21 February 2019. the municipality of Lamspringe in Lower Saxony is the 100th drawing municipality.
Berlin/ Hamburg: According to the newly founded Global Foundation Platform (F20), "the G7 Summit in Italy paved the way for the G20 Summit in Hamburg". "Six of the seven heads of state and government have shown their determination to implement the Paris Climate Agreement - despite the reluctance of the US government. The largest economies now face the task of implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement," said a joint press release.
The F20, a unique alliance of more than 35 foundations from nine countries, was founded on the occasion of the G20 Summit, which will take place in Hamburg on 7 and 8 July. Together, they want to make a contribution to global climate protection and a global energy transition.
"On climate change, the German G20 Presidency can build on the backing of businesses, think tanks, civil society, representatives of all faith communities and progressive countries. It is they who are driving global climate action, investing in sustainable infrastructure and creating the jobs of the future in Europe, Asia, Australia, Africa and America. The goals of the Paris Agreement are gaining global support and solidifying every day that the shift towards a climate-resilient global economy gains momentum," said Laurence Tubiana, CEO of the European Climate Foundation.
Michael Northrop, Rockefeller Brothers Fund: "The transition to a climate-resilient global economy offers business opportunities, jobs and economic development, as well as additional benefits such as cleaner air and a healthier environment. But to unlock this potential, the necessary investments must be unleashed now. More and more foundations, pension funds, cities and insurance companies are stepping forward by withdrawing their capital from fossil assets and supporting clean solutions."
The Rockefeller Brothers Fund had already announced in 2014 that it would disinvest the over 800 million US dollar fund, i.e. withdraw the capital from climate-damaging assets, and invest in clean solutions. Since 2014, more than US$5 trillion in assets under management have been withdrawn from coal and other fossil fuels.
Ramiro Fernández, Director Climate Change at the Avina Foundation, Argentina, underlines the important role of civil society in the global energy transition. "Civil society has been and continues to be a driving force for transformative change. The importance of their commitment to the preservation of natural livelihoods and to social justice - whether at the international, national or local level - cannot be overstated. The voices of civil society organisations from around the world must therefore be involved in the G20 process," he said.
The Avina Foundation is a Latin American organisation that implements democracy promotion, environmental protection and sustainable development projects in Argentina. Among the participating foundations are Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Wallace Global Fund (both USA), Shakti Sustainable Energy Foundation, Tata Trusts (both India), Avina Foundation (Latin America), FARN (Argentina), SEE Foundation, C Team (both China), Instituto Arapyaú (Brazil), European Climate Foundation (Netherlands), Stiftung Zukunftsfähigkeit, Stiftung Mercator, Stiftung 2° - German Entrepreneurs for Climate Protection, Michael Otto Foundation for Environmental Protection, WWF, Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius and the World Future Council (all Germany). Altogether, these foundations represent a total capital in the tens of billions of US dollars.
On 4 July - three days before the actual G20 summit - the Foundation Platform invites representatives from civil society, business, science and politics to Hamburg City Hall. The aim is to express their support for the global climate protection agenda and to discuss how the potential offered by global climate protection can be raised.
Speakers include British economist Sir Nicholas Stern, sociologist Auma Obama, author and former US government advisor Amory B. Lovins, Chinese entrepreneur Wang Shi and Kurt Bock, Chairman of the Business 20 Group (B20) Energy, Climate and Resource Efficiency and Chairman of the Board of BASF.
Further information:
www.foundations-20.org
Keywords:
Stakeholders, Funding, Climate protection, News Blog Europe (without DE)
In an interview with PV Magazine, Xavier Daval, President of the French solar association Ser-Soler, said the EU desperately needs a major European photovoltaic manufacturer. A complete exodus of the domestic solar industry to China and the US, he said, would drive Europe into energy dependency for decades to come. "We are not talking about a small task here. We are talking about the challenge of this century. When module manufacturing moved to China, the Germans thought they would continue to sell manufacturing equipment to Chinese solar producers. But now they have to look at equipping factories in China with locally made production lines. In the long run, this was a wrong decision. What the Europeans have to do now is to correct this situation. In the automotive industry, there are big players in Europe, China and the US. The same must now happen in the European solar industry. If we don't, we will be dependent on products from other regional markets in the future. For a century we have been dependent on oil from outside Europe. We must not allow a continuation of this dependency also in renewable energies and their technologies," says Daval.
Source: DGS Newsletter of 26.05.17
Keywords:
Stakeholders, Renewable, Sustainable management, PV, Environmental policy, Ecology
The Paris Climate Agreement involves all levels of government in addressing climate change. At the local level, these are cities and municipalities. The ICLEI network of cities, which includes 22 German cities, is meeting in Bonn from 26 to 28 April for the "Resilient Cities Congress". Around 400 participants will exchange their experiences on climate protection measures and climate cooperation. The congress is an official part of the Talanoa Dialogue. Talanoa is a Fijian principle of decision-making and refers to an open dialogue that involves all stakeholders.
BMU State Secretary Jochen Flasbarth: "Cities and regions have a key role in climate protection. Worldwide, 1,500 cities are linked in the ICLEI network. In Bonn, city representatives from all over the world discuss what can be done for climate protection at the municipal level and how climate change can be countered. Ideally, the climate activities of all levels of government are coordinated. The Talanoa Dialogue is one way to organise this. It is also an opportunity to bring together voices from different actors around the world - including the visions and commitments of cities and regions - to sustain the positive momentum of Paris and stimulate the improvement of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) by 2020."
Two examples of a German ICLEI member and an Asian city network illustrate climate protection efforts at the municipal level. Münster is one of the 22 German cities that is a member of the ICLEI network. The city relies on cooperation for climate protection. The local "Alliance for Climate Protection" aims to bring together relevant actors to jointly develop concrete local climate protection projects. At the same time, the actors involved in the alliance commit to reducing their greenhouse gas emissions. In doing so, they contribute to the implementation of the ambitious climate goals of the city of Münster. By 2050, greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by 95% and final energy consumption by 50% compared to 1990. 21% CO2 reduction could already be achieved by 2015. The "100% Climate Protection Master Plan" translates the vision of the city of Münster into a concrete strategy until 2050. The Master Plan and the Alliance are funded within the framework of the National Climate Protection Initiative (NKI) of the Federal Ministry for the Environment.
www.stadt-muenster.de/umwelt/klimaschutzkonzept-2020.html
The project "Ambitious City Promises - Climate-friendly urban development in South-East Asian cities" is also about bundling the activities of local civil society actors in the sense of ambitious municipal commitments. The international city network ICLEI is involved in the project of the International Climate Initiative (IKI) of the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and supports the development of holistic climate strategies in Hanoi (Vietnam), Jakarta (Indonesia) and Pasig City (Philippines). An important project partner is the government of the Seoul metropolitan region (Korea), which already published an ambitious mitigation plan in 2015. The "Seoul Pledge" envisages greenhouse gas reductions of 25% by 2020 and 40% by 2030 compared to 2005 and defines concrete measures for the sectors of energy, transport, resource management, water, health, urban agriculture and urban planning.
Keywords:
100% EEs, Stakeholders, Bonn, Climate protection, Communities, News Blog Europe (without DE), News Blog NRW, SDG 2030, Environmental policy
Between 2011 and 2016, the average price of building land for owner-occupied homes across Germany rose by 27 per cent from 129 euros per square metre to 164 euros. In the major cities, the price per square metre of building land rose by 33 per cent - from just over EUR 250 in 2011 to just under EUR 350 in 2016. This not only makes residential property significantly more expensive, but also puts the brakes on affordable rental housing construction. This is the result of an analysis by the Federal Institute for Research on Building, Urban Affairs and Spatial Development (BBSR).
The analysis is based on purchase price data from the official expert committees for property values for the last five years. In the urban and rural districts, the price level and increase lagged behind the major cities. However, even there the increase was well above the general rate of inflation. In the urban districts - often districts surrounding large cities - purchase prices for undeveloped land rose from 132 euros per square metre in 2011 to 156 euros per square metre in 2016 (+19 per cent), while in the rural districts, the price per square metre of building land rose from 64 euros to 78 euros in 2016 (+20 per cent).
The average purchase price for a plot of land for owner-occupied development also rose significantly - by 27 per cent to EUR 112,000 in 2016. In the major cities, the average purchase price for a plot of land for owner-occupied development was just under EUR 200,000 (+ 25 per cent). Average purchase prices have risen particularly sharply in expensive cities. "Rising land prices determine the purchase or construction costs to a considerable extent, especially in the growth regions. This makes residential property more expensive," says BBSR expert Matthias Waltersbacher. "In tight markets, high building land prices are also driving rents for new builds up to EUR 14 to 16 per square metre. This means that privately financed residential construction at affordable rents is no longer possible."
While the transaction figures for plots of land for owner-occupier development remained fairly stable in the urban districts between 2011 and 2016, they fell by 30 per cent in the major cities. Transactions fell particularly sharply in expensive cities such as Cologne, Frankfurt am Main and Stuttgart. Rural districts recorded an increase of just under 15 per cent in the same period. "Property prices have recently risen so sharply that the pressure to realise them often no longer allows for the development of single-family homes," says Waltersbacher. "More and more buyers are looking for alternatives in the surrounding area."
The analysis is based on an examination of the independent cities and rural districts for which transaction data for properties is available via the purchase price collections of the expert committees for property values in a complete time series since 2011. This representative longitudinal section covers around a third of all cities and districts in Germany. A comprehensive analysis of the land and property market for the years 2015 and 2016 will be presented by the Working Group of the Higher Expert Committees, Central Offices and Expert Committees in the Federal Republic of Germany (AK OGA) in December 2017 with the German Property Market Report.
Download the analysis:
To the pdf download
Keywords:
Construction and operating costs, DE-News, Media, New books and studies, Economics
