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In spite of differences in energy policies and supply, Japan and Germany have to master similar challenges: To reorganize the energy supply system towards - in the long term - being reliable, affordable, low in risks and resource use, and climate-neutral. At the same time, the ecological modernization should maintain or even strengthen international competitiveness. To better address these challenges, a bi-national expert council has been established between the two high-tech countries in 2016 - the GJETC.
The aim of the GJETC is to show that despite different starting points, a national energy transition can be more successful, if both countries learn from their strengths and also weaknesses, to avoid the latter. If the implementation of an energy transition in the two countries is socially and economically sound and advances technology innovation and deployment, it may not only double success, but can also serve as blue prints for other countries, especially due to learning from similarities and differences. For example: Why is per capita energy consumption higher in transport in Germany, but energy intensity higher in Japan's building sector? How can variable renewable energies be integrated in an efficient energy system at lowest costs?
The Council meets twice a year, holds stakeholder dialogues and outreach events, and prepares policy papers on strategic topics of mutual interest. Four comprehensive studies, each in cooperation of a German and a Japanese research institute, have been the basis for 15 joint key recommendations during the 1st phase. The 2nd phase to 2020 will study the role of hydrogen and digitalisation for the energy transition, as well as other topics. The paper presents the findings and recommendations of the GJETC of the first phase 2016-18 as well as first results of the second phase. It also reviews the setup of the GJETC and the way it works, to assess if and how it can serve as a role model of bilateral cooperation on the energy transition.
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?
"400,000 new homes per year are needed in German cities." This figure has been cited repeatedly in political discussions, media, and statements of different groups for a couple of years now. Living space is needed to mitigate the (further) inordinate increase of rents in some cities and regions and to ease finding appropriate flats at affordable prices for low- and medium-income households. But how to activate investors and the real estate market?
Having the triangle of sustainability in mind with its ecologic, social and economic cornerstones the discussion - metaphorically spoken - currently pulls the three corners: Which should have the highest priority?
The economically driven most favourable solution is lowering the requirements for new buildings such as the energy performance to make building cheaper. The social perspective prefers an increase of public social housing investments regardless of efficiency standards. And the ecological side argues that a high performance is needed to reach energy and climate targets in the buildings sector.
Starting at this point of discussion, firstly, the paper reflects the assumptions behind the numbers of new homes needed against a sufficiency background.
Secondly, it presents current changes in German building policies: a new legislation for energy supply and efficiency is currently in preparation.
It discusses the potential to integrate sufficiency aspects in building policies, focussing specifically on the new regulation, financial incentives, and energy advice.
The paper analyses if and to what extent it is likely to balance the three cornerstones of sustainability by integrating sufficiency aspects into efficiency policies. Household experiences with prepayment meters are used as an example to illustrate the potential for tapping efficiency and sufficiency potentials in low-income households considering social, economic, and ecological aspects. Based on the identified (in)consistencies, thirdly, it suggests further development in German policies to make better use of synergies between the ecologic, social and economic demands on buildings.
Contemporary combined heat and power (CHP) systems are often based on fossil fuels, such as natural gas or heating oil. Thereby, small-scale cogeneration systems are intended to replace or complement traditional heating equipment in residential buildings. In addition to space heating or domestic hot water supply, electricity is generated for the own consumption of the building or to be sold to the electric power grid.
The adaptation of CHP-systems to renewable energy sources, such as solid biomass applications is challenging, because of feedstock composition and heat integration. Nevertheless, in particular smallscale CHP technologies based on biomass gasification and solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) offer significant potentials, also regarding important co-benefits, such as security of energy supply as well as emission reductions in terms of greenhouse gases or air pollutants. Besides emission or air quality regulations, the development of CHP technologies for clean on-site small-scale power generation is also strongly incentivised by energy efficiency policies for residential appliances, such as e.g. Ecodesign and Energy Labelling in the European Union (EU). Furthermore, solid residual biomass as renewable local energy source is best suited for decentralised operations such as micro-grids, also to reduce long-haul fuel transports. By this means such distributed energy resource technology can become an essential part of a forward-looking strategy for net zero energy or even smart plus energy buildings.
In this context, this paper presents preliminary impact assessment results and most recent environmental considerations from the EU Horizon 2020 project "FlexiFuel-SOFC" (Grant Agreement no. 641229), which aims at the development of a novel CHP system, consisting of a fuel flexible smallscale fixed-bed updraft gasifier technology, a compact gas cleaning concept and an SOFC for electricity generation. Besides sole system efficiencies, in particular resource and emission aspects of solid fuel combustion and net electricity effects need to be considered. The latter means that vastly less emission intensive gasifier-fuel cell CHP technologies cause significant less fuel related emissions than traditional heating systems, an effect which is further strengthened by avoided emissions from more emission intensive traditional grid electricity generation. As promising result, operation "net" emissions of such on-site generation installations may be virtually zero or even negative. Additionally, this paper scopes central regulatory instruments for small-scale CHP systems in the EU to discuss ways to improve the framework for system deployment.
Energy efficiency activities are high on the current EU energy policy agenda. Key policy instruments like the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the Energy Labelling Directive are under revision.
In a project for the German government, we therefore analysed the effectiveness and consistency of existing sectoral policy packages anew, to open the discussion on which policy changes to the EU's energy efficiency policy packages are crucial to reach the targets.
This comprehensive review addressed the industrial, buildings, and transport sectors plus the overarching governance framework (targets and roadmaps, EED, energy taxation and EU ETS). For each of these, the first step was a gap analysis of the main deficits in the sectoral policy packages, against effective model packages.
At first glance, the combination of energy efficiency policies at EU level seems already quite comprehensive. However, their design and implementation often lack a consistent and ambitious approach to leverage their full potential.
To give some examples of the many shortcomings identified, the governance framework suffers from exceptions and the transport sector being only marginally considered in the EED; an outdated Energy Tax Directive has very low minimum rates and several exception clauses; there is a lack of commitment to implement energy management systems and investment projects in large companies; a clear EU-wide definition of nearly zero energy buildings (nZEB) is missing; and the labelling of energy-using products is still confusing for consumers. Subsequently, we elaborated comprehensive policy recommendations to increase the effectiveness of all these policies, and to bridge some gaps with new policies. A list of priorities was established to sort them by their relevance.
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.
Energy sufficiency has recently gained increasing attention as a way to limit and reduce total energy consumption of households and overall. This paper presents selected results of a research project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research that examined the potentials and barriers for energy sufficiency with a focus on electricity in households, how household members perceive sufficiency practices, and how policymakers could support and encourage these. Bottom-up calculations for an average 2-person household in Germany yielded a total electricity savings potential from energy efficiency and sufficiency combined of theoretically up to 75 %.
The continuous growth of per capita living space was identified as one important driver for additional energy consumption both for heat and electricity. The paper will present findings of a representative survey of 600 persons responsible for the housework. It revealed that a part of the households is already practicing sufficiency options or are open towards these. Up to 30 % of these households can imagine, given the right conditions and policy support, to move to a smaller dwelling or to share an apartment with others when they are older.
Results of a first comprehensive analysis of an energy sufficiency policy to encourage and support households to sufficiency practices form the second part of the paper, with a focus on the feasibility and potential effectiveness of instruments for limiting the growth in average living space per person. This includes a case study on fostering communal housing projects as a measure to reduce living space. Further, the feasibility of a cap scheme for the total electricity sales of a supplier to its customers was examined. Instruments supporting energy-efficient and sufficient purchase and use of equipment complete the integrated energy sufficiency and efficiency policy package.
The paper will finally present the project's conclusions on an integrated energy sufficiency policy package resulting from this analysis.
The core objective of Energy Efficiency Watch 3 (EEW3) is to establish a constant feedback loop on the implementation of European and national energy efficiency policies and thus enable both compliance monitoring and mutual learning on effective policy making across the EU. The project team applied a mixed-method approach to assess energy efficiency policy developments in EU Member States. It analysed progress of national policies by screening official documents, sought experts' knowledge via an EU-wide survey and has been creating new consultation platforms with a wide spectrum of stakeholders including parliamentarians, regions, cities and business stakeholders. Analysis of the National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAPs), the expert survey with input from over 1,100 experts on policy ambition and progress in each Member State, as well as 28 Country Reports have been central elements in EEW3. This paper will present the main conclusions and policy recommendations of EEW3. In doing so, it will first summarise the findings of the document analysis based on the 28 Country Reports, showing developments of energy efficiency policies since the second NEEAP in 2011 in a cross-country overview for six sectors. These findings are then contrasted with the experts' perspective on progress in energy efficiency policies in their countries as collected in the EEW survey. Moreover, ten case studies of good practice energy efficiency policies are shown, three of them will be presented in more detail. The paper ends with key policy conclusions for improving the effectiveness of European energy efficiency policies. A key finding is that policy implementation has improved a lot since 2011 but more is needed to achieve the EED Art. 7 and other targets.
One of the most pressing issues of climate policy is how to get building owners to invest in the energy efficiency of their homes. The German federal government has set the goal of decreasing the energy demand of buildings by 80 to 95 percent until 2050. One pillar of the strategy to support building owners in this task is the provision of targeted energy advice, to both motivate owners to implement an energy efficiency refurbishment and help them to choose the most efficient measures. In this paper we analysed the demand for energy advice in three German cities of the Ruhr area finding the number of energy consulting provided to be extremely low compared to the stated goals. Based on the approach of joint knowledge production we invited stakeholders from the three cities to participate in a series of workshops in order to develop ideas how to more effectively bring homeowners and energy advisors together. As a result, different energy advice experiments were co-operatively developed for each city targeting different groups by using tailored channels for outreach. The evaluation of both the process as well as the outcome of the experiments indicates that while joint knowledge production is a suitable approach to enable knowledge transfer and formation of new networks between different stakeholders in science and practice, it does not necessarily lead to superior approaches with regard to effectively addressing a policy issue at hand. Apart from the experiment in which the window of opportunity change of building ownership was taken advantage of, participation of target groups in the experiments has been soberingly low, underlining the value of so-called trigger points when designing effective outreach strategies to building owners.
Energy efficiency improvements have numerous benefits/impacts additional to energy and greenhouse gas savings, as has been shown and analysed e.g. in the 2014 IEA Report on "Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency". This paper presents the Horizon 2020-project COMBI ("Calculating and Operationalising the Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency in Europe"), aiming at calculating the energy and non-energy impacts that a realisation of the EU energy efficiency potential would have in 2030. The project covers the most relevant technical energy efficiency improvement actions and estimates impacts of reduced air pollution (and its effects on human health, eco-systems/crops, buildings), improved social welfare (incl. disposable income, comfort, health, productivity), saved biotic and abiotic resources, and energy system, energy security, and the macroeconomy (employment, economic growth and public budget). This paper explains how the COMBI energy savings potential in the EU 2030 is being modelled and how multiple impacts are assessed. We outline main challenges with the quantification (choice of baseline scenario, additionality of savings and impacts, context dependency and distributional issues) as well as with the aggregation of impacts (e.g. interactions and overlaps) and how the project deals with them. As research is still ongoing, this paper only gives a first impression of the order of magnitude for additional multiple impacts of energy efficiency improvements may have in Europe, where this is available to date. The paper is intended to stimulate discussion and receive feedback from the academic community on quantification approaches followed by the project.
The European Horizon 2020-project COMBI ("Calculating and Operationalising the Multiple Benefits of Energy Efficiency in Europe") aims at estimating the energy and non-energy impacts that a realisation of the EU energy efficiency potential would have in the year 2030. The project goal is to cover the most important technical potentials identified for the EU27 by 2030 and to come up with consistent estimates for the most relevant impacts: air pollution (and its effects on human health, eco-systems/crops, buildings), social welfare (including disposable income, comfort, health and productivity), biotic and abiotic resources, the energy system and energy security and the macro economy (employment, economic growth and the public budget). This paper describes the overall project research design, envisaged methodologies, the most critical methodological challenges with such an ex-ante evaluation and with aggregating the multiple impacts. The project collects data for a set of 30 energy efficiency improvement actions grouped by energy services covering all sectors and EU countries. Based on this, multiple impacts will be quantified with separate methodological approaches, following methods used in the respective literature and developing them where necessary. The paper outlines the approaches taken by COMBI: socio-economic modelling for air pollution and social welfare, resource modelling for biotic/abiotic and economically unused resources, General Equilibrium modelling for long-run macroeconomic effects and other models for short-run effects, and the LEAP model for energy system modelling. Finally, impacts will be aggregated, where possible in monetary terms. Specific challenges of this step include double-counting issues, metrics, within and cross-country/regional variability of effects and context-specificity.
A learning experience : integrating theory and practice for the implementation of INDCs ; thinkpiece
(2016)
A major cornerstone on the way to low-carbon sustainable development on a global scale will be a swift and effective implementation of all countries' INDCs submitted to the UNFCCC prior to Paris. However, doing so will require transforming development pathways away from currently pervasive carbon lock-ins. This can only be successful if countries take a systemic view on their development agendas, and link mitigation, adaptation and other developmental priorities together for a coherent overarching sustainable development strategy. The ownership for this process needs to be with the countries themselves as such strategies touch fundamentally upon national policy-making and implementation. At the same time, developing countries have access to bi- and multilateral financial and technical cooperation. To enable a systemic, country-led perspective, development cooperation needs to shift its paradigms away from currently prevalent project-level interventions.
A truly innovative and transformational shift with the objective of pursuing a low-carbon and climate resilient society needs to open up space for experimentation as new ways of doing things need to be put into practice. Experiments will not always be successful, but foster learning on a national as well as an international level on pitfalls and solutions in new approaches to low-carbon sustainable development. Not least, there needs to be a renewed focus on programmatic approaches that link various topical domains for a country-led process, and a critical look at development work that is "doomed to succeed".
Our article draws from systems theory, development studies and recent work on transitions studies and transformational change in the international domain. It links up different theoretical concepts with practical approaches in order to outline a future development agenda that will be owned by developing countries and supported non-invasively by bi- and multilateral development cooperation to foster low-carbon development pathways that are urgently needed to solve the climate crisis.
The South African government started the development of a basic energy efficiency policy framework in 2005, including a voluntary label for refrigerators. This initial label was the intended precursor to a mandatory standards and labelling (S&L) programme, but the impacts achieved were only very limited. Based on this first experience, the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) formed in 2008 a working group for the development of the new and more specific South African National Standard SANS 941. This standard identifies energy efficiency requirements, labelling and measurement methods as well as the maximum allowable standby power for a set of appliances as reliable basis for introducing a mandatory regulation. Nevertheless, due to many existing barriers, such as lack of funding and low priority assigned to the initiative, a very long period passed by between the S&L planning and final policy implementation. Finally, in November 2014, the South African government published mandatory performance standards coming into force in 2015/2016 for a first set of appliances consisting of refrigerators, washing machines, dryers, dishwashers, electric water heaters, ovens, A/C and heat pumps. To analyse the effectiveness of the new S&L programme and the potential influence of delays in the implementing process, the authors performed an immediate first-hand evaluation of the new policy.
As analytical reference base for available energy efficiency potentials, results from bottom-up scenario calculations will be presented exemplarily as case study for cold appliances covered by the S&L programme. A retrospective market study will show market trends before policy implementation and compare results with the new mandatory requirements. For the further policy analysis, a programme theory approach will be applied, in order to better understand why, how and under what conditions the policy works. Relationships with other energy efficiency policies and measures as well as positive or negative effects will be described. Furthermore, cause-impact relationships will be analysed to explain the functioning of the policy. Finally, success and failure factors will illustrate what needs to be done to achieve the desired energy efficiency targets. Henceforth, even though this study does not assess the direct transferability of the South African S&L programme to other regions, its findings could be relevant and useful for countries planning the implementation of similar policies.
The international governance landscape on climate change mitigation is increasingly complex across multiple governance levels. Climate change mitigation initiatives by non-state stakeholders can play an important role in governing global climate change and contribute to avoiding unmanageable climate change. It has been argued that the UNFCCC could and should play a stronger role in "orchestrating" the efforts of these initiatives within the wider climate regime complex and thus inspire new and enhanced climate action. In fact, the Lima-Paris Action Agenda supporting cooperative climate action among state and non-state actors was supposed to be a major outcome of COP21.
There is little doubt that successful mitigation initiatives can create a momentum for climate protection. What is missing, is a systematic analysis of how this momentum can feed back into the UNFCCC negotiation process, inspiring also enhanced and more ambitious climate mitigation by states in future iterations of the cycle of nationally determined contributions under the Paris Agreement. This paper aims to close this gap: building on a structurational regime model, the article [1] develops a theory of change of how and through which structuration channels non-state initiatives can contribute to changing the politics of international climate policy; [2] traces existing UNFCCC processes and the Paris Agreement with a view to identifying entry points for a more direct feedback from non-state initiatives; and [3] derives recommendations on how and under which agenda items positive experiences can resonate within the UNFCCC negotiation process.
Small-scale residential biomass combustion for space heating and warm water production already holds a considerable share on overall energy production from biomass in Europe. In the existing regulative framework of EU air quality and climate protection targets, an extended usage of renewable biomass heating without an increase of harmful emissions is urgently needed. In this context, the FP7 project "EU-UltraLowDust" (ULD) aimed at the demonstration of highly efficient and ultra-low emission small-scale biomass combustion technologies and the development of supporting policy recommendations.
New combustion technology operating at almost zero particulate matter (PM) emissions has been demonstrated, rivalling even the performance of state-of-the-art natural gas fuelled systems. In this context, the authors analysed EU policy options for a faster diffusion of these new innovative technologies. The analysis presented in this paper is based on results from an original impact assessment with special focus on energy efficiency and emission scenarios, including the potential effects of a broad deployment of the new ULD technologies as well as the early replacement of poor performing existing installations.
As the derived results show that major shares of energy consumption and emissions from residential biomass combustion in the EU are caused by old heating systems, specific policy measures for new and existing installations have been analysed. Following this, a recommended and harmonized policy package for new Small Combustion Installations (SCI) to be put on the market as well as for existing SCI in the stock has been developed, which will be presented in this paper. The basic policy package addresses new installations and consists of a two-step approach, aiming at enhancing the current and forthcoming policies addressing the SCI market in Europe. A complementary second policy package for existing installations aims specifically at the early replacement of SCI already installed in the stock, which are characterized by low efficiency and high emissions.
Investments in urban transport should deliver the maximum economic, social and environmental benefits; in times of constrained budgets, projects' economic viability is often the deciding factor. This paper discusses the current practices and challenges facing cities in assessing urban transport interventions. On this basis, it develops options for decision-makers to appraise small-scale, sustainable urban transport policy measures.
The analysis of current appraisal practice shows that data requirements and complexity are cities’ main obstacles appraising projects and comparing potential alternatives. Additionally, there is often a risk that project appraisal enters the planning process too late to play any meaningful role. Conducting a Cost-benefit
analysis (CBA) ex-ante is often only approved if the implementation of the measure in question is already likely. Often, a CBA is a means to access funds rather than a basis for decision-making. Project appraisal of small-scale and non-infrastructure-based measures is often simply too expensive.
On the basis of these findings, the paper discusses the following alternatives to comprehensive CBAs: 1) learn from others, 2) use a simplified assessment method, 3) rely on norms and values. All of these options aim to cope with the trade-off between effort and certitude. In practice, some policy-makers may already apply one or more of these options, but this has not been documented in a systematic manner. A systematic documentation of such practices could be a major step forward for implementation of sustainable and integrated urban transport projects, as it would shed some light on the reasoning behind decisions, from which conclusions could be drawn on the likely follow-on effects thereof and also possible improvements to the process.