits (market and nonmarket), air-quality cobenefits, and abatement costs under five methane abatement cost scenarios. Horizontal black lines show net benefits. The dashed line indicates the switching value threshold and available cost headroom before net present value is reduced to zero. The discount rate is 2.5%.

Methane emissions and effect on global mean temperature of methane action scenarios.
(Left) Methane emissions. (Right) Effect on global mean temperature. Background emissions scenario is SSP2-4.5. The shaded area is the 90% confidence interval of temperature outcomes pertaining to the central methane action scenario, based on parametric uncertainty in META sampled by 1000 Monte Carlo runs. “Methane action – high” and “Methane action – low” describe methane action scenarios resulting in high and low emissions, respectively. Specification includes tipping points.

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 28d

Nice to hear someone take these loser actions, signs of incredible weakness rather than strength with humor...probably an attitude that can be helpful for many of us

Annie M Leonard @anniemleonard.bsky.social · 28d

“Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.” - Wole Soyinka

Keep writing, keep reading, keep speaking, keep protesting. These are our hard won democratic rights.
@justprotest.bsky.social

Trump administration strips Nigerian Nobel winner Wole Soyinka of US visa

The first African author to win the Nobel in literature, Soyinka has been an outspoken critic of governments worldwide.

www.aljazeera.com

Reposted by Christoph Bertram

Annie M Leonard @anniemleonard.bsky.social · 28d

Trump administration strips Nigerian Nobel winner Wole Soyinka of US visa

The first African author to win the Nobel in literature, Soyinka has been an outspoken critic of governments worldwide.

www.aljazeera.com

Reposted by American Library Association, Christoph Bertram

Jeremy Wallace @jeremywallace.bsky.social · 28d

The DOJ is investigating unusual NBA prop betting, but it seems to me that insider trading coming out of the White House is a much much bigger problem.

tweet from bng capital about someone buying options related to the westinghouse nuclear deal

Reposted by Michael E. Mann, Peter Thorne, Christoph Bertram , and 1 more Michael E. Mann, Peter Thorne, Christoph Bertram, Silvia Secchi

Leah Stokes @leahstokes.bsky.social · 28d

A billionaire who thought we shouldn't give the poor free COVID vaccines, and hung out with Epstein, wrote some weird, vague stuff about how climate change "isn't that bad" and now the media is covering that rather than a record climate fueled hurricane.

The age of oligarchy sure is exhausting.

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 28d

The scenarios from both these studies should be in the AR5 db, and include some scenarios that are in the 1.5 range, but I don't know of any like-for-like comparison with newer scenarios
www.nature.com/articles/nat...
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

Reposted by Katharine Hayhoe, Valerie M. Delmotte, Stefan Rahmstorf , and 8 more Katharine Hayhoe, Valerie M. Delmotte, Stefan Rahmstorf, Peter Thorne, Ed Hawkins, Benjamin I. Cook, David Johnson, Christoph Bertram, Richard Waite, Dawn J. Wright, Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

Kate Marvel @drkatemarvel.bsky.social · 28d

Climate change DEFINITELY affects hurricane:

STRENGTH: Warmer water is hurricane food

RAINFALL: Warm air holds more water vapor

SURGE: Warmer water expands, warmer ice melts, sea levels rise

PREDICTION: hotter seas mean faster intensification

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 28d

Here is an interesting overview of self reported emission timeseries by US HE institutions:
bsky.app/profile/alex...
It would be great if universities also engage more with processes like SBTI or the Oxford offsetting principles:
sciencebasedtargets.org/net-zero
iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

Alex Barron @alexrbarron.bsky.social · 29d

Carbon neutrality doesn’t always lead to decarbonization. But who is decarbonizing? We looked at >600 US colleges and universities and found 7 that have decarbonized direct (Scope 1) emissions by at least 50% (usually with ground source heat pump networks). This is possible folks! 1/6

Reduction in direct emissions at decarbonizing HEIs. Keene state college with an over 90% reduction from waste vegetable oil. Missouri University of Science and Technology with an 88% reduction from ground source heat pumps. The rest (Ball State, Carleton, Oberlin, Miami and West Chester) all also used ground source heat pumps.

Reposted by Christoph Bertram

Climate Action Tracker @climateactiontracker.org · 29d

The last #G20 country setting a net zero target is Mexico, which announced its 2050 net zero target at COP29.
As of October 2025, however, Mexico, South Africa and Indonesia have not further substantiated scope & architecture of their targets, so our assessments remain ‘information incomplete’.

Reposted by Stelios Katsanevakis, Christoph Bertram

Climate Action Tracker @climateactiontracker.org · 29d

📣 Today we have updated our summary of net zero targets across 40+ of the world's largest emitters. What do we see?

🛑 Ten years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement, the design of most net zero targets remains inadequate.

🔗 climateactiontracker.org/global/cat-n...

Reposted by Christoph Bertram

Robbie Andrew @robbieandrew.bsky.social · 29d

And welcome to Ecuador, new entrant on the page! 🥳

Graph showing: Ecuadorian new passenger car sales by type: Monthly

Reposted by Christoph Bertram, Michael Zimmer

Jess Calarco @jessicacalarco.com · 29d

Big tech firms are shutting down programs aimed at supporting women in STEM careers. Signaling once again that the spine of corporate America is as hollow as its pockets are deep.

www.cnn.com/2025/10/23/t...

‘Their history is just erased’: Google drops a key program for boosting women in tech | CNN Business

Google is offloading a key career resource program for supporting women in tech, another sign the search giant is unwinding its diversity programs following political pressure over diversity, equity a...

www.cnn.com

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 29d

Our own assessments are thus more optimistic on faster coal peak and phase-down.
www.country-ambition.cgs.umd.edu/china
www.country-ambition.cgs.umd.edu/india
www.country-ambition.cgs.umd.edu/indonesia
Importantly, however both analyses agree that coal can decline with right policies. 3/3

China | CGS

Our High Ambition pathway for China shows overall greenhouse gas (GHG) and CO2 emissions peak before 2025 and a 27-31% reduction of total GHG emissions (including Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestr...

www.country-ambition.cgs.umd.edu

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 29d

This figure is also great, and in my view, the fact that the y-axis scale for IDN is only 1/30th of that for China means that things can also move much quicker in Indonesia. We have some evidence that the transfer of the needed solar technology is now happening at scale (see other plots) 2/3

Figure 2 — Annually added power generation from non-fossil energy sources compared to
average growth in power generation, in China, India and Indonesia, 2015 to 2025
Note: Newly added power generation is calculated as added capacity multiplied by average capacity factor of each technology in each
country. Sources: China Electricity Council, Indiaʼs Central Electricity Authority, Ember.

From https://ember-energy.org/data/china-cleantech-exports-data-explorer/
explosive growth of EV and solar PV exports from China to Indonesia since 2024.

https://www.netzeropolicylab.com/china-green-leap
Figure 5b. Top fifteen Host countries that have received Chinese overseas green manufacturing investment by pledged investment

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 29d

That's a great report, and my favorite figure is Figure 3:
This visualizes well what we have achieved since Paris - phasing down/out coal in all but a handful of countries -, and what matters most in the next years 1) doing so in those remaining few countries & 2) starting phase-out of o&g 1/3

Figure 3 — Countries with the largest increases in energy sector CO2 emissions: From the
adoption of the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015 to 2024
Source: Statistical Review of Worldʼs Energy8.

Christoph Bertram @christoph-bertram.bsky.social · 29d

Octopus UK offers a V2G product. The US with much more offstreet parking, and more and larger vehicles, and larger electricity consumption seems a larger total adressable market for this eventually, so would be curious to hear about their plans, car OEM partners etc.

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