The Energy Transition is the set of policies and structural changes aimed at decarbonising the economy. Germany, the United Kingdom and France have taken the lead in implementing national policies to facilitate the Energy Transition. All three countries have set out a range of ambitious targets and policies to cut emissions, deploy renewable resources, and improve energy efficiency: the Energiewende in Germany, the Carbon Plan and the Electricity Market Reform in the UK, and the Loi sur la transition énergétique pour la croissance verte in France.

First, these three countries differ in their energy mixes. France sources the largest share of its generation from nuclear, with 75%, while Germany and the UK have the largest shares of coal in the generation mix, with 44% and 39% respectively.

In contrast, the high carbon intensities in Germany and the UK have been powerful drivers for pushing for ambitious energy efficiency and renewables targets.

On the one hand, Germany has decided to phase out nuclear (the last nuclear reactor will shut down by 2022), and France has decided to gradually reduce the weight of nuclear (by 2025 nuclear will represent 50% of total production in the power sector, down from the current 70%). On the other hand, the UK has decided to construct a new nuclear reactor.

As previously mentioned, the German government is supporting the production and consumption of renewable energies over the use of hydrocarbons and nuclear power. The result of this policy is an increasing share of renewable power for internal generation, which in 2014 reached 26%. The main natural resource exploited is wind energy (9.1%), followed by biomass (7%), photovoltaic (5.7%) and water (hydro) (3.3%).

At the peak of the nuclear era, Germany generated about 30% of its electricity from nuclear power; this percentage share has since decreased, due to the crises affecting the nuclear power industry.

All of these factors resulted in a decrease of the nuclear power share to 22% in 2010, down to 18% today (2014).