Sustainable Urban Mobility Pathways examines how sustainable urban mobility solutions contribute to achieving worldwide sustainable development and global climate change targets, while also identifying barriers to implementation and strategies to overcome them. Building on city-to-city cooperation experiences in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, the book examines key challenges in the context of the Paris Agreement, UN Sustainable Development Goals and the New Urban Agenda, including policies needed to achieve a sustainable, low-carbon pathway for transport and how an integrated policy strategy is designed to provide a basis for political coalitions.
The book explores which institutional framework creates sufficient political stability and continuity to foster the take-up of and long-term support for sustainable transport strategies. The linkages of climate change and wider sustainable development objectives are covered, including success stories, best practices, and quantitative analysis for key emerging economies in public transport, walking, cycling, freight and logistics, vehicle technology and fuels, urban planning and integration, and national framework policies.
The transformation processes towards a sustainable development are complex. How can science contribute towards new solutions and ideas leading to change in practice? The authors of this book discuss these questions along the energy transition in the building sector.
A transformative research that leaves the neutral observer position needs appropriate concepts and methods: how can knowledge from different disciplines and from practice be integrated in order to be able to explain and understand complex circumstances and interrelations? What role do complex (agent-based) models and experiments play in this respect? Which mix of methods is required in transformative science in order to actively support the actors in transformation processes?
Theses questions are illustrated by the example of the BMBF funded project "EnerTransRuhr".
The great mindshift : how a new economic paradigm and sustainability transformations go hand in hand
(2016)
Sustainable development is the 21st Century's wicked problem. After 40 years into this agenda have reversed only few unsustainable trends we hear the call for a paradigm shift, transformation, radical change or system innovations in order to finally change course. But what does this actually mean? And how do we put it into practice? This book describes the path ahead. It combines system transformation research with political economy and change leadership insights when discussing the need for a great mindshift in how human wellbeing, economic prosperity and healthy ecosystems are understood if the Great Transformations ahead are to lead to more sustainability. It shows that history is made by purposefully acting humans and introduces transformative literacy as a key skill in leading the radical incremental change strategies that wicked problems require, illustrating their nature through mapping pioneering practices and their commonalities.
The German "Energiewende" (energy transition) is meant to be a contract between generations. The rebuilding of the whole energy system is designed and financed today in order to safeguard our children and grandchildren against fundamental risks: the enormous economic, social and environmental costs of a fossil-nuclear energy system, the risks of the nuclear fuel-cycle and the impacts of climate change, as well as energy import dependency, price shocks and geopolitical disputes over scarce resources. In contrast, a successful Energiewende creates new business areas and qualified jobs and increases competitiveness in the "green race" - in particular on the lead markets for efficiency technology and renewable energy. Accordingly, the Energiewende is described in this book as the collective effort of post-war German history and as a unique learning arena for a positive socio-economic transformation with international relevance. The book covers the formation of both the social and scientific Energiewende consensus, quantitative scenarios, the state of the Energiewende in 2015, the need for further policy intervention - in particular with respect to energy efficiency, and not least the integration of efficiency, sufficiency and renewable energy policies.
A book promoting policies to make it easier to live the Good Life must do two things. Firstly, it must demonstrate that such policies are necessary; secondly, it must set out how such a policy programme is to be implemented. In other words, it has to show that the politics of sufficiency is feasible.
"The Politics of Sufficiency" deals with claims of feasibility, and with the objections to them. It demonstrates that a politics of the Good Life can be both justified and legitimated in modern free democratic societies - indeed, that it is an essential condition of such societies. The main section of the book sets out in detail how such a politics can be implemented, organised along four political dimensions. At the same time, this book can only represent a beginning, and that is its aim - a starting-point for a broad discussion over the coming years.
Analytical Strategic Environmental Assessment (ANSEA) is an insightful new approach to environmental evaluation, based on decision theory, policy analysis and environmental considerations. These concepts, though not new in their own fields of application, are combined and integrated in an innovative fashion. This book presents recent research on the implementation of the ANSEA approach which aims to ensure environmental values are properly integrated into the decision-making process.
Emscher 3.0 : from grey to blue - or, how the blue sky over the Ruhr region fell into the Emscher
(2013)
The river Emscher is - similar to the river Ruhr - the symbol of one of the internationally most renowned industrial regions: the Ruhr area with its 5 million inhabitants and an important location of key industries such as steel, chemical and materials industry. The revitalisation of the Emscher over the last 20 years marks a new phase in the region's history and is an impressive example of ecological and socio-economic transformation affecting all aspects of life along the river. What can we learn from the Emscher conversion for upcoming tasks in other infrastructure fields?
This book provides a guide for transport policymakers and planners on achieving low-carbon land transport systems and describes possible measures for reducing emissions. Based on wide ranging research, case studies from developed and developing countries and an overview of policy scenarios, the book presents a toolbox for decision-makers with a huge variety of measures which can be tailored to their specific circumstances. It also addresses the question of how policies can be bundled successfully and integrated in urban transport decision-making and planning. Practical information is given on how greenhouse gas savings are measured as well as success factors for implementing policies and measures in complex decision-making processes.