0:34 min, 26.09.2012
Project Info: http://sdg21.eu/db/hundertwassersiedlung-wohnen-unterm-regenturm
Animation from Jan Kamensky (2020)
The animation was created for the Viennese initiative @platzfuerwien to support them in their commitment to an environmentally friendly and people-friendly city.
Link: www.platzfuer.wien
More animations of other cities by Jan Kamensky, Hamburg:
https://vimeo.com/user2672828
Keywords:
Car Free, Greening / climate adaptation, Stock, Bike-/Velo-City, Bicycle, Movies, Movies < 4 Min, News Blog Austria, City, Vienna, Aesthetics / Architecture / Building Culture
An important milestone in the Federal Environment Ministry's international nature conservation and climate protection policy has been reached. The so-called "Bonn Challenge" initiated by Germany to rebuild forests has succeeded in getting countries to pledge a total of 150 million hectares. The goal was reached yesterday at the first Bonn Challenge regional conference for Asia in Palembang, Indonesia. There, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka announced further contributions to forest reconstruction. In Bonn in 2011, on Germany's initiative, numerous countries agreed to restore 150 million hectares of destroyed forests worldwide by 2020.
Environment State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth, who attended the conference on behalf of Germany, congratulated Alex Noerdin, Governor of South Sumatra Province and host of the regional conference: "The Bonn Challenge has created incredible global momentum for forest restoration. When we launched the Bonn Challenge in 2011, no one could have imagined that we would reach the 150 million hectare target three years ahead of schedule. The encouragement that countries in the region here in Palembang have given to the Bonn Challenge, and that they are also using it for their national initiatives, shows that in 2011 we kicked off a groundbreaking development for global forest restoration with the Bonn Challenge."
Further information about the Bonn Challenge can be found at
www.bonnchallenge.org/content/challenge
Source: BMUB press release, 11.05.2017
Keywords:
Stakeholders, Greening / climate adaptation, Soil & land consumption, Wood construction, Climate protection, News Blog Europe (without DE), Environmental policy, Ecology
Foresters, forest owners and nature lovers are very concerned about what has been happening in our forests since the beginning of 2018: Initially snow breakage and winter storms and the subsequent drought and bark beetle infestation have led to dramatic tree dieback. And there is no end in sight! The forest has been under extreme climate stress for almost two years and foresters are in permanent disaster mode. Well over 100 million old trees have already died. In addition, several million young plants have dried up. These have been planted in recent years to make the forest even more diverse and stable. But natural regeneration is also affected. The Association of German Foresters is calling for all efforts at federal and state level to be stepped up and pooled immediately. The BDF proposes the "Carlowitz Plan" as a strategic package of measures. Its measures are intended to preserve the forest in all its functions and as an important system-relevant basis of life and heritage for us humans!
In addition to the spruce tree species, which has so far mainly suffered from the drought, the beech, the most important deciduous tree species and "mother of the forest" in our forests, is now apparently also showing clear and region-wide signs of dying out. "This is particularly dramatic! In recent decades, we foresters have mainly relied on copper beech, our natural main tree species, for the necessary forest reorganisation towards climate-stable forests," says BDF Federal Chairman Ulrich Dohle. In addition, two important tree species have already been virtually lost in many forests due to fungal diseases of elm and ash. A similar trend is emerging for the maple tree species. With corresponding negative consequences for biodiversity and forestry options for the future.
"While we foresters have been busy for almost two years repairing the damage that has occurred so far - and there is no end in sight - the important future task of developing the forests in a climate-stable way is often falling by the wayside. There are simply too few of us to keep on top of the situation," says Dohle, drawing attention to the massive reduction in forestry staff over the past twenty years, during which around 50% of forestry employees have been cut.
A few days ago, Federal Forest Minister Julia Klöckner took up the results of the ETH Zurich study and announced a massive reforestation programme. The BDF is calling for this announcement to be translated into concrete government action in the near future. To this end, the necessary financial and human resources must be made available.
"The common good and services of general interest, especially in public forests, must once again take centre stage," says Dohle, specifying the demands. "The strong commercial orientation of the past two decades was a political mistake that must now be corrected as quickly as possible!" Bavaria has already initiated this paradigm shift for its state forest. Other federal states must now follow suit!
Forests are not only victims of climate change, they are also urgently needed to mitigate climate change. As a living reservoir of solar energy, it is a significant CO2 sink.
The handling of the forest dieback in the 1980s showed that responsible and targeted environmental policy can help to avert predicted damage. Although the causes and effects in the current climate debate are much more complex, we can certainly learn from the past.
The Association of German Foresters is therefore calling for the convening of a National Forest Summit at this time of climate emergency for the forest! The BDF is currently developing the "Carlowitz Plan" as the basis for a social discourse on the forest by politicians, experts and groups interested in the forest. The plan bears the name of Hans Carl von Carlowitz (1713), who first coined the term sustainability in forestry. Since then, sustainability has been the defining characteristic of all forestry activities!
Ulrich Dohle summarises it as follows: "These are no longer individual unusual weather events. This is climate change. I have therefore declared a climate emergency for forests today. Every effort must be made to preserve our forests as the formative green third of our country and a systemically relevant basis of life! This is the only way we can fulfil the principle of sustainability!"
Source: Press release from the BDF - Association of German Foresters dated 15 July 2019
Keywords:
Stakeholders, DE-News, Wood construction, NaWaRohs, Environmental policy, Ecology
To live up to its climate change pledge under the Paris Agreement, the European Union must ensure that all 250 million existing buildings, as well as all new buildings in the EU, produce near-zero greenhouse gas emissions. In a new report, European national academies of science, through their association EASAC, call for far-reaching policy action. "Policies have long focused on creating energy-efficient buildings that require less heating and air conditioning or generate renewable energy on site. However, the energy used to operate buildings is only part of the story. We need to broaden the scope and look at emissions from building materials and methods - both for new buildings and for building refurbishment," says William Gillett, Director of EASAC's Energy Programme.
Currently, between 1 and 1.5 % of Europe's building stock is retrofitted each year. "To meet the Paris Agreement targets, this rate should be two or even three times higher," Gillett points out. "But more importantly, when calculating the climate impact of buildings, we need to include the massive emissions from the construction industry and supply chain. Renovating a building to reduce energy consumption makes little sense if there is no regulation of CO2-content of the building materials and components used in the remediation and when they are transported long distances."
Until now, EU policy has focused on the concept of 'near-zero energy buildings', with an emphasis on reducing the energy consumption needed for the comfort of building occupants. According to the European Academies of Science, this notion is outdated: "As an indicator for assessing the climate impact of a new building or renovation, greenhouse gas emissions over the whole life cycle should now be considered, i.e. both the emissions generated by the production of the building materials and construction works and the emissions generated by the use of the building in the years afterwards. In just under 10 years, the door closes on limiting global warming to less than 1.5°C. During this period, there is an urgent need to limit the creation of greenhouse gas emissions in the upstream chain of renovation to create near-zero emission buildings."
Buildings should be designed so that they can be dismantled and recycled at the end of their life.
The report points out that most of the built environment is still designed according to a linear take-make-consume-dispose approach. The transition to a circular economy would not only make it possible to reduce resource consumption and CO2-footprint, but also to address the problem of waste. "Circular economy has many facets," explains Prof. Brian Norton, co-chair of the EASAC working group that produced the report. "Many building materials can be reused, recycled and recovered. First of all, buildings and their components should be designed to be easily dismantled at the end of their use."
Energy retrofitting of existing buildings must be at the heart of the EU's strategy, the researchers argue. "It is important to consider the re-use of existing buildings rather than replacing existing buildings with new ones," says Prof Norton. "There is a lot of CO in a building envelope.2, especially in concrete and steel. With today's technologies and digitized processes, renovation has become much easier and more sustainable. We need to stop the current practice of tearing down structures to build them from scratch." The report also argues that legislation should set a limit on CO2-The Commission is of the opinion that it is necessary to establish a limit value per m² of floor area that may be introduced into a building when it is being constructed or renovated.
Climate neutrality by 2050 requires the refurbishment of more than 90,000 homes - per week!
Last year, the European Commission presented its "Renovation Wave" strategy to drive forward the energy renovation of buildings in the EU. It intends to revise the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive as one of the cornerstones of this strategy. "It is true that an Energy Performance of Buildings Directive has been in place since 2002, recast in 2010 and revised in 2018. But the results have been underwhelming," says Dr Gillett.
The challenge is huge. "An estimated 75 % of the buildings Europeans live in have poor energy performance. To retrofit them would require 146 million renovations in just 30 years. Current efforts by member states are not enough," explains Prof Norton. "To achieve climate neutrality, we would need to renovate more than 90,000 homes a week across the EU - a huge challenge in itself."
Buildings are a source of emissions over which local authorities have a major influence
While the European Academies of Science direct their policy recommendations primarily to the European Union, they also make clear that cities play a major role. "Local councils and city planners have a huge influence on procurement specifications. They can stimulate the renovation and construction of neighbourhoods with near-zero greenhouse gas emissions, integrated energy and transport systems, and adequate green spaces. They can facilitate upgrades to existing district heating and cooling systems, or build new systems with optimized use of renewable energy, including photovoltaics, heat pumps, solar, geothermal, waste heat, and natural cooling. And they are particularly well placed to drive the renovation of social housing and subsidise the basic refurbishment of private homes where this is needed to reduce fuel poverty," says Prof Norton.
EASAC's messages to policy makers
Phasing out fossil fuels by 2030, increasing the integrated supply of CO2-free electricity and heat to buildings, industry and transport, and accelerating the use of carbon capture and storage.
About the European Academies' Scientific Advisory Committee (EASAC)
The national science academies of the countries of the European Union joined forces in 2001 in the European Academies' Science Advisory Council (EASAC). EASAC, as an advisory committee of the European science academies, prepares statements, reports and popular science writings on current socially relevant topics in the fields of energy, environment and life sciences and addresses these to the institutions of the EU.
http://easac.eu
Keywords:
Stock, CO2-neutral, DE-News, European Green Deal, Research, Climate protection, News Blog Europe (without DE), SDG 2030, Environmental policy, Housing policy, Thermal insulation
