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Der Blick des Akteurs
(2009)
Purpose - This paper sets out to tackle the issue of climate change from a business perspective. It seeks to discuss why it is important to take climate change considerations into account in business decisions, how this can be done and what further action is required from managers and business scholars.
Design/methodology/approach - The paper describes ways of reducing emissions and adapting to climate change that can be implemented by any business. As an illustration, the proposed climate strategy of a large European utility company, RWE, is provided.
Findings - There are numerous ways to reduce emissions within business operations, along the supply chain and surrounding product usage and disposal. Climate-proofing operations is also becoming increasingly pertinent to businesses.
Research limitations/implications - New ways have to be found yet in order to take emission reductions to a more ambitious level by altering patterns of production and consumption.
Practical implications - The paper discusses how businesses can reduce their carbon footprint and anticipate changes in the physical and political environment related to climate change.
Originality/value - The paper is of value to managers who, today, are expected not only to reduce emissions from operations, but also to gain an awareness of the physical, political and social risks stemming from the impacts of climate change.
While the number of projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is expanding rapidly, there currently are relatively few transport projects in the global CDM portfolio. This article examines existing CDM transport projects and explores whether sectoral approaches to the CDM may provide a better framework for transport than the current project‐based CDM. We ask: Would a sectoral approach to the CDM promote the structural change and integrated policymaking needed to achieve sustainable transport policy, making it hence more desirable than the framework of the current project‐based CDM? We conclude that it is possible to design sectoral transport activities within clear project boundaries that fit into a framework of a programmatic or policy‐based CDM. Although we are able to ascertain that transport policy research yields several modelling tools to address the methodological requirements of the CDM, it becomes apparent that sectoral approaches will accentuate transport projects' problems regarding high complexity and related uncertainties. The CDM may need new rules to manage these risks. Nonetheless, sectoral approaches allow the scaling up of activities to a level that affects long‐term structural change.
Economics of Knowledge
(2009)
Bad Hersfeld is a small city with about 30.000 inhabitants situated in the middle of Germany. Climate Protection has been on the political agenda in Bad Hersfeld since quite a while. In 1997 the Wuppertal Institute elaborated a first energy and CO2 balance for the city, which was updated in 2007. With the compilation of the CO2 balance it was shown that the emissions in Bad Hersfeld almost stayed at a constant level between 1997 and 2006.
The result was sobering for the local authority. Although some single measures had been implemented, there was no improvement of the CO2-balance.
It was concluded that a successful climate protection strategy needs a comprehensive concept comprising all sectors and a periodic monitoring. Bad Hersfeld commissioned the Wuppertal Institute to develop feasible measures to reduce the CO2 emissions drastically and instruments to overcome existing barriers. In a close cooperation with the City Council and the local municipal utility a climate protection concept was compiled that is rather ambitious for a city of this size.
In consideration of the regional peculiarities12 concrete measures and 7 accompanying measures build the core of the concept with a main focus on energy efficiency (final energy), combined heat and power (CHP) and renewable energies. Another important part of the concept is a municipal support programme to develop the endogenous efficiency potentials and renewable energies in the region. Further to these planning instruments, information and networking activities are compiled as well as a variety of suggestions for a climate protection marketing (Wagner 2008).
Some of these measures that were developed in an iterative and cooperative process between the responsible actors in Bad Hersfeld and the Wuppertal Institute are transferable to other cities and towns. The impeding factors in Bad Hersfeld like the user-investor dilemma, the low capital of small housing associations or the large stock of listed historical buildings, are typical for cities of this size.
Ende Dezember 2008 wurde im Europäischen Parlament die "Richtlinie über die geologische Speicherung von CO2" (auch als CCS-Richtlinie bezeichnet) verabschiedet, die eine Schlüsselrolle für die Entwicklung und die Umsetzung von Projekten der CO2-Abscheidung und -Speicherung (CCS) spielt. Der Artikel erläutert den Zusammenhang der CCS-Richtlinie mit dem Energie- und Klimapaket der EU, stellt die wesentlichen Inhalte der Richtlinie vor, zeigt die energiewirtschaftlichen Implikationen auf und arbeitet heraus, welche Regelungen zur Umsetzung der Richtlinie nun vom deutschen Gesetzgeber erfolgen müssen.