Tempelhofer Feld is a beloved communal recreation area of Berliners. Tempelhofer Feld is not just a park. It is a park built instead of an airport. In 2008, when the almost century-old Tempelhofer airport was closed, the city of Berlin declared the centrally located, 386-hectare (!) open space for public use. Today, the area has six-kilometer cycling, skating, and jogging trail, a 2.5-hectare barbeque area, a dog-walking field covering around four hectares, and an enormous picnic area for visitors – everything we, Tbilisi citizens, can only dream of.

On Tuesday, May 24, Dr. David Ubilava from the University of Sidney gave a presentation entitled "The El Niño Southern Oscillation and Economic Growth”. Dr. Ubilava started the presentation with the definitions of such phenomena such as climate anomalies and weather and emphasized the importance of weather as a factor in agricultural production.

Looking down from the famous cross-path of the Georgian Military Highway, you will notice a beautiful little lake that was not there six years ago. The lake is a small reservoir that supplies power to the 8 MW Aragvi HPP. On May 19, the ISET community and guests from professional circles in the energy sector heard the story behind this hydropower plant in a seminar entitled “Small Hydropower – what’s special about it and how to implement it?” delivered by Hanness Posch, a civil engineer and entrepreneur working on hydropower projects in Georgia.

Regulations in the energy sector are there in order to ensure improvements in efficiency and service quality. They are essential because many actors in the energy sector of any country are state companies and/or natural monopolies for which efficiency and quality of service are somewhat foreign concepts.

Supported by Norway’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ISET’s collaboration with the Norwegian School of Economics (Norges Handelshøyskole – NHH) started more than four years ago with regular faculty visits by some of the most senior NHH scholars, professors Einar Hope and Rognvaldur Hannesson. The main goal of the new 3-year phase, to be financed by the Norwegian Centre for International Cooperation in Education (Senter for internasjonalisering av utdanning (SIU)), is to develop a dual degree program in energy and environmental economics.