9:09 min posted on 2019 Sep 16
The text version of Scientists for Future's "Call to Policy" is available here:
www.scientists4future.org
The 88th Conference of Environment Ministers has just passed a resolution in Bad Saarow on the "Promotion of Building with Wood", which was introduced by Rhineland-Palatinate. The document calls on the federal government to improve the framework conditions for timber construction. The German Timber Industry Council e. V. (DHWR) expressly welcomes this initiative.
According to the Rhineland-Palatinate Minister of the Environment, the positive climate protection properties of renewable raw materials are to be taken into account in building energy law, among other things.
This would be more than desirable, because the draft bill for the Building Energy Act (GEG) recently presented by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) missed the opportunity to finally take the entire life cycle of buildings into account in the amendment.
In the manufacturing, recycling and disposal process of certain building materials, a large amount of CO2 is released - often more than is consumed in the entire use. In terms of climate policy, it is therefore incomprehensible that this is neither taken into account in the draft Building Energy Act, nor in the energy balance of the building according to the Thermal Insulation Ordinance, nor in the preparation of the energy certificate.
"The Federal Government and the Länder have an equal role to play in sustainable management and the future-oriented use of resources. We see the current resolution of the Conference of Environment Ministers as an important step in the right direction - this should serve as a signpost for both the current and the future federal government."
Read more:
Source PM Deutscher Holzwirtschaftsrat DHWR (5.5.2017):
www.dhwr.de/presse_pressemitteilungen.php?id=519
Keywords:
Stakeholders, Greening / climate adaptation, DE-News, Wood construction, Climate protection, Environmental policy, Ecology
A most welcome piece of news reached the city of Aachen this morning (17 March 2021): Federal Minister Horst Seehofer has announced this year's selection of the "National Projects of Urban Development" and announced that the development of the Büchel old town quarter will receive up to 5.5 million euros in funding. Aachen is thus one of four municipalities in NRW to have been awarded the contract. With the amount of funding, the city is in third place nationwide.
OBin Keupen: "We feel the spirit of optimism!"
"This is a great message for our city," says Mayor Sibylle Keupen in her first reaction. "We have long felt the spirit of optimism around the Büchel in Aachen. The demolition of the multi-storey car park is imminent, the planning workshop was a great success, many groundbreaking political decisions have been made, and more are on the horizon. Above all, many city makers are on board and want to be involved in a very concrete way. They want to participate, to shape, to plan, to build. The fact that this high level of commitment of all those involved here on site has now also triggered such a response at federal level encourages us to continue on the path of 'making a city at Büchel'."
City Planning Director Burgdorff: "Aachen can play in the Bundesliga!"
The municipal councillor for urban development, construction and mobility, Frauke Burgdorff, adds: "I am extremely pleased that Aachen, if it sticks together, can also play in the Bundesliga! Aachen's politicians have united behind the project and have given their backing to the state and federal governments. Thank you for that! But I would also like to express my sincere thanks to those who have done the substantive work here on site, to the municipal project manager Nils Jansen as well as to Christoph Guth and Antje Eickhoff, who have done an excellent job on the part of the municipal development company SEGA."
Making town at the Büchel
A special piece of the city at eye level is to be created at Büchel. It is being developed together with many committed people and institutions. With this approach, it has also precisely met the requirements of the call for proposals. The Federal Ministry's project overview states: "Knowledge, living, meadow" are the keywords under which a mixed-use, urban quarter is to be created in the heart of Aachen's old town in a cooperative and exemplary development process that is wanted and supported by the urban community.
The basis for the development is the exploratory procedure "Stadt machen am Büchel" (Making a city at Büchel), which the city of Aachen launched in spring 2020. City Planning Director Burgdorff sums up: "A multi-storey car park has been blocking the development of the old town for decades. We are tearing it down and building a new urban quarter. The urban community itself is developing the programme, urban design and investment strategy. This project offers a unique opportunity to find answers to the question of how a major wound in the old city can be healed with contemporary building-cultural responses."
The next steps
Following today's basic commitment by the federal government to fund the project, the detailed applications for funding will be drawn up in phase 2. In this ongoing process - and on the basis of upcoming landmark decisions of Aachen's municipal politics - it will now be worked out how the Büchel of the future will take shape with the funding millions.
National urban development projects
National urban development projects are nationally and internationally visible, larger-scale urban development projects with clear impulses for the respective municipality or city, the region and urban development policy in Germany as a whole. They are characterised by a special quality standard with regard to the urban development approach, the building culture aspects and the participation processes, contribute to the realisation of the federal government's building policy objectives and have innovation potential. National urban development projects are projects that generally solve tasks and problems of considerable financial dimension. The focus is on the major challenges currently facing cities and municipalities in Germany (e.g. preservation of existing buildings, conversions, sustainable neighbourhood development).
A total of 24 projects for forward-looking urban development are being funded by the federal government with a total of around 75 million euros. 98 cities and municipalities from all over Germany applied for the funding.
More info
Interesting facts about the Büchel can be found on the Internet at
www.buechel-aachen.de
From Aprill 2021 the Demolition work on the Büchel multi-storey car park. All the info on this has been presented as part of an online event. The stream is still available on the YouTube channel of the city of Aachen:
https://youtu.be/KQqFq6v_edA.
Within the framework of a cooperative planning workshop, three teams of experts developed three exciting designs for the Büchel, each with a focus on the major themes of "knowledge, living, meadow". The final presentation of the planning workshop, which took place digitally in January 2021, is also still available as a stream:
https://youtu.be/AWSb5Gx3gKA.
Source: PM of the city of Aachen from 17.03.2021
Keywords:
DE-News, Funding, New building area, News Blog NRW, Mix of uses, Participation, Quarters, City, Transition Town
The EEG is supposed to achieve the goals of the Paris climate summit. But at the rate of expansion to date, according to a study by Berlin's HTW, we will have to wait until 2150 for Germany to switch completely to renewable energies.
It is not news that the implementation of the climate turnaround will not proceed without effort. Based on the expansion progress of energy systems for renewable energies from the years 2000 to 2015, Volker Quaschning from the Berlin University of Applied Sciences has calculated in the so-called "sector coupling study".how long it would take for Germany to obtain 100 per cent of its energy from renewable sources. He arrives at the year 2150.
"Paris goals practically impossible"
"This makes it practically impossible to meet the Paris targets. Either the political leaders lack the necessary expertise or they do not intend to comply with the climate protection agreement at all," says Quaschning.
"We need to expand wind and solar energy three to six times faster than planned by the federal government," Volker Quaschning specified the results of his research group Solar Storage Systems at HTW Berlin: onshore wind power would have to be expanded by 6.3 gigawatts net per year instead of 2.8 GW gross, as envisaged in the EEG 2016. In the case of photovoltaics, as much as 15 GW would be required annually instead of the 2.5 GW envisaged in the EEG.
The HTW Berlin sector coupling study is available for download at the following link: https://pvspeicher.htw-berlin.de/sektorkopplungsstudie
At www.greenpeace-energy.de/presse you will also find a fact sheet with key results of the HTW study and additional calculations by Greenpeace Energy on the need for long-term storage (wind gas / power to gas) in the context of sector coupling.
Press release from 20 June 2016 by Greenpeace Energy eG and Prof. Dr. Volker Quaschning, Renewable Energies Course, Berlin University of Applied Sciences
Keywords:
100% EEs, CO2-neutral, Renewable, Research, Climate protection, New books and studies, Environmental policy
The Federal Ministry for the Environment is today launching a new funding call "Climate protection through cycling". In future, the National Climate Initiative (NKI) will fund model projects that support cities and municipalities, as well as associations and companies, in developing attractive offers for cycling and meeting the increased volume of cycling. The aim is not only to save greenhouse gas emissions but also to contribute to improving the quality of life locally.
Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze: "Every second car journey is shorter than five kilometres - for many journeys, cycling is therefore a practical and climate-friendly alternative. However, the existing infrastructure for bicycles on site is often insufficient. This is where we come in with our funding offer. We want to contribute to making cycling more attractive and thus our cities and communities more climate-friendly and liveable.
Project outlines can be submitted from 1 August 2019. Applications are open to cities, municipalities, companies and cooperations of municipalities, associations, clubs, religious communities with corporate status and universities.
Since 2016, the Federal Ministry for the Environment has already supported 38 individual and 18 joint projects on cycling throughout Germany with a funding volume of around 85 million euros.
For more information, see:
www.klimaschutz.de/radverkehr
Keywords:
Stakeholders, Bike-/Velo-City, DE-News, Funding, Climate protection, Mobility, Environmental policy
