COP23 delegation visits timber construction student dormitory in Bonn
Published
Length 6:06 min., published on 18.12.2017
An official delegation of the COP23 visits the student dormitory "42!" not far from Bonn University during the UN Climate Conference in Bonn. The house in passive house standard in wood hybrid construction offers its residents energy-efficient and at the same time ecological living space. This includes a photovoltaic system, rainwater harvesting for flushing toilets and a building automation system that also sends mails to the students.
"BISKO" is neither a sausage nor a new chocolate bar, but the new "Municipal Accounting Standard". After four years of development, a methodology paper is now available that provides clear accounting rules for energy and greenhouse gas balances for municipalities in Germany. In a lengthy consultation process, coordinated and led by ifeu Heidelberg, questions such as "Is it permissible to include green electricity in the balance sheet?" or "Should the electricity mix of the municipality, the state or the federal government be used?" were clarified with scientists, municipalities and consulting institutes. It is hoped that municipal balance sheets will be calculated uniformly in the future and will thus be comparable.
In its 2.10.2017 published opinion the German Advisory Council on the Environment calls on the incoming German government to initiate the coal phase-out without delay. The upcoming legislative period offers the last chance to set the course for an appropriate implementation of the Paris climate goals in Germany.
"Germany must reduce power generation from coal as quickly as possible and end it in the medium term, otherwise the climate targets in Germany cannot be achieved. The structurally compatible coal phase-out should therefore be initiated immediately. The last power plant must be taken off the grid in 20 years at the latest," explains Prof. Claudia Kemfert.
The basis of the coal phase-out should be a budget of the total amount of greenhouse gases that may still be emitted by coal-fired power plants until their final shutdown. This amount should be fixed by law. "From a scientific point of view, the remaining emissions budget for coal-fired power generation in Germany should be 2,000 megatonnes of CO2 Prof. Wolfgang Lucht specifies.
In its report, the SRU proposes a phase-out in three phases: The most emission-intensive power plants should be taken off the grid by 2020. On this basis, more modern plants could continue to operate at reduced capacity until about 2030 to ensure security of supply and to preserve jobs. In the 2030s, these power plants should then also be decommissioned. The federal government must now define the framework for this.
Climate protection and the shaping of structural change must go hand in hand. A long-term and structured phase-out path offers those affected planning security and can ensure that the burden is shared as fairly as possible. The phase-out path and its structural policy support should therefore be discussed in a commission together with the affected regions, companies, trade unions and environmental protection associations.
The German Advisory Council on the Environment (SRU) has been advising the German government on environmental policy issues for almost 45 years. The Council's composition of seven professors from different disciplines ensures a scientifically independent and comprehensive assessment, both from a scientific and technical perspective as well as from an economic, legal and health science perspective.
The Council currently consists of the following members:
Prof. Dr Claudia Hornberg (Chair), Bielefeld University
Prof. Dr Manfred Niekisch (Vice-Chairman), Goethe University and Frankfurt Zoological Garden
Prof. Dr. Christian Calliess, Free University of Berlin
Prof. Dr. Claudia Kemfert, Hertie School of Governance and German Institute for Economic Research
Prof. Dr Wolfgang Lucht, Humboldt University Berlin and Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Lamia Messari-Becker, University of Siegen
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Vera Susanne Rotter, Technical University Berlin
German Advisory Council on the Environment, Berlin www.umweltrat.de
The Federal Cabinet today approved an update of the Resource Efficiency Programme. Germanwatch welcomes in principle the government's plan for resource efficiency, but says that the original draft of the Environment Ministry has been weakened considerably, especially with regard to human rights issues. "In many places we now only find lip service instead of a binding framework," regrets Cornelia Heydenreich, Team Leader Corporate Responsibility at Germanwatch. She emphasises: "Resource protection must go hand in hand with human rights protection".
In the September draft it had still said: "In all funding instruments of the raw materials strategy, state funding will be linked to binding compliance with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights [...]". Heydenreich: "That is the level of ambition we would have needed." Now it just says that eligibility for funding will be "assessed" in terms of human rights. The Resource Efficiency Programme merely refers to the parallel process of drafting a "National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights", which is to be brought to the Federal Cabinet in May. "Now it is up to the federal government to present such an ambitious National Action Plan in May, as promised. This must include, in particular, a law on human rights due diligence", demands Heydenreich.
Hardly any effective measures to prolong the use of products
Even in the measures to promote longer use of products, the federal government has taken promising approaches such as the creation of the EU legal prerequisite for a VAT concession in favour of resource-saving goods and services (e.g. repairs) out of its plan again. "The federal government's measures are too timid to really push for longer use of appliances," Heydenreich criticises.
On the other hand, it is to be welcomed that the German government is clearly committed to a demanding implementation of the EU regulation on conflict minerals. Heydenreich: "We call on the German government to use all possibilities to create a workable basis for this at EU level in the coming weeks. It must not be left to the companies to decide whether or not they finance bloody conflicts in the mining regions." Since the beginning of February, the EU Commission, the EU Parliament and the EU states have been negotiating a regulation on conflict minerals.
The extractive sector repeatedly causes particularly extensive human rights violations such as forced relocations, violent repression or even labour rights violations, including accidental deaths. According to a study commissioned by the former UN Special Representative on Business and Human Rights, John Ruggie, most of the business-related human rights allegations (28 per cent) concerned the extraction of raw materials.
We use cookies to optimize our website and services.
Functional
Always active
Technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a particular service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that have not been requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access, which is solely for statistical purposes.Technical storage or access used solely for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary consent from your Internet service provider, or additional records from third parties, information stored or accessed for this purpose cannot generally be used alone to identify you.
Marketing
Technical storage or access is necessary to create user profiles, to send advertising or to track the user on a website or across multiple websites for similar marketing purposes.
