The German contribution to limiting global warming to two degrees has to be - as in other developed countries, too - a reduction of 80 to 95 percent of CO2 emissions by 2050 compared to 1990. The project "Low Carbon City Wuppertal 2050" has analysed how such a drastic reduction of CO2 could be achieved on a municipal level in the transportation and residential sector by also working on the land use and material flows dimension. The focus of this paper lies on the space heating in the residential sector.
Wuppertal is a city with about 350,000 inhabitants in the West of Germany. According to the CO2 balance (2007) of the city that was adjusted to the year 2010, the emissions that were caused by space heating in the residential sector remained almost the same since 1990. They decreased slightly from 693,000 tons CO2 in 1990 to 691,000 tons in 2010, although final energy use for space heating increased by about 15 percent. But the shift of energy sources especially from coal to gas avoided an increase of emissions. However, the reduction target of 95 percent means that CO2 emissions have to be reduced to 35,000 tons per year until 2050.
A reference scenario shows that the city could achieve about 30 percent of the reduction required with the current trend of renewable energy development and energy efficiency measures such as retrofitting the building stock. But looking at the difficult financial conditions of the municipality as well as at the socio-economic situation of the inhabitants it becomes clear that the remaining 65 percent of the target to a 95 percent reduction will be difficult to reach and that innovative measures of energy efficiency and sufficiency1 need to be developed.
But which social-ecological effects does the implementation of comprehensive climate protection measures have on the inhabitants of a city? How do people live in a "Low Carbon City"? In this paper qualitative and quantitative scenarios will be developed since the combination of both is promising to show both effects: what share could renewable energies, energy efficiency and sufficiency measures have in reaching the target of 95 percent, and how could life look like in an almost CO2 free city in Germany in 2050.
The efficiency strategy to exploit the potential for energy savings in buildings still is applied rather slowly in most countries. In addition, there are indications that energy savings are partly compensated particularly by wealth but also rebound effects, the "empty nest" (persistence of elderly people and couples in family homes), and cohort effects (e.g. vintages of people or buildings). In Germany, as in other European countries, the existing trend in housing is a continuously growing floor space per capita. Over the last decades it expanded from about 20 m2 in 1960 to currently 45 m2 per person. Forecasts expect a further increase to more than 50 m2 per person. Obviously, more floor space needs more energy for space heating and cooling, ventilation, and lighting, but it also allows the household to operate more and or bigger appliances, all of which increase energy consumption.
On the other hand, housing projects emerge offering relatively small private living spaces in combination with various shared spaces to use. Many of them are based on private initiatives. But what is the motivation behind it? And is there a higher need for new living concepts in the future?
The proposed paper presents main drivers of increasing floor space per capita in Germany and discusses the question if more space is necessary for higher comfort. It presents different examples of housing concepts that strive to achieve good living with less space and suggests a "building typology of sufficiency".
Finally, the paper discusses qualitatively to which extent these housing concepts can lead to less energy use and emissions. In this way sufficiency could be best friend with efficiency and tackle wealth, rebound, and other effects that counter-act efficiency progress. But therefore, as the paper concludes, politics and policies should recognise sufficiency as a field of action instead of referring to individual decisions and lifestyles.
Estimating the sufficiency potential in buildings : the space between underdimensioned and oversized
(2019)
The emission reduction potential of energy efficiency and energy supply in buildings is estimated in various energy and climate action plans, scenarios, and potential analyses. But the third pillar of sustainability - sufficiency - is neglected in most studies.The increasing demand of space per person in the residential sector is a trend in most European countries. Its implication on energy use, demand for resources like land, building material, equipment, and waste production is enormous. Next to the ecological impact, the distribution of space has social and societal effects. Thus, sufficiency policies in the building sector complementing efficiency and energy policy are needed for a sustainable development of the European building stock.
But how can a sufficiency potential in the building sector be estimated? How much space and equipment is needed for a decent living and how much is too much? The paper proposes four areas of sufficiency in buildings: space, design and construction, equipment, and use. It presents a set of indicators, a quantitative estimate of energy savings from reduced per capita floor area, and visualises the sufficiency potential in European countries in an experimental approach. The final discussion focuses on the question: What does this mean for policy making?
A case study in the rural area of South Westphalia, Germany, showed the importance of independent intermediaries to support the development and implementation of sustainable energy and efficiency projects. The idea behind the project "Dorf ist Energie(klug)" (Village is Energy(smart)) was to foster, accompany, and support energy and efficiency projects in villages from the first idea to final implementation. Therefore, the South Westphalia Agency as independent intermediary initiated an application process in which villages could apply with their innovative energy and efficiency project ideas. During the following process the chosen "coaching villages" benefitted from the consultation of teams of thematic experts. Villages with less developed projects were supported through idea workshops with experts and study visits.
The accompanying scientific study evaluated the overall process focussing on the transferability, the sustainability and the quality of the process. Furthermore, a self evaluation tool for (energy) projects in villages was developed and tested in two of the participating coaching villages.
The paper gives a short insight into the project "Dorf ist Energie(klug)". It presents the methodology of the accompanying study and the results with a special focus on the role of the South Westphalia Agency as independent intermediary. Finally, it discusses the transferability and sustainability of the project.
The role of cities in mitigating GHG emissions and thus tackling global warming has gained importance over the last years.Many cities have developed climate action plans, primarily to achieve long-term "low-carbon" mitigation goals set by national governments or (inter)national agreements. A mere adoption of high level targets, however, raises the question whether these targets are applicable for cities with very different framework conditions.
We argue that it is crucial to understand the socio-economic, geophysical, spatial, infrastructural and political framework of a city - a broad approach, which is generally missing in climate action plans. Thus, determining drivers and barriers for future development paths is neglected by local policies, which leads to a gap between ambition (target) and reality (implementation).
We exemplarily examine this hypothesis for the shrinking city of Oberhausen (Germany). Oberhausen, located in the Ruhr area,is a typical old industrial region, which has seen a decline of its industrial basis over the last decades. We analysed historical data and developed scenarios until 2030. Both show a significant decrease in CO2 emissions. A closer look, however, reveals that the reduction is primarily due to the economic transformation (less manufacturing, more service industry, accompanied by a decrease in population) and general energy efficiency developments following the implementation of national and EU policies. Although the city has implemented–and will further implement - many instruments and policies to reduce CO2 emissions, local barriers such as unemployment, low rents, low income, high per capita debts, etc. dramatically reduce the city's capacity for action.
The results show that Oberhausen's emission reductions do not reflect active energy policies but are mainly driven by an economic decline. To reach ambitious reduction targets, however, the city needs to be enabled to take action in achieving appropriate and reasonable targets.
The general conditions for local authorities in Germany have changed fundamentally during the last decades. Not only do municipalities compete with each other for employment, prestige and competitive advantages, they also face increasingly higher demands by their citizens, for instance in the area of climate protection.
Therefore, every municipality has to consider various economic, social and ecological determinants in its decision-making processes. With respect to public buildings, an economically-oriented cost-benefit-analysis alone is not adequate due to a municipality's role as "consumer and role model". To identify measures with a broader benefit, a multicriteria analysis (MCA) has been used to analyze energy efficiency measures in public buildings for the city of Dortmund.
For several years Dortmund has committed itself to implement energy efficiency measures and improve the energy performance of its building stock. Nevertheless, a benchmark analysis still shows a high energy saving potential that cannot be tapped with the existing measures and instruments. Therefore, a package of measures has been developed in close cooperation with the city of Dortmund, ranging broadly from measures of energetic retrofitting and green IT to behavioral change of building occupants.
In the MCA these measures have been assessed according to ten different criteria such as innovativeness, cost effectiveness, external costs, CO2 reduction potential, local value or effort of implementation. Three different scenarios ("City as Role Model", "City as Homo Oeconomicus", "City as Climate Protector") show different municipal perspectives.
The analysis has shown that the greatest benefit for municipalities, regardless of the municipal perspective, is yielded by measures such as voluntarily enhanced minimum standards for new or for energetic retrofitting of public buildings, the procurement of energy-efficient office equipment, the expansion of heat generation from renewable energies and the usage of private capital in participatory projects like "Solar&Save".
Many European city governments have voluntarily committed to ambitious CO2-emission reduction targets until 2020 and 2050. Supported by dedicated structures and networks (e.g. Covenant of Mayors), local governments have already developed, or are currently developing, ambitious climate action plans, all pursuing the aim of radical CO2-emission reduction in the long term.
Though, the development of climate action plans is only a first step, as the actual crucial and more challenging part its implementation. Besides financial investments also additional capacities, improved institutional structures and innovative strategies are necessary to successfully implement ambitious policies within existing national and regional framework conditions. There is often more competition than co-operation between cities. However, exchanging on common challenges in order to find new solutions provides potential for innovative ideas and new views on own structures. In particular, methods and formats for self-assessment and mutual learning can support cities' stakeholders to overcome their implementation gap in local energy and climate policies.
This paper will present results from the first phase of the three year project "CASCADE", which was initiated by 19 European cities in co-operation with EUROCITIES. Within the project, implementation challenges are being addressed in an intensive process of self-assessment and mutual learning. The methodological "backbone" of this process is a qualitative benchmarking framework in the thematic fields of "Renewable energy sources and distributed energy generation", "Energy efficient buildings and districts" and “Energy in urban transport”. Up to a certain degree, existing local climate policy benchmarks provide a common exchange platform, but mainly for the comparison between cities. The CASCADE benchmarking framework goes beyond competitive comparisons. As a qualitative criteria-based assessment procedure it identifies key challenges and factors for a successful implementation of established local climate policy plans. These factors have been developed from a qualitative survey including interviews and workshops with representatives of the participating cities.
Six cities serve as examples. Self-assessment reports were provided based on the CASCADE benchmarking framework focussing on the implementation status of their local climate policies. These reports were reevaluated by four or five project partners from different cities in a desk-review process. During subsequent four-days peer learning visits, the CASCADE benchmarking framework was used again as a tool for an in-depth assessment of the local climate and energy action plans and the local activities towards implementation of these strategic documents. Finally, the visitors drafted a feedback report with recommendations and improvements for the hosts.
The paper describes the methodology of the CASCADE benchmarking framework for integrated learning, its applicability for peer learning processes, as well as first experiences and results from the peer learning visits.
The concept of sufficiency - reducing energy uses beyond technical efficiency - is far-reaching and requires a reflection on human needs, energy services, urban structures, social norms, and the role of policies to support the shift towards lower-energy societies. In recent years, a growing body of literature has been published on energy sufficiency in various disciplines. However, there has been limited exchanges and cooperation among researchers so far, hindering the visibility and impact of this research. This paper presents an assessment of where sufficiency research stands, especially in the perspective of policy-making. It is the first overview paper issued in the context of the newly-founded ENOUGH network - International network for sufficiency research & policy, established in 2017. In the first part, we provide a condensed literature review on energy sufficiency, based on dozens of recent references collected through the network. Through four main themes (the nature of sufficiency, the challenges of modelling it, the barriers to its diffusion, and the approaches to foster it), we summarise the key issues and approaches. We then present what the scholars themselves see as the priorities for future research, promising sufficiency policy options, and key barriers that research should help overcome. We collected their views through a questionnaire completed by more than 40 knowledgeable authors and experts from various disciplines. We finally build on the previous parts to draw some recommendations on how sufficiency research could increase its impact, notably in relation to policy-making.