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A systematic assessment of low-carbon energy consumption by an integrated approach in rural China
(2024)
Many studies highlight the challenges of applying urban-based low-carbon assessment frameworks to rural energy consumption, emphasizing the need for a method suitable for rural conditions. This study aims to develop a systematic methodology suitable for low-carbon assessment of rural energy consumption in China. The proposed methodology was tested on 24,116 rural households across 124 villages in central and western China. Results indicate that it successfully overcomes limitations in current assessments, namely limited relevance, poor applicability, and inadequate policy alignment. The methodology is capable of adapting to the lack of basic data on rural energy and the inadequate statistics on rural energy consumption. The findings of this assessment reveal that energy structure (i.e., energy sources) is the main contributor to rural carbon emissions, followed by household economic conditions, rural house maintenance structure, and the awareness levels of farmers. These factors have a dramatic impact on the transition to low-carbon energy consumption in rural China.
Breaking the silos : integrated approaches to foster sustainable development and climate action
(2025)
A number of critical disconnects across sectors, actors continue to affect implementation action on sustainable development and climate action. Even when technical solutions, political commitments, and funding streams are avaiable, implementation often remains siloed and fragmented. This debate piece does not present definitive solutions or conclusive evidence; rather, it aims to foster critical reflection on how co-design, participatory approaches, Living Labs, and epistemically connected actor coalitions may help break down institutional and conceptual barriers. It proposes the SCALE framework [Shared epistemic foundations, Cross-sectoral integration, Adaptive co-design, Local enabling environments, and Evaluation & expansion) as way of operationalising the Safe Systems for Sustainable Development concept presented in Lah 2024, exploring how knowledge integration, iterative experimentation, and locally grounded solutuions can help creating implementation partnerships that last. This approach highlights questions concerning resource intensity, longevity, and scalability that must be addressed. By facilitating co-design, testing and validation of concrete solutions at the local level, the approach presented in this paper invites policymakers, researchers, practitioners, and civil society actors to engage in a more nuanced and constructive debate on whether, how, and under what conditions sustainable development solutions are considered to be viable and hence can endure even in politically volatile environments.
Although international efforts toward vehicle electrification in Southeast Asia have primarily focused on four-wheeled vehicles, greater emphasis must be directed toward two-wheeled vehicles (2 W). Southeast Asia has the world's highest rate of 2 W penetration, particularly in Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesia. These vehicles are popular in this region mainly due to the limited public transportation, their agility on narrow roads, and their ability to maneuver through heavy traffic. Additionally, 2Ws provide a flexible and affordable transportation option, significantly enhancing accessibility and last-mile connectivity to existing public transit networks. However, the vast majority of 2Ws in the region still rely on internal combustion engine (ICE), contributing significantly to urban air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. Considering the significant role of 2Ws in transporting people and goods throughout Southeast Asia, electrifying this sector offers a substantial potential to mitigate climate impact. This paper advocates for collaborative initiatives across digital platforms, financial mechanisms, and supportive government policies to accelerate the adoption of electric 2Ws (E2Ws) by promoting local production, fostering innovative business models, and establishing conducive regulatory frameworks. A robust E2Ws ecosystem, local E2Ws in the region will require increased cooperation among local E2W and charging equipment manufacturers within the global supply chain, ensuring the development and distribution of environmentally sustainable, technologically advanced, and competitively priced products. Furthermore, E2Ws producers must develop and implement various innovative business models, particularly around battery reuse and recycling, developed in partnership with market stakeholders, including digital platform companies with high growth potential. The financial sector can play a crucial role by creating advanced financing solutions to ease consumer access to E2Ws. Lastly, the governments must support this transition through both financial and non-financial policies, including technical standards, offer preferential policies for E2Ws and charging equipment, and facilitating rapid development.
Background: While discussions on nuclear energy mostly took place at the national level and the respective media arenas in the past, the questions of regulating sustainability and financing have now moved up to the supranational EU level. In this light, this article analyses the discussions and processes around the inclusion of nuclear energy into the EU Taxonomy, which aims at guiding financial means towards sustainable economic activities.
Results: The research question as to why nuclear energy has become sustainable is examined by applying a narrative discourse analysis. To account for the identified challenges for media-based discourse analysis regarding nuclear energy, an analysis was conducted alongside key events relying on media articles and expert interviews, following the institutional structure of the implementation process. The article contributes to the limited body of literature on sustainability regulation, particularly from a social science perspective. By delving into the specific dimensions of the regulatory process on nuclear energy, it provides a nuanced understanding that enriches existing academic discourse in this emerging field.
Conclusions: In the article, it is argued that four factors contributed mainly to the decision to label nuclear energy sustainable: the delegated act, combined with the decision to connect nuclear energy and gas (1), the publication of the report by the Joint Research Centre (2), the implicit compromise between Germany (gas) and France (nuclear energy) (3) and finally, the Russian war against Ukraine (4). Although narrative discourse analysis still offers valuable insights into ongoing policy processes at the EU level, the different implementation process in the EU by means of the delegated act shapes its explanatory power compared to the national context.
Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees requires consistent action by people to change their lifestyles in order to limit annual household-related carbon emissions to 2.5 tonnes per person by 2030. As the required mobility reduction measures have already been identified, the challenge remains in scaling up the changes into a mainstream practice. Our study explored whether the involvement of close social communities, especially households, in the change process could be effective in achieving the required measures. Through a Climate Puzzle game intervention and a six-month follow-up study with 12 households in Espoo, Finland, we investigated the role of close social communities in implementing the planned sustainable mobility behaviour change. The findings are presented through 12 household narratives. These narratives show that the adoption of new sustainable mobility behaviours is influenced by both (infra)structural and social relationship factors and that close social communities can hinder or facilitate the shift of everyday mobility behaviours towards being more sustainable in diverse ways. The findings suggest that design interventions should target larger social communities rather than just individuals in order to achieve the 2.5 tonne target. The study also indicates that socially tailored interventions and low-carbon solutions should be developed and targeted at city districts to help households create and maintain lifestyle changes.
Residential buildings were the source of 11.6 % of Germany's greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, emitting around 78 million tonnes of CO2e, mostly due to inefficient heating and inadequate energy efficiency. This needs to be reduced to near zero by 2045. This will involve deep energy performance renovation of some 23 million dwellings, which is expensive and seldom pays back through energy cost savings. Around 43 % of all rental dwellings, almost 10 million, are owned by small private landlords, most of whom show little enthusiasm for deep energy performance investment. Instead, they tend to save small amounts and spend these on piecemeal renovations, while avoiding debt. This study explores the potential of a novel savings and loan scheme that would better accord with their saving capacity, be profitable for banks, and fund large, one-off deep energy performance upgrades. It rests on the fact that the long-term, committed savings of landlords could act as M1 collateral for banks to create large amounts of new M2 money by issuing loans, from which they make reasonable profits. This would enable banks to offer low-interest loans to small private landlords who commit to such savings. These landlords would continue to commit monthly amounts, but these would be savings for only the first few years, then loan repayments. With the savings and loan scheme, we are contributing to the debate on new and creative ways to incentivize specific target groups to accelerate the decarbonization of the building stock.
The transport sector is not on track to meet the Paris Agreement climate targets. Rapid decarbonization of transport requires fuel switching and energy savings through modal shift and demand reduction - which are the aims of transport-sufficiency policy. We analyze passenger transport-policy instruments collected in the European Sufficiency Policy Database. Applying the concept of impact chains, we examine the ways in which proposed policy instruments function from cause/policy stimulus to effect/impact, with a focus on the factors relevant to the feasibility of policy implementation in Germany. This allows us to compare implementation feasibility by policy target and by instrument type. Based on our analysis of supporting factors, barriers, and risks, we find that policy instruments with many supporting factors also tend to have many barriers and risks. This is often the case with broad instruments that have diverse relevant factors. We observe that the policy targets "promotion of active modes" and "reduction of motorized individual transport" have the fewest risks because they tend to be less intensive in cost, material, and labor. Feasibility also varies between instrument types, with regulatory instruments unexpectedly showing the fewest risks and a similar number of barriers as economic instruments and as many supporting factors as fiscal instruments. This analysis enhances the understanding of which policies are easier to implement and how feasibility is interconnected with other instruments.
Residential buildings were the source of 11.6 % of Germany's greenhouse gas emissions in 2023, emitting around 78 million tonnes of CO2e, mostly due to inefficient heating and inadequate energy efficiency. This needs to be reduced to near zero by 2045. This will involve deep energy performance renovation of some 23 million dwellings, which is expensive and seldom pays back through energy cost savings. Around 43 % of all rental dwellings, almost 10 million, are owned by small private landlords, most of whom show little enthusiasm for deep energy performance investment. Instead, they tend to save small amounts and spend these on piecemeal renovations, while avoiding debt. This study explores the potential of a novel savings and loan scheme that would better accord with their saving capacity, be profitable for banks, and fund large, one-off deep energy performance upgrades. It rests on the fact that the long-term, committed savings of landlords could act as M1 collateral for banks to create large amounts of new M2 money by issuing loans, from which they make reasonable profits. This would enable banks to offer low-interest loans to small private landlords who commit to such savings. These landlords would continue to commit monthly amounts, but these would be savings for only the first few years, then loan repayments. With the savings and loan scheme, we are contributing to the debate on new and creative ways to incentivize specific target groups to accelerate the decarbonization of the building stock.
Car ownership is the primary driver of car use, which in turn is the leading contributor to passenger transport sector emissions. Hence, understanding the key determinants of car ownership is crucial to designing a policy framework that will effectively reduce emissions. Based on a 2022 German mobility survey, this study utilizes multinomial logit models to analyse a range of influences on car ownership including socio-demographic and infrastructural factors, respondents' stated policy responses, and their motives for car ownership. We find that car ownership increases with an individual's age, income, the share of social contacts owning cars and with smaller towns of residence. Habits, measured as the number of years already spent as a car owner or non-owner emerges as a dominant factor. Our three main insights include: First, car ownership in rural Germany is particularly high and can be effectively reduced by public transport supply measures. Second, situations of radical change - when individuals overcome the force of routine to reflect on their car ownership status - present unique opportunities for policy intervention. And third, isolated or mild policy interventions may only have a limited impact. To significantly influence car ownership levels, policies will likely have to be very stringent.
Hydrogen plays a pivotal role in global efforts to decarbonize energy and industrial sectors. The European Union, particularly Germany, anticipate a significant reliance on hydrogen imports in the medium to long term, identifying the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region as a key potential producer and exporter of green hydrogen and its downstream products. Yet, investment risks pose significant challenges to advancing the region's green hydrogen and synthetic fuel industries. However, systematic comparative risk analyses for these sectors across MENA countries remain limited. This study addresses the research gap by conducting a comparative risk assessment for renewable energy and green hydrogen and synthetic fuel development in 17 MENA countries. A comprehensive framework evaluating macro and micro risks was applied, along with two contrasting risk scenarios to explore future developments under different risk conditions. The findings reveal that while MENA countries hold promise, most face at least moderate risks, underscoring the complexity of fostering these industries regionally.