The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) portal
Published
The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) portal of the Bertelsmann Foundation in cooperation with the German Association of Cities and Towns (Deutscher Städtetag), the German Association of Districts (Deutscher Landkreistag), the German Association of Towns and Municipalities (Deutscher Städte- und Gemeindebund), the German Institute of Urban Affairs (Difu) and Engagement Global - Service für Entwicklungsinitiativen (Engagement Global - Service for Development Initiatives) went online today.
It is interesting to be able to compare individual cities with each other: https://sdg-portal.de
Hamburg, 11. 11. 2020 - By phasing out ten particularly climate-damaging subsidies in the energy, transport and agricultural sectors, Germany can generate up to 46 billion euros in revenue annually.
This is the result of a new study by the "Forum Ökologisch-Soziale Marktwirtschaft" on behalf of Greenpeace. (Study "Ten climate-damaging subsidies in focus" online at: https://bit.ly/2JVu3tq).
A total of almost 100 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents would be saved annually compared to today if the subsidies under consideration were reformed. This is roughly equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions from passenger car traffic in Germany. The study appears in the run-up to the publication of the tax estimate by Federal Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD) announced for Thursday. It shows how the federal government can simultaneously reduce the immense new debt caused by the Corona crisis and make progress on climate protection. "Now the German government can kill two birds with one stone by reducing climate-damaging subsidies: lower CO2 emissions and relieve the budget by billions. In doing so, it eliminates significant disadvantages for climate-friendly industries and can accelerate the shift towards a sustainable, ecologically oriented economy," says Bastian Neuwirth, climate expert at Greenpeace.
A ranking examines the phase-out of ten particularly climate-damaging subsidies in Germany and sorts them according to where the most tax money and CO2 can be saved. The abolition of the tax exemption for kerosene, the withdrawal of tax concessions for electricity generation and the reduction of electricity price exemptions for industry prove to be particularly effective for climate protection and budget restructuring. In arithmetical terms, the German government could save around 73 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents and 18 billion euros of taxpayers' money each year with these measures alone. In the middle of the ranking are the VAT exemption for international flights, the distance allowance, the diesel privilege and the reduced VAT rate on animal products. "Continuing to hand out extra money for climate-damaging economic activity is completely out of step with the times. Each of these climate-damaging subsidies must be overturned as soon as possible," says Neuwirth.
Reduction of subsidies makes German 2030 climate target achievable
The gradual dismantling of the ten subsidies that are particularly harmful to the climate can shorten the Federal Government's delay in achieving its own climate targets: according to the Federal Environment Agency, Germany will emit around 71 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents too much in 2030 with the measures it has adopted so far to achieve the 2030 climate target. A rapid reduction in subsidies can therefore help to remedy this situation. At the international level, Germany and the G7 countries already committed in 2016 to reducing climate-damaging subsidies by 2025.
The Federal Environment Agency's publication "Urban Mining" was published in July 2017 and explains the possibilities of extracting raw materials in urban areas, for example from buildings, infrastructure and durable consumer and capital goods. While waste management is essentially concerned with the volume of waste, urban mining looks at the total stock of durable goods. The aim is to forecast future material flows as early as possible and to develop and establish the best possible recycling routes on this basis.
According to the Federal Environment Agency, five key questions on urban mining need to be answered at an early stage so that the potential of this concept can be strategically realised. Questions were identified regarding the location, nature and release of anthropogenic deposits, the players involved and the technical, logistical and organisational requirements.
The brochure is intended to convey an understanding of urban mining and to encourage the pursuit of this strategic approach. The Federal Environment Agency is striving for a strategic and interdisciplinary approach to urban mining.
Düsseldorf. 4.25 terawatts (TWh)! This is how much electricity was produced last year (2017) by the photovoltaic systems installed in North Rhine-Westphalia. This corresponds to the average annual electricity demand of more than 1 million four-person households. In total, there are 8.7 million households in NRW.
At the end of last year, PV systems with a total of around 4.64 megawatt peak (MWpeak) were installed in NRW. Compared to the previous year, this represents an increase of more than 3.5 percent. This means that around 136 kWpeak are installed per square kilometre of state surface in NRW. According to data from the North Rhine-Westphalia State Office for Nature, Environment and Consumer Protection (LANUV), there is an average irradiation of 916 kWh per kWpeak per year in the most populous state in Germany. "Photovoltaics has established itself as an attractive option for energy generation due to the technical developments of recent years. The combination of PV with storage technology is also increasingly interesting as a solution for own power consumption in private and industrial applications", says Carl Georg Graf von Buquoy of EnergyAgency.NRW.
Although the construction of PV systems in Germany has been declining in recent years, the construction of solar systems and solar power production have been increasing again for the past two years. The share of electricity generation in Germany from renewable energies was around 38 percent in 2017, with photovoltaics accounting for 7.2 percent nationwide and 2.6 percent in NRW. The PV systems installed in Germany produced a total of around 40 billion kilowatt hours of electricity, thus mathematically covering the annual electricity requirements of over 10.5 million households. With the PV capacity of around 4,640 MWpeak installed in North Rhine-Westphalia in 2017, the state ranked third in a Germany-wide comparison behind Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg.
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