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The study "Towards a Single and Innovative European Transport System" is developing action plans for the establishment of an integrated transport system in Europe. This report was created in a joint effort between VDI/VDE Innovation + Technik GmbH (Germany), Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy (Germany) and the Centre of Research and Technology Hellas, CERTH (Greece) on behalf of the European Commission's DG MOVE. Focus of the report is the international assessment of six different countries - Brazil, China, India, Japan, South Korea, USA - in five focus areas across all transportation modes. It provides actions plans on how to overcome existing European barriers towards a single and innovative European Transport System based on best practices and lessons learned in the countries under study. In addition to the actions plans, the study also provides recommendations for international collaboration.
Die meisten Konzessionsverträge für Strom und Gas auf der örtlichen Verteilnetzebene sind zwischen 2005 und 2016 ausgelaufen. Viele Gemeinden in Deutschland haben dies als Chance verstanden, um mit der Gründung eigener Stadtwerke die örtliche Energieversorgung stärker selbst gestalten zu können. Bei diesem Trend zur Rekommunalisierung waren Städte und Gemeinden mit unter 25.000 Einwohnern besonders stark beteiligt. Im Folgenden sollen die verschiedenen Aspekte der Rekommunalisierung näher betrachtet werden.
Für die Energiewende im Ruhrgebiet muss eine umfassende Strategie einer Wärmewende verfolgt werden. Wichtige Treiber dafür sind die Stadtwerke mit ihren Nah- und Fernwärmenetzen. Doch im Wärmemarkt sind die bisherigen Transformationserfolge gering. Während erneuerbare Energien mittlerweile einen Anteil von über 30 Prozent im Stromsektor haben, spielen sie im Wärmebereich mit lediglich rund 10 Prozent eine bescheidene Rolle. Die erforderliche Wärmewende ist gekennzeichnet durch eine ausgeprägte Wechselwirkung zwischen den Sektoren Strom, Wärme, Gas und Mobilität (Sektorenkopplung).
Kern des Projektes war es zu untersuchen, wie der Untersuchungsraum in Bezug auf die Energiewende aufgestellt ist und welche Entwicklungspotenziale künftig im Zuge einer gesellschaftlich und politisch gewollten Energiewende genutzt werden können. Zur Qualifizierung des wissenschaftlichen Nachwuchs wurde im Rahmen der hier bearbeiteten Forschungsfragen Studierende darin angeleitet, im Bereich der energiebezogenen Transformationsforschung eigenständig Teilaspekte zu untersuchen.
Dementsprechend wurden vom Wuppertal Institut insgesamt vier Studienarbeiten mit verschiedenen Themenschwerpunkten ausgeschrieben. Diese sollten am konkreten Beispiel der zu untersuchenden Region aufzeigen, welche Stärken und Schwächen, aber auch Chancen und Risiken in Bezug auf die pro-aktive Gestaltung der Energiewende bestehen. Zusätzlich sollte untersucht werden, wie stark kleine und mittlere Unternehmen (KMU) in der Region Unna davon betroffen sind beziehungsweise inwieweit sie als Akteure der Energiewende die Nachhaltigkeit ihrer unternehmerischen Tätigkeit stärken und sichern können. Auch die regionalwirtschaftlichen Effekte wie Wertschöpfungs- und Arbeitsplatzeffekte, die erzielbar wären, wenn die mittelständischen Unternehmen der Region pro aktiv die Herausforderungen der Energiewende in den Bereichen Energieeffizienz, erneuerbare Energien und dezentrale KWK aufgreifen, waren Bestandteil der Studienarbeiten. Der Schwerpunkt lag hier insbesondere im Bereich Energieeffizienz.
Stadtwerke sind im Ruhrgebiet strukturprägend und haben eine lange Tradition. Sie sind fester Bestandteil der Akteurskonstellation im Energiebereich der Emscher-Lippe-Zone. Schon heute zeichnen sich die Stadtwerke des Ruhrgebiets vielfach dadurch aus, dass sie die mit der Energiewende verbundenen Chancen nutzen. Ihre technische und gesellschaftliche Struktur entspricht weitgehend den mit der Energiewende verbundenen Transformationsprozessen hin zu einer stärkeren Dezentralität der Erzeugung und der Demokratisierung der Energieversorgung. Die meisten Stadtwerke des Ruhrgebiets sind auf mehreren Wertschöpfungsstufen im Energiebereich tätig. In der Stromerzeugung haben sie einen Schwerpunkt im Bereich der Kraft-Wärme-Kopplung und bei erneuerbaren Energien. Zudem sind sie vielerorts Partner und teilweise sogar Mitinitiator bürgerschaftlichen Engagements zum Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien. Als Verteilnetzbetreiber für Strom, Gas und Wärme sorgen sie vielerorts für die Integration und Verteilung erneuerbarer Energien. Die Energiewende findet weitgehend in den örtlichen Verteilnetzen statt und bedeutet für die Stadtwerke des Ruhrgebiets eine Zunahme an komplexen Koordinierungsfunktionen und teilweise auch die Herausbildung völlig neuer Aufgaben.
After two decades of privatization and outsourcing being the dominant trends across public services, an inclination towards founding new municipal power utilities can be observed. In this article, the authors examine the preservation strategies of the German energy regime following the transition approach developed by Geels. From the multi-level perspective, it can be stated that innovations take place in niches and have to overcome the obstacles and persistence of the conventional fossil-nuclear energy regime. Through an empirical analysis, it can be concluded that the established regime significantly delays the decentralization process required for a transformation of energy structures on local electricity grids. Furthermore, it is shown that municipal utilities (Stadtwerke) are important key actors for the German Energiewende (energy transition) as they function as local energy distributors and they meet a variety of requirements to promote fundamental structural change. The trend towards re-municipalization and the re-establishment of municipal utilities reveal the desire to further strengthen the scope of local politics.
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".
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.
Decoupling energy and resource use from growth in the Indian construction sector : a baseline study
(2017)
India is currently at a crucial juncture where it is aiming for economic growth to meet the basic needs of its 1.2 billion people. However, so far this growth has resulted in energy shortages and the increasing use of limited resources. This policy brief series is about decoupling, i.e. improving efficiency to reduce the resources and energy needed for this growth and meet the country's increasing development needs.
The construction sector is highly resource and energy intensive; it is therefore imperative that it moves towards a path of environmental sustainability. This transition is likely to be achieved by decoupling both resource and energy use from the sector's growth. Decision-makers in the sector will play a crucial role in achieving this. The aim of this policy brief series is to inform decision-makers in India at central government and state level about the current status of research, policy and institutions in the Indian construction sector and to identify key drivers and barriers. Finally, practical recommendations will be made for decision-makers about how to promote decoupling of resource and energy use from growth in the construction sector.
Policy brief 1 focuses on the baseline for decoupling in the Indian construction sector. The study draws attention to the existing scenario in terms of key policies, research and institutions linked to resources and energy in the sector.
India is currently at a crucial juncture where it is aiming for economic growth to meet the basic needs of its 1.2 billion people. However, so far this growth has resulted in energy shortages and the increasing use of limited resources. This policy brief series is about decoupling, i.e. improving efficiency to reduce the resources and energy needed for this growth and meet the country's increasing development needs.
The construction sector is highly resource and energy intensive; it is therefore imperative that it moves towards a path of environmental sustainability. This transition is likely to be achieved by decoupling both resource and energy use from the sector's growth. Decision-makers in the sector will play a crucial role in achieving this. The aim of this policy brief series is to inform decision-makers in India at central government and state level about the current status of research, policy and institutions in the Indian construction sector and to identify key drivers and barriers. Finally, practical recommendations will be made for decision-makers about how to promote decoupling of resource and energy use from growth in the construction sector.
Policy brief 2 focuses on analysing the potential for decoupling in the Indian buildings and construction sector. Primary and secondary research was conducted to identify the factors that influence decoupling. Subsequently, a framework was established to make it possible to measure the nature and extent of decoupling that is possible within the existing policy environment. Furthermore, gaps, drivers and barriers have been identified which could enable a potential analysis study on decoupling to be carried out. In addition, examples of good practice from Germany and other European countries have been studied with a view to learning lessons that can help to bridge the current gaps in India.
India is currently at a crucial juncture where it is aiming for economic growth to meet the basic needs of its 1.2 billion people. However, so far this growth has resulted in energy shortages and the increasing use of limited resources. This policy brief series is about decoupling, i.e. improving efficiency to reduce the resources and energy needed for this growth and meet the country's increasing development needs.
The construction sector is highly resource and energy intensive; it is therefore imperative that it moves towards a path of environmental sustainability. This transition is likely to be achieved by decoupling both resource and energy use from the sector's growth. Decision-makers in the sector will play a crucial role in achieving this. The aim of this policy brief series is to inform decision-makers in India at central government and state level about the current status of research, policy and institutions in the Indian construction sector and to identify key drivers and barriers. Finally, practical recommendations will be made for decision-makers about how to promote decoupling of resource and energy use from growth in the construction sector.
Policy brief 3 focuses on recommendations both at national and state level on the possible interventions that could result in resource and energy use being decoupled from growth in the Indian construction sector. Lack of a comprehensive policy on resource efficiency and the possibility of using secondary raw materials to obtain resource and impact decoupling continue to be the key issues that India will have to grapple with in the years to come.
Vor dem Hintergrund der europäischen Klimaschutzziele bis 2050 und der damit erforderlichen Dekarbonisierung der Wirtschaft werden in dem Vorhaben die Weiterentwicklungsoptionen der europäischen Energieeffizienzpolitiken untersucht. Es werden die Sektoren private Haushalte, Verkehr und Industrie betrachtet sowie der förderliche Rahmen, d. h. auch sektorübergreifende Instrumente. In den vorgeschlagenen Politikpaketen soll sich die Vielfalt der Instrumententypen abbilden. Neben Best-Practice-Beispielen liegen Länderstudien für drei große Volkswirtschaften der EU vor (Deutschland, Frankreich, Italien) und mit Polen auch eine Länderstudie für einen Mitgliedstaat aus dem mittelosteuropäischen Raum.
As of June 2017, 150 countries have ratified the Paris Climate Agreement. This agreement calls for, among other things, strong reductions in CO2 emissions by 2030 and beyond. This paper reviews the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDCs) plans of six Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries and compares their current and projected future CO2 levels across sectors, and their stated targets in the context of their economic and demographic situations. This comparison reveals wide variations in the types of targets, with the "ambition" level changing as the perspective changes from total CO2 to CO2/capita and per unit gross domestic product (GDP). We also review national plans as stated in NDCs and find that while there are many types of policies listed, few are quantified and no attempts are made to score individual or groups of policies for their likelihood in achieving stated targets. We conclude that more analysis is needed to better understand the possible impacts of current policies and plans on CO2 emissions, and whether current plans are adequate to hit targets. Considerations on better aligning targets are also provided.
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.
Der vorliegende Beitrag beschäftigt sich mit der Rolle dezentraler Akteure bei der Transformation des deutschen Energiesystems. Er betrachtet die Energiewende als ein gesellschaftspolitisches, technisches, soziales und ökologisches Leitprojekt für eine "Große Transformation". Die sozio-technische Hypothese dabei ist, dass (weltweit?) ein Trend zur "Re-Vergesellschaftung" der Energieerzeugung und nutzung auf modernstem technischen Niveau stattfindet in Verbindung mit einer regionalen und überregionalen Netzstruktur und (teilweise) auch großtechnischer erneuerbarer Stromerzeugung (z. B. Windkraftparks). Um den notwendigen massiven Ausbau erneuerbarer Stromerzeugung für die Dekarbonisierung von Gebäuden und Verkehr so gering wie möglich zu halten (Akzeptanz, Kosten), werden Energie/Stromeffizienz und die Begrenzung von Rebound Effekten (z. B. Lebensstiländerungen; nachhaltigere Produktions- und Konsummuster) zum Imperativ.
Wie viel Gestaltungsmacht haben das Pariser Klimaabkommen und die in der Agenda 2030 für nachhaltige Entwicklung formulierten Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) als internationaler Bezugsrahmen für die globale Energietransformation? In der vorliegeneden Studie analysiert Lukas Hermwille die beiden Agenden und stellt deren Komplementaritäten heraus.
Die Studie kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass ein Fokus allein auf innovative Ansätze und den Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien nicht ausreicht. Nimmt man die Ambition des Zwei-Grad-Limits oder gar des 1,5-Grad-Ziels ernst, reicht es nicht aus, darauf zu warten, bis Kohle, Öl und Gas von alleine obsolet werden, sondern es wird nötig werden, den Ausstieg aus fossilen Energieträgern aktiv politisch zu gestalten. In diesem Sinne empfiehlt die Studie mit Hilfe von "Exnovationsstrategien" auch die potenziellen Verlierer der Energietransformation in den Blick zu nehmen, so Widerstände abzubauen, um den Ausstieg aus der Nutzung fossiler Energieträger rechtzeitig und gleichzeitig sozial gerecht zu erreichen.
Quo vadis voluntary markets? : new Paris Agreement architecture puts business model to the test
(2017)
In the Paris Agreement, the governments of the world have pledged to attain climate neutrality in the second half of this century. More precisely, in Art. 4.1 parties agreed to "achieve a balance between anthropogenic emissions by sources and removals by sinks of greenhouse gases". However, the collective as well as the majority of measures by individual countries fall short of embarking on a pathway towards that objective. But nevertheless, an increasing number of actors - countries, sub-national entities, as well as corporations - have stepped up their efforts and set themselves carbon neutrality goals.
In this Policy Brief Lukas Hermwille and Markus Gornik portray the commitments of Costa Rica, Norway, Sweden, the City of Melbourne, Australia and the corporation Microsoft. All cases have set themselves ambitious neutrality goals and have implemented measures to achieve them. However, none of the cases will be able to achieve accomplish neutrality on their own, at least not on short-term. The remaining emissions will be compensated using carbon credits either from domestic offset schemes (Costa Rica) or from international schemes.
For the time being, voluntary carbon neutrality goals, as presented in this Policy Brief, are an effective way to demonstrate leadership in climate protection. For the near future, pioneering actors that set voluntary carbon or climate neutrality goals could provide a significant source of demand for international carbon credits.
What can reasonably be expected from the UNFCCC process and the climate conference in Paris 2015? To achieve transformative change, prevailing unsustainable routines embedded in socio-economic systems have to be translated into new and sustainable ones. This article conceptualizes the UNFCCC and the associated policy processes as a catalyst for this translation by applying a structurational regime model. This model provides an analytical distinction of rules (norms and shared meaning) and resources (economic resources as well as authoritative and allocative power) and allows us to conceptualize agency on various levels, including beyond nation states. The analysis concludes that the UNFCCC's narrow focus on emission targets, which essentially is a focus on resources, has proven ineffective. In addition, the static division of industrialized and developing countries in the Convention's annexes and the consensus-based decision-making rules have impeded ambitious climate protection. The article concludes that the UNFCCC is much better equipped to provide rules for climate protection activities and should consciously expand this feature to improve its impact.
Out of the comfort zone! : Governing the exnovation of unsustainable technologies and practices
(2017)
Innovations are important for sustainability transformations, yet often prove insufficient for replacing established unsustainable structures. The promotion of renewable energy, for example, has been insufficient for pushing coal out of the energy market. The prevalent "innovation bias" should be overcome by complementing innovation politics and research with a stronger occupation with the purposive termination of unsustainable technologies, products and practices. This article therefore introduces the concept of "exnovation" and discusses the need of, as well as different approaches for, the governance of exnovation processes.
Optimization and simulation models are fit to work on a multitude of technical, economic, and techno-economic questions. However, they are by now not able to satisfactorily include societal aspects like acceptance, spatial implications and legal frameworks. In order to advance scope and explanatory power of simulation models, collaboration in interdisciplinary research teams is needed. Yet the exchange in such teams and its coordination can prove challenging. Furthermore, disciplinary approaches and methods for simulation and optimization might not be familiar to all participants.
To this end, a new conceptual model is introduced. The conceptual model employs few basic elements and concepts for describing and explaining arbitrary societal and technical relationships. Most notably, the conceptual model is general in its design, so contributions to the problem formulation and design components can be made by all team members regardless of their discipline. The procedure is based on common agent-based concepts without using their terminology. Consequently, an exchange among all team members becomes possible without them necessarily being proficient in agent-based modeling. A reduced presentation of workshop results exemplifies the use of novel elements for deriving an emergent agent-based simulation.
Mit dem Klimaschutz-Teilkonzept Mobilität für die Stadt Wolfsburg wurde eine neue Methode erprobt, mit der sich klimaschutzrelevante Handlungspotenziale an der Schnittstelle von Stadt- und Verkehrsplanung identifizieren lassen. Die Methode erlaubt es, bei der Abschätzung von Potenzialen zur Minderung verkehrsbedingter CO2-Emissionen stadträumliche Gegebenheiten zu erfassen und eine räumliche Differenzierung vorzunehmen. Sie stellt neben den für die Stadt- und Verkehrsplanung schon bestehenden Ansätzen die Analyse von variierenden CO2-Minderungspotenzialen innerhalb der Teilräume einer Stadt in den Vordergrund und ist eine sinnvolle Ergänzung zu den im verkehrsplanerischen Kontext oft angewandten Verkehrssimulationen.
Vielfältige Einflüsse wirken auf die Energie- und Wasserversorgung ein, auch aus Faktoren resultierend, die nicht mit dem Klimawandel zusammenhängen. Es besteht damit zum einen die Herausforderung, die Folgen des Klimawandels unter den allgemeinen Bedingungen gesellschaftlicher Transformation modellhaft zu erfassen. Die Produktions- und Versorgungssysteme in Deutschland müssen sich langfristig an die Folgen des Klimawandels anpassen. Das Kapitel thematisiert deshalb zum anderen die Verletzlichkeit von Energiesystem und Wasserinfrastruktur und stellt dar, wie sie in unterschiedlichen Szenarien berechnet werden kann. Die Ergebnisse dieser unterschiedlichen Szenariorechenläufe setzen einen Rahmen, der die vielfältigen Anpassungserfordernisse aufzeigt. Wenn die Versorgung in Zukunft sicher und effizient sein soll, sind darüber hinaus auch die anderen, nichtklimatischen Einflussfaktoren zu berücksichtigen.
Wirtschaftsförderung 4.0
(2017)
Alle sind für den Klimaschutz. Aber niemand will sich einschränken. Ökoroutine möchte durch Standards und Limits die Strukturen ändern. Schluss mit moralischen Appellen! Strategischer Konsum ist ein Mythos. Es ist einfacher die Bedingungen im Stall zu verbessern als das Konsumverhalten. Nullemissionsautos können bis 2030 der Standard für Neuzulassungen werden. So wird Öko zur Routine. Viele Beispiele zeigen: Das Konzept funktioniert bereits in der Praxis.
Zahlreiche einkommensarme Haushalte in Deutschland und diejenigen, die nahe der Armutsgrenze leben, leiden unter den in den letzten Jahren gestiegenen Stromkosten. In der Folge kann eine zunehmende Anzahl von Stromsperren beobachtet werden. Nach Angaben der Bundesnetzagentur wurden im Jahr 2014 insgesamt knapp 350.000 Unterbrechungen der Stromversorgung aufgrund von Zahlungsrückstände durch die Energieunternehmen veranlasst. Um solche Stromsperren zu vermeiden, bieten immer mehr Versorgungsunternehmen ihren Kunden einen Prepaidzähler als Antwort auf ausstehende Zahlungen und eine wachsende Zahl von Haushalten mit Energieschulden an. Das Phänomen der Energiearmut in Deutschland ist relativ jung und damit die Anzahl der Prepaidzähler noch niedrig. Erfahrungen in diesem Zusammenhang sind daher im Vergleich zu anderen Ländern (z. B. Großbritannien) rar. Im Auftrag des Ministeriums für Umwelt, Landwirtschaft, Natur- und Verbraucherschutz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen hat das Wuppertal Institut die erste wissenschaftlichen Befragung von Haushalten mit Prepaidzählern in Deutschland durchgeführt und stellt die Ergebnisse in diesem Wuppertal Report vor.
Africa and in particular African Least Developed Countries have to a large extent been neglected by the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). This article reviews the mechanism's performance in the region and highlights current developments. The analysis is based on a quantitative breakdown of data provided by the United Nations Environment Programme and Technical University of Denmark (UNEP/DTU) CDM Pipeline and was complemented by interviews with selected investors. The findings indicate that despite the various support measures for underrepresented regions, the overall share of African CDM activities continues to be low. The significant rise in the share of Programmes of Activities of recent years cannot make up for the continuing low numbers of African stand-alone projects. Further, the collapse of the compliance market has proved fatal in terms of timing: ongoing efforts to support the development of a genuine African carbon market were suffocated by the lack of demand for Certified Emission Reductions at a moment when capacity building had started to bear fruit. Consequently, instead of being a mitigation tool with significant scale, the future role of the CDM in Africa might be limited to the voluntary market, while at the same time serving as a tool to foster sustainable development, with mitigation benefits.
This paper outlines the key elements of a low-carbon stabilization pathway for land transport, focusing on the potential of key policy measures at the local and national level, opportunities for synergies of sustainable development and climate change objectives, and governance and institutional issues affecting the implementation of measures. It combines several approaches to provide an integrated view on the decarbonization of the transport sector based on recent literature. It will assess the quantitative basis potential climate change mitigation pathways and will then look into policy and institutional aspects that relate to the feasibility of these pathways. This combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis to measure the potential, options, and feasibility of climate change mitigation strategies in the transport sector aims to synthesize recent papers on the subject and draw conclusions for future research.
As the recent withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement has shown, political volatility directly affects climate change mitigation policies, in particular in sectors, such as transport associated with long-term investments by individuals (vehicles) and by local and national governments (urban form and transport infrastructure and services). There is a large potential for cost-effective solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to improve the sustainability of the transport sector that is yet unexploited. Considering the cost-effectiveness and the potential for co-benefits, it is hard to understand why efficiency gains and CO2 emission reductions in the transport sector are still lagging behind this potential. Particularly interesting is the fact that there is substantial difference among countries with relatively similar economic performances in the development of their transport CO2 emissions over the past thirty years despite the fact that these countries had relatively similar access to efficient technologies and vehicles. This study aims to explore some well-established political science theories on the particular example of climate change mitigation in the transport sector in order to identify some of the factors that could help explain the variations in success of policies and strategies in this sector. The analysis suggests that institutional arrangements that contribute to consensus building in the political process provide a high level of political and policy stability which is vital to long-term changes in energy end-use sectors that rely on long-term investments. However, there is no direct correlation between institutional structures, e.g., corporatism and success in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector. Environmental objectives need to be built into the consensus-based policy structure before actual policy progress can be observed. This usually takes longer in consensus democracies than in politically more agile majoritarian policy environments, but the policy stability that builds on corporatist institutional structures is likely to experience changes over a longer-term, in this case to a shift towards low-carbon transport that endures.
There is a large potential for cost-effective solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to improve the sustainability of the transport sector that is yet unexploited. Considering the cost-effectiveness and the potential for co-benefits, it is hard to understand why energy gains and mitigation action in the transport sector is still lagging behind the potential. Particularly interesting is the fact that there is substantial difference among countries with relatively similar economic performances, such as the OECD countries in the development of their transport CO2 emission over the past thirty years despite the fact that these countries had relatively similar access to efficient technologies and vehicles. This study aims to apply some well established political science theories on the particular example of climate change mitigation in the transport sector in order to identify some of the factors that could help explain the variations in success of policies and strategies in this sector. The analysis suggests that institutional arrangements that contribute to consensus building in the political process provide a high level of political and policy stability which is vital to long-term changes in energy end-use sectors that rely on long-term investments. However, there is no direct correlation between institutional structures, e.g. corporatism and success in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector. Environmental objectives need to be built into the consensus-based policy structure before actual policy progress can be observed. This usually takes longer in consensus democracies than in politically more agile majoritarian policy environments, but the policy stability that builds on corporatist institutional structures is likely to experience changes over a longer-term, in this case to a shift towards low-carbon transport that endures.
Many low-carbon transport strategies can help achieve other economic, social and environmental objectives. These include improving access to mobility, reducing traffic and parking congestion, saving consumers money, supporting economic development, increasing public health and safety, and reducing air and noise pollution. Based on Avoid-Shift-Improve approaches and case studies from Germany, Colombia, India and Singapore, this paper shows that low-carbon transport generates significant and quantifiable benefits that can create a basis for political and societal coalitions.
Estimates suggest that currently available and cost effective measures can reduce transport Greenhouse Gas emissions by 40-50% compared to 2010. Yet, a number of barriers affect the optimal exploitation of this potential. Considering the possible economic, social and environmental benefits of sustainable transport, the shift towards a low-carbon pathway of this sector can be a win-win situation for climate protection and local development goals. This paper aims to make a contribution to understand these opportunities by highlighting the linkages between objectives, presenting case studies, facts and figures. The paper will also explore assessment methodologies and tools that can help practitioners to assess sustainable development benefits (SDB) and providing evidence for policy-makers to make more informed decisions on transport investments and polices.
The study analyses the country background, emissions trends, ongoing activities and barriers relating to the implementation of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) of Indonesia under the UNFCCC. A special emphasis is laid on further mitigation potentials. Fields of mitigation assessed are land use, land use change and forestry (LULUCF) governance and monitoring as well as electricity demand and generation. A chapter is dedicated to the ongoing and planned increase in coal use - contrary to mitigation ambition in other fields - including an analysis of the economic role and local impacts of coal.
Im Projekt KomRev werden effiziente Energienutzungs- und Versorgungskonzepte am Beispiel der Stadt Rheine entwickelt. Ziel war es, mit einer sinnvollen Vernetzung der Bereiche Strom, Wärme und Verkehr eine weitgehend CO2-"freie" Energieversorgung im Jahr 2050 zu erreichen. Das Forschungskonsortium bestand aus dem Solar-Institut Jülich der FH Aachen, dem Wuppertal Institut sowie dem Deutschen Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt.
This paper analyses India's participation in more than two decades of global climate politics. India has transitioned from a protest voice on the fringes of global climate policy to one that is actively shaping international efforts to combat climate change. Analysis of the drivers behind India's negotiating positions on climate change thus far has focused on the competing motives of equity and co-benefits, which has however been insufficient to explain some of India's recent actions in global climate governance. There is a gap in the literature with regards to the analysis of Indian climate policy as situated in its larger foreign policy agenda and objectives. This paper studies the evolution of India's climate policy through the perspective of its broader foreign policy strategy, arguing that India's engagement with international climate politics can be better understood by locating its climate policy as a subset of its foreign policy agenda. Shifts in India's climate change negotiation stance in the past decade have been but a part of its overall foreign policy adjustments in favour of greater responsibility in management of the global commons. Going forward, tracking Indian foreign policy objectives will yield vital clues towards India’s role in global climate action.
Vision development towards a sustainable North Rhine-Westphalia 2030 in a science-practice-dialogue
(2017)
The paper presents the results of a participatory vision development process in the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) in Germany. The vision development was part of a scientific research project that accompanied the development of a sustainability strategy for NRW at state level. The Sustainability Strategy NRW was adopted in July 2016 and contains parts of the vision developed in the research project: Sentences from the narrative text vision and proposed targets and indicators that back-up the vision for a sustainable NRW in 2030 were used by the state of NRW. The vision was developed in iterative steps in three consecutive dialogue rounds with different stakeholders from science and practice. The paper presents the methodological approach and the results of the vision formulation process. The paper discusses the lessons learned from the vision development - from both practical and theoretical perspectives of transition management. The paper explores the relevance of setting ambitious targets for sustainable development as part of a state strategy by taking the proposed target of a "4 × 25% modal split" by 2030 as an example. The project demonstrated that a participatory approach for vision development is time and resource consuming, but worth the effort as it improves the quality and acceptance of a vision. Furthermore, the project demonstrated that transformative science contributes valuable inputs for sustainability transitions and for facilitating participatory vision development.
Shaping the Paris mechanisms part II : an update on submissions on article 6 of the Paris Agreement
(2017)
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement established three approaches for countries to cooperate with each other: cooperative approaches under Art. 6.2, a new mechanism to promote mitigation and sustainable development under Art. 6.4, and a framework for non-market approaches under Art. 6.8. Detailed rules for these three approaches are currently being negotiated.
This Policy Paper summarises the views submitted by Parties in March 2017 to identify points of controversy and convergence. It builds on a previous paper which summarised views submitted in September 2016.
Compared to the 2016 round of submissions, some conceptual advances can be noted. However, a number of issues continue to be controversial with little indication of a convergence of views.
Article 6 of the Paris Agreement establishes three approaches for countries to cooperate with each other in implementing their climate protection contributions. However, Article 6 sketches out only some basic contours; the details are to be filled in by further negotiations. This article surveys the views countries have submitted so far in order to identify the main issues at stake, points of controvery and convergence and possible ways forward. The submissions reveal some sharp differences in opinions on key issues such as the scope of the new mechanisms, how to operationalise the Article 6 requirement to increase ambition, whether to have international provisions on the promotion of sustainable development, and how to protect environmental integrity in the use of Article 6. The article concludes with a number of recommendations on how to address these controversies.
Global climate
(2017)
On 7-18 November, the twenty-second Conference of the Parties (COP-22) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the twelfth Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP-12) took place in Marrakech. Due to the rapid entry into force of the Paris Agreement, Marrakech also hosted the first Conference of the Parties serving as the Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (CMA-1). Nobody had expected this one year before in Paris - the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, by comparison, had taken eight years. Many hailed the rapid entry into force as further proof of the commitment of the world community to finally tackle the climate problem.