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Good practices : ESSAY
(2008)
The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy and the UNEP/Wuppertal Institute Collaborating Centre on Sustainable Consumption and Production (CSCP) set out to analyse Japanese dematerialisation and resource efficiency strategies within the 3R scope and searched for options of enhancing resource effi ciency strategies, commissioned by the German Federal Environment Agency. A further task of the project was to initiate a policy dialogue including stakeholders, academia, politics and Japanese and European environmental experts. The following paper summarises findings from the analyses, the results of the policy dialogues (Experts Workshop, 6 June 2007 and International Conference, 6 November 2007) and draws conclusions for a potential Japanese-European cooperation on the resource efficiency issue.
The policy framework for the promotion of hydrogen and fuel cells in Europe : a critical assessment
(2008)
This article introduces elements of a global governance regime for sustainable resource management. It argues that such an approach is needed to combat the negative impacts arising from resource extraction and use as well as to overcome the co‐ordination problems of decentralized action. A first section summarizes main conflicts arising from limited access to natural resources and security of supply, environmental impacts and the performance of resource‐rich developing countries. A second section analyses existing initiatives for sustainable resource management such as resource funds, efforts to increase transparency, programmes in development co‐operation, standards and certification, material efficiency and resource productivity as well as efforts to limit the consumption of natural resources. Though these initiative have their merits, the article concludes that more systematic institutional mechanisms are needed. The third section introduces those institutional mechanisms: it describes the International Panel for Sustainable Resource Management (launched in November 2007), outlines elements of an international convention on sustainable resource management, develops the agenda for an international agency on the issue and discusses the interaction with existing international bodies such as the World Trade Organization. Written as a policy paper, the paper formulates proposals for various actors, from small‐scale miners to large‐scale global companies and governments. Its intention is to stimulate the debate and to broaden the horizon on the global dimension of using minerals.
Innovation and diffusion of car-sharing for sustainable consumption and production of urban mobility
(2008)
In less than ten years, emissions trading has forged ahead as a climate policy instrument - from the setting of the agenda through the formulation of policy to the stage of implementation. This has happened at several policy levels: on the one hand, as international emissions trading in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol, and on the other hand as emissions trading for energy-intensive companies within the European Union. Not only because of the speed of the process, but also because emissions trading is generally being perceived as an effective means to avoid greenhouse gas emissions, ist introduction is mostly regarded as a success story. This claim is here critically examined with the help of a number of theoretical hypotheses borrowed from the field of multilevel governance research. The theoretical discussion is woven into a detailed descriptive-analytic account of the introduction of emissions trading, bringing out the most important players, conflicts and milestones in the process. What were the consequences of this rapid introduction for the interdependence of players and institutions in the multi-level policy system? To what extent was it accompanied with a transfer of authority from national governments to supranational or international institutions? Can we speak here of a further loss of sovereignty by national states in the age of globalisation? And has the introduction of emissions trading, as a new generation of climate policy instruments, brought about institutional changes in negotiation patternsand decision-making processes? This set of questions is being derived from the concept of multi-level governance which serves as the framework of analysis of this paper and is then being used to analyse fifteen theses in order to explain the complexity of the introduction of emissions trading and highlight problems and deficits in the negotiating processes. The aim of the paper is to give a answer to the question of whether the meteoric rise of the policy instrument may be described as a "success story".
Proposals for contributions of emerging economies to the climate regime under the UNFCCC post 2012
(2008)
Under the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities” (Article 3.1 of the UNFCCC) non-Annex I parties have so far been exempted from emission limitation or reduction commitments. However, the pressure is mounting on those countries, especially major emitting developing countries, to contribute actively to the mitigation of climate change. Participation by these developing countries in a future international climate regime is often called for, but it is usually unclear how and how much these countries should participate, what kind of support they need and in which sectors. This project aims to provide a more detailed view on six countries to understand how they could best make a contribution to the regime and how they could best be supported in limiting their greenhouse gas emissions.
Evaluation report : ESSAY
(2008)
This paper looks at improving resource productivity at global value chains. Resource flows from its extraction through the manufacturing and use phase towards its end-of-life – increasingly crossing national boundaries. Effective improvement in resource productivity requires actions beyond a country’s territory. This article focuses on non-renewable resource flows and analysis how developed countries are involved in four distinct phases of global value chains, and how this involvement links to changes in resource efficiency. Resource extraction and associated early processes activities have been increasingly moved from developed to developing countries. Offshoring manufacturing activities also becomes a common phenomenon. Throughout these activities, lower rates of resource productivity during extraction and manufacturing are frequently observed, leading not only to international burden shifting, but most likely letting these burdens grow. If appropriate international measures across the global divides are applied, resource efficiency potentials could be realised through offshoring and global consumption and recycling could also offer opportunities for resource productivity. International actions to improve resource productivity can help to meet economic and environmental objectives at the same time over a global value chain. It could also safeguard countries against unintended indirect and side effects from the relocation of resource flows and help the private sector to benefit from opportunities in global markets for resource efficiency.
Lifestyle equal educational style? : Resource conservation through lifestyle orientated education
(2008)
Global climate
(2008)
Global climate
(2008)
What is the significance of the 2007 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali? The formal outcomes, especially the "Bali Action Plan", are described and commented on, along with the challenges for negotiating a post-2012 agreement in Copenhagen during 2008 and 2009. The article concludes that the outcome of the Bali meeting is insufficient when compared to the nature of the challenge posed by climate change. However, it can nevertheless be considered a success in terms of "Realpolitik" in paving the way for the negotiations ahead, because some real changes have been discerned in the political landscape. The challenges for the road towards Copenhagen are manifold: the sheer volume and complexity of the issues and the far-reaching nature of decisions such as differentiation between non-Annex I countries pose significant challenges in themselves, while the dependency on the electoral process in the USA introduces a high element of risk into the whole process. The emergence of social justice as an issue turns climate policy into an endeavour to improve the world at large - thereby adding to the complexity. And, finally, the biggest challenge is the recognition that the climate problem requires a global solution, that Annex I and non-Annex I countries are mutually dependent on each other and that only cooperation regarding technology in combination with significant financial support will provide the chance to successfully tackle climate change.
The sensitivity of climate phenomena in the low latitudes to enhanced greenhouse conditions is a scientific issue of high relevance to billions of people in the poorest countries of the globe. So far, most studies dealt with individual model results. In the present analysis, we refer to 79 coupled ocean–atmosphere simulations from 12 different climate models under 6 different IPCC scenarios. The basic question is as to what extent various state-of-the-art climate models agree in predicting changes in the main features of El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the monsoon climates in South Asia and West Africa. The individual model runs are compared with observational data in order to judge whether the spatio-temporal characteristics of ENSO are well reproduced. The model experiments can be grouped into multi-model ensembles. Thus, climate change signals in the classical index time series, in the principal components and in the time series of interannual variability can be evaluated against the background of internal variability and model uncertainty.
There are large differences between the individual model predictions until the end of the 21st century, especially in terms of monsoon rainfall and the Southern Oscillation index (SOI). The majority of the models tends to project La Niña-like anomalies in the SOI and an intensification of the summer monsoon precipitation in India and West Africa. However, the response barely exceeds the level of natural variability and the systematic intermodel variations are larger than the impact of different IPCC scenarios. Nonetheless, there is one prominent climate change signal, which stands out from model variations and internal noise: All forced model experiments agree in predicting a substantial warming in the eastern tropical Pacific. This oceanic heating does not necessarily lead to a modification of ENSO towards more frequent El Niño and/or La Niña events. It simply represents a change in the background state of ENSO. Indeed, we did not find convincing multi-model evidence for a modification of the wavelet spectra in terms of ENSO or the monsoons. Some models suggest an intensification of the annual cycle but this signal is fairly model-dependent. Thus, large model uncertainty still exists with respect to the future behaviour of climate in the low latitudes. This has to be taken into account when addressing climate change signals in individual model experiments and ensembles.
Norway's abundance of resources is the establishing factor in explaining how the North European state ranks among the countries worldwide with the highest standard of living. Indeed, fossil fuels are finite and after their depletion the Norwegian social welfare state should endure. Therefore, a sovereign wealth fund has been founded in the kingdom in 1990, in which the surpluses from the oil and gas industry sales have been invested from that time on. This method should secure the state's ability to act in the post-petroleum era.
At the end of the 1990's the voice of Norwegian society insisted that the sovereign wealth fund should not only be for intergenerational justice, but should also contribute to the implementation of worth and norms of the present country. In the end of 2004 the Parliament (Storting), on the basis of the Graver Report, finally agreed upon ethic regulations for the investment of the sovereign wealth fund. With capital of over 280 billion Euros (figures from 2007), the second largest sovereign wealth fund in the world, they should now only have businesses in their portfolio which adhere to those ethical regulations. In the present paper, the emergence and outcomes of the development of a "Third Way" between maximising profit and sustainability will be illustrated.
The ethical regulations have different dimensions (e.g. no contribution to human rights violations, child labour, serious environmental damages, etc.) to which the present text concentrates on posing the question to what extent sovereign wealth funds could be a new instrument of climate protection policy. For this purpose, the contribution of both main instruments of ethical regulations, "Active Ownership" and the exclusion of businesses, were analysed as well as the actors which have been created for their implementation. The repercussions reach from dialogs with businesses in the USA to stop lobby activities against Congress-planned climate protection laws, such as an emissions trading system, to adjusting to the exclusion of individual firms from the portfolio of welfare states, due to a breach of ethics.
The drawbacks and constraints of a takeover of the Norwegian regulations by other financial actors and its first diffusion effects will be analysed. Finally, this article will deal with the running evaluations of the ethical regulations and Norwegian current and future domestic climate policies.
In this paper we report on the approach and findings of the research partnership "Prospects for decentralised infrastructures amid the competing demands of competition, climate protection and quality (INFRAFUTUR)." INFRAFUTUR stands for the future of decentralised infrastructures. We asked which strategies would be appropriate to safeguard supply and disposal services in the energy, water/sewage and waste sectors to private households and business on an enduring basis. In doing so, we focused our analysis on municipal and mixed municipal-private enterprises as players.
In this article, we analyze flows of the platinum group metals (PGMs) platinum, palladium, and rhodium and the environmental impacts associated with their supply in Europe. A model of the use of PGMs in Europe has been developed, and this is combined with a model of environmental pressures related to PGM production. Seven industrial sectors and product groups form the main users of PGMs in Europe, comprising the chemical, petroleum, and glass industries; jewelry, dentistry, electronic equipment, and car catalysts. Most relevant environmental impacts of secondary production in Europe and primary PGM production in South Africa, Russia, and Canada are taken into account, including emissions of sulphur dioxide and carbon dioxide and total material requirement. The article quantifies the PGM flows to, from, and within Europe in 2004. The automotive industry is the single largest user of primary PGMs, and catalytic converters represent the major PGM end use. The chemical and glass industries also require large amounts of PGM but rely mostly on secondary metals. The environmental impacts of primary production exceed those of secondary production by far. An analysis of the use of car catalytic converters shows that as a result of efforts to reduce air pollutant emissions in Europe, other negative environmental impacts, such as point-source pollution and mining waste, are occurring elsewhere - for example, at extraction and refining sites in Siberia and South Africa.
Building a "theory of sustainable development" : two salient conceptions within the German discourse
(2008)
This paper identifies a lack in sustainability science, of a well-founded normative basis, for the justification of sustainable development. In order to fill this gap, we aim at calling attention to two of the salient conceptions in the German discourse, namely the "Theory of Strong Sustainability" developed at the University of Greifswald and the "Integrative Sustainability Concept" proposed by the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres (HGF), the biggest research institution in Germany. Both conceptions highly value the justification of a strong theoretical and normative core of sustainable development. This paper suggests that a well-founded "theory of sustainable development" provides the distinctiveness that allows the assessment whether or not there is progress towards sustainability. A clear scientific comprehension of sustainability may inform politics in sustainability affairs and function as a rational corrective for the otherwise diffuse discussion in the general public.
World primary copper production is expected to increase due to growing demand. Reflecting the geographical divergence of copper deposits and demanding industries, copper is produced by various production paths, differing in regional and technological aspects and related environmental pressures. For the mitigation of environmental pressures related to global material flows and a more sustainable resource management, policy makers, producers and buyers require information on regional resource efficiencies and effects of the key processes within the global production chain. This study quantifies material flows of refined copper production and environmental pressures along the pyro‐ and hydrometallurgical paths for Chile and Germany. Inventories for involved unit processes are distinguished by region and most commonly applied technologies, including electric power supply. Different production paths are compared by environmental pressure indicators (primary energy requirements, total material requirements, water consumption, GHG emissions, solid waste disposal, sulphur dioxide and arsenic emissions). Alternative options for improvement of technologies and supply patterns in Chile and Germany are compared.
From Clean Development Mechanism to sectoral crediting approaches : way forward or wrong turn?
(2008)
Nanologue
(2008)
In the aftermath of the controversy on genetically modified organisms it has become clear that in order to harness new technologies for economic and social benefit, a wide range of social, ethical and regulatory concerns need to be addressed. This document summarises some key results from Nanologue, a project that brought together leading research and opinions on the social, ethical and legal implications of nanotechnology applications (NT) in Europe. The document presents information about the project's findings of "societal aspects of NT", based upon the results from interviews with NT scientists and researchers. Insights gained during the project have been translated into future scenarios as well as into an internet-based support tool for NT researchers and product developers called NanoMeter. The scenarios as well as the NanoMeter are briefly introduced and conclusions drawn.
Because of a growing global energy demand and rising oil prices coal-abundant nations, such as China and the United States, are pursuing the application of technologies which could replace crude oil imports by converting coal to synthetic hydrocarbon fuels - so-called coal-to-liquids (CtL) technologies. The case of CtL is well suited to analyse techno-economic, resources-related, policy-driven and actor-related parameters, which are affecting the market prospects of a technology that eases energy security constraints but is hardly compatible with a progressive climate policy. This paper concentrates on Germany as an example - the European Union (EU)'s largest member state with considerable coal reserves. It shows that in Germany and the EU, CtL is facing rather unfavourable market conditions as high costs and ambitious climate targets offset its energy security advantage.
Because of a growing dependence on oil imports, powerful industrial, political and societal stakeholders in the UnitedStates are trying to enhance national energy security through the conversion of domestic coal into synthetic hydrocarbon liquid fuels - so-called coal-to-liquids (CtL) processes. However, because of the technology's high costs and carbon intensity, its market deployment is strongly affected by the US energy, technology and climate policy setting. This paper analyses and discusses policy drivers and barriers for CtL technologies in the United States and reaches the conclusion that an increasing awareness of global warming among US policy-makers raises the requirements for the technology's environmental performance and, thus, limits its potential to regional niche markets in coal-producing states or strategic markets, such as the military, with specific security and fuel requirements.
Japan
(2008)
The international climate negotiations have seen endless struggles between countries from South and North for almost 17 years, ever since the initiation of negotiations by the International Negotiation Committee (INC) for the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The 13th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the UNFCCC and the 3rd meeting of the Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (COP 13 / CMP 3) held in Bali in December 2007 (the Bali conference) could mark the beginning of a rapprochement. Parties agreed on initiating a new "Ad-hoc working group on Long-Term Cooperative Action under the Convention" (AWG-LCA) that aims to negotiate a post-2012 agreement with participation of all parties, including the US and developing countries, by the end of 2009 at COP 15 / CMP 5 in Copenhagen. This article examines the outcomes of the Bali conference, focussing on the negotiations regarding post-2012, flexible mechanisms, financial mechanisms, technology transfer and deforestation. Finally, the article concludes that the Bali Conference saw a significant shift in the battle lines, a rearrangement of positions and alliances that might well announce a decisive new era in global climate policy and provides a real chance to agree on an effective and workable post-2012 agreement in Copenhagen.
This paper presents the educational program "Encouraging Sustainability", initiated and realized by the "Foundation Forum für Verantwortung", the "ASKO EUROPA-FOUNDATION", and the "Europäische Akademie Otzenhausen/European Academy Otzenhausen" in cooperation with the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy. The goal is to intensify the public discourse on sustainability within civil society concerning options of sustainable consumption and production patterns. The innovative program consists of two parts: (1) Twelve Books About the Future of the Earth (see section 2), (2) six didactical modules (section 3): From Knowledge to Action. The educational modules focus on important topics and key issues discussed in the context of sustainability: climate change, resource use, energy efficiency, population growth, water use, securing future food supplies, biodiversity etc. The didactical materials are developed as “open learning scenarios: all materials can be linked to many communication forms and situations in a flexible manner. For the creation and realisation of the educational materials the authors have chosen the concept of Sinus-Milieus, developed by Sinus Sociovision, in order to address specific target groups (section 4). The main target groups in the program "Encouraging Sustainability" are "leading groups of society" and multipliers because of their high resource and energy consumption on the one hand and because of their skills and educational background on the other hand. In the last section of this paper (section 5) the first experiences from the implementation of the modules are presented. The authors emphasize that the broad and flexible approach chosen, should work effectively in a period in which green issues rank high in the public opinion worldwide.
In this brochure, WISIONS focuses on the interdependent connection between water and energy. WISIONS presents good practice projects dealing with water and energy in Guatemala, Peru, Tunisia, the Philippines and Tanzania that have been successfully implemented, with the intention of further promoting the particular approaches used by these projects. Using a key number of internationally accepted criteria, the main consideration for the selection of the projects was energy and resource efficiency. The assessment of the projects also included the consideration of regional factors acknowledging different needs and potentials.