Fritz Vahrenholt

Fritz Vahrenholt ( born May 8, 1949 in Gelsenkirchen- Buer ) is a German politician ( SPD) and managers.

From 1991 to 1997 he was a Senator for the Environment in Hamburg. In 1998, he joined the industry and was until 2001 the Board of Deutsche Shell. In 2001 he moved to the position of CEO of REpower Systems AG and remained there until 2007. From February 2008 to July 2012 he was CEO of RWE subsidiary RWE Innogy, then he transferred to the newly constituted board of the company. Vahrenholt since 1999 honorary professor at the University of Hamburg, Department of Chemistry.

Life and work

Training

Vahrenholt began in 1968 to study chemistry at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster and graduated in 1972. He then completed his PhD at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in 1974 in chemistry. There was a research stay at the Max Planck Institute for Coal Research in Mülheim an der Ruhr.

State Institutions

After stints at the Federal Environmental Agency in Berlin and from 1981 as Ministerial under Holger Börner in the Hessian Ministry of Environment, Vahrenholt was 1984-1990 State of the Environment Agency in Hamburg. 1990 until 1991 he led the Hamburg Senate Chancellery, he was from 1991 to 1997 in Hamburg Senator of the Environment Agency and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of HEW.

To Vahrenholt priorities as Senator for the Environment among an extensive renovation and expansion of the urban drainage and waste management, environmental remediation, for example, in Bille settlement, and the air pollution control. In addition, during his tenure, several areas have been designated as nature reserves, including 860 hectares of Kirchwerder meadows. Following the resignation of Henning Voscherau First Mayor of Hamburg, to its successor Vahrenholt tried, but failed in the SPD internal vote against Ortwin Runde.

Industry

In 1998 Vahrenholt to Deutsche Shell AG, which has sought to improve its image, which had suffered mainly due to the public protest against the sinking of the floating oil tanks Brent Spar.

From 1998 to 2001 he was a board member of Deutsche Shell AG, responsible for the areas of chemistry, renewable energy, public relations, environmental protection and current business and moved in 2001 to the Supervisory Board. In 2001 he took over the chairmanship of the newly founded REpower Systems, a position he held until the end of 2007. During this time he was a member of the Council for Sustainable Development under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and from 2005 under Chancellor Angela Merkel.

As of February 2008 Vahrenholt worked for the energy company RWE as head of the division for renewable energy subsidiary RWE Innogy. The Supervisory Board of his former company REpower Systems he left in July 2008 ..

Mandates

Vahrenholt held several supervisory board mandates, inter alia, the following companies:

• Aurubis ( Member )
• Rhine Albbruck- Dogern AG (Chairman)
• Putz & Partner Consulting AG ( Member )

Former Supervisory Board mandates:

• North German Affinerie
• ErSol
• HEW
• German Shell AG
• REpower Systems
• ThyssenKrupp
• Verbio
• Kelag
• Green Exchange, New York

Teaching and other commitment

Since 1991 Vahrenholt exercised lecturer at the Technical University of Harburg and Hamburg University.

In addition, he is still active in other areas, which is reflected in his former position as a member of the Council for Sustainable Development and its membership of the Advisory Board of the Körber Foundation. Vahrenholt is currently a member of the Senate of the Fraunhofer Society and the Bio-economy.

In August 2012, Vahrenholt took over the sole director of the German Wildlife Foundation, which advocates for the protection and promotion of indigenous wildlife.

Energy policy and climate skeptics

In the course of discussion on energy policy Vahrenholt pleaded for a lifetime extension of German nuclear power plants and for the development and construction of pebble bed reactors.

Vahrenholt represents in the media and own the publications of much of the science has not shared the opinion that the sun is responsible for global warming at least in equal parts as the human-induced carbon dioxide emissions. He points to a 16-year observed halt the global temperature increase, claiming that the reports of the IPCC by environmental organizations such as Greenpeace and WWF are affected. In April 2011 he was a guest at an event of skeptical climate -profit association European Institute for Climate and Energy ( EIKE ). Critics insinuate Vahrenholt that his spoke on the controversy surrounding global warming and its criticism of the IPCC due to his work for RWE were motivated as RWE, 2011, the individual companies with the largest CO2 emissions in the European Union was. The proof of the allegation is made ​​, yet Vahrenholt was sharply criticized by scientists in part, and the University of Osnabrueck said a planned lecture by Vahrenholt, while other universities have the non- connected and continue to invite the mainstream critical scholars.

In early 2012 he released the employed by RWE geologists Sebastian Lüning The cold sun, a book of skeptical climate theses. Excerpts from the book were in a three part series entitled preprinted CO2 lie in the tabloid Bild. Dozens of journalists, as well as energy and climate experts disagreed with the analysis Vahrenholt and his political requirement to be " more time " in the transformation of the energy system.

Publications

• Developing a disorder SCF process for the treatment of geometry changes in molecules. Dissertation. University of Münster, 1974
• By Egmont R. Koch: Seveso is everywhere. The deadly risks of chemistry. With a foreword by Erhard Eppler. Kiepenheuer & Petrovich, Cologne 1978, ISBN 3-462-01290-8; Fischer -Taschenbuch -Verlag, Frankfurt 1980, ISBN 3-596-23804-8
• With Rainer Grießhammer & Frank Claus: formaldehyde. A nation is glued. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1984, ISBN 3-499-15543-5
• (Ed.): Tempo 100 emergency aid for the forest? Rowohlt, Reinbek 1984, ISBN 3-499-33058- X
• Global market potential for renewable energy. German Shell AG, Hamburg 1998.
• The era of cheap oil is over. Finite resources require new energy mix. In: International Politics. 56 (1), 2001, pp. 11-16
• Renewable Energy: Strategic development of a new core business. In: Klaus Fichter & Uwe Schneidewind ( Eds.): Environmental protection in global competition. New rules for the limitless business. Springer, Berlin [ ua] 2000, ISBN 3-540-67468-3, pp. 223-228
• Profits and principles. In: Thomas Bausch, Annette Kleinfeld & Horst Steinmann (ed.): Corporate ethics in business practice. Hampp, München / Mering 2000, ISBN 3-87988-458-7, pp. 33ff.
• Sebastian Lüning: The cold sun. Why the climate catastrophe does not occur. Hoffmann und Campe, Hamburg 2012, ISBN 3-455-50250-4.