On the occasion of the 30th anniversary of Eurosolar, filmmaker Carl-A. Fechner has created a three-minute film about Hermann Scheer, the founder of Eurosolar.
You can watch it here:
https://vimeo.com/365711087/d13b2c7200
Maic Verbücheln and Susanne Dähner (eds.), German Institute of Urban Affairs
Special publication "Climate protection in urban and regional planning. Renewable energies and energy efficiency in municipal planning practice", Berlin, February 2016 (pdf, 9 MB)
Maic Verbücheln, Manuela Reinhardt, Thomas Preuß, Prof Dr Arno Bunzel (German Institute of Urban Affairs)
Renewable energies and energy efficiency in municipal planning practice, SPECIAL training materials, Berlin, February 2016 (pdf 3.7 MB)
Downloads under
https://difu.de/erneuerbare-energien-und-energieeffizienz-in-der-kommunalen-0
Keywords:
DE-News, Climate protection, Communities, New books and studies
Germany can still achieve its climate targets by 2030. This is shown in a new analysis by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA). This would require, among other things, more rail transport, a reform of the motor vehicle tax and the restriction of fossil heating. In addition, all emissions would have to be priced and charged to the polluter. In the so-called Climate Protection Instruments Scenario 2030 (KIS-2030), the UBA has examined how additional emissions can be saved in the building, mobility, energy and industry sectors. "The model calculation clearly shows that we have a lot of catching up to do in some sectors," says UBA President Dirk Messner. "We now urgently need a constructive dialogue about where emissions can be reduced, otherwise we will miss the legal savings targets. We also need to talk honestly about how to cushion the financial burden on lower-income groups and distribute it more fairly. Currently, low-income households are often asked to pay disproportionately. Understandably, this does not exactly increase acceptance for more climate protection.
The German Climate Protection Act (KSG) provides for a 65 per cent reduction in climate-damaging emissions by 2030 compared to 1990. By 2040, emissions are to be reduced by 88 percent and net greenhouse gas neutrality is to be achieved in 2045. To this end, the KSG sets annual reduction targets by 2030 for the individual sectors. The latest projection report of theUBAfrom 2021 has shown that with the currently planned climate protection instruments, both the climate targets in 2030 and the annual savings targets will be missed.
UBA's cross-sectoral CIS-2030 now shows which concrete instruments the individual sectors can use to achieve their annual savings targets by 2030 after all. With price instruments, support programmes and new and stricter legal regulations, the course can be set at an early stage to achieve the legally prescribed savings.
In the transport and building sectors, for example, significantly greater efforts will be needed in the future to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years. The climate protection instruments used in the model calculation in these sectors only fulfil the minimum requirements. In the case of transport and buildings, the prescribed targets will probably not be met, even with a mix of very ambitious instruments and measures. In order to achieve the interim targets on the path to 2030, additional instruments that are effective in the short term would therefore be necessary.
At the same time, the HIS-2030 shows concrete options for action with which the sectoral climate targets can still be achieved: The measures described in theScenarioThe predominantly economic instruments modelled in the transport sector should be flanked by a comprehensive expansion of rail transport and a strengthening of the environmental network of primarily buses and trains.
The KIS-2030 is based on instruments similar to those currently under political discussion - such as mandatory municipal heating planning or the minimum efficiency standards for buildings currently under discussion at EU level. The KIS-2030 also assumes a ban on new monovalent oil (from 2023) and gas boilers (from 2025), which goes beyond the current government drafts for the Building Energy Act.
Based on the scenario, it is recommended for the industrial sector to use subsidies for CO2-and -free technologies. Support programmes should be designed in such a way that they do not lead to negative environmental effects due to incorrectly set framework conditions or incentives.
Source: UBA-PM of 3.7.2023
Keywords:
CO2-neutral, DE-News, Renewable, Climate emergency, Climate protection, New books and studies, SDG 2030, Solar thermal, Environmental policy
Dr. Kirsten David, a researcher at HafenCity University (HCU) Hamburg, has developed an innovative method for determining rent increases after energy efficiency measures: By means of functional cost splitting, rent increases become appropriate and comprehensible. The planning of the energetic measures is also ecologically optimized. For her dissertation entitled "Functional Cost Splitting for the Determination of Rent Increases after Energy Efficiency Measures", the scientist today receives the "BUND Research Award 2020". With the research award, the Bund für Umwelt- und Naturschutz (BUND) honors scientific work on sustainable development.
Rent increases due to energy-efficient building modernisation are legally permissible and politically desired as an investment incentive. After all, according to the German Energy Agency (dena), around 35% of Germany's total energy consumption is attributable to the building sector. An increase in the renovation rate is therefore necessary from a climate policy perspective.
However, while the legislators assume that such measures can be implemented economically and without affecting the rent, the experience of many tenants is different: Often the rent increases exceed the saved heating and energy costs many times over. In extreme cases, tenants can no longer afford their apartments. "To this day, energy-efficient building refurbishment has a reputation as a gentrification tool," says David. With the method she developed to determine appropriate rent increases, the 45-year-old scientist also wants to contribute to an increased social acceptance of corresponding measures.
"The basis of the politically expected increase amounts is the so-called coupling principle," explains the architect. "Like the Energy Saving Ordinance, it assumes that energy efficiency measures will always be implemented when a comprehensive refurbishment is due anyway. The sticking point: only the modernization costs entitle landlords* to rent increases, but not the costs for the renovation. The latter must be deducted from the total investment sum as "anyway costs". Eight percent of the remaining costs can be passed on to the tenants as a modernisation charge.
"The current regulation is insufficient. In practice, there are manifold demarcation problems between modernisation costs relevant to rent increases and maintenance costs not relevant to rent increases," says David. The method she developed, on the other hand, focuses on the climate-relevant improvement of each individual building component compared to its condition before the construction measure. "Functional cost splitting thus corresponds to the actual basic idea of the legislators, is practicable and enables an appropriate and comprehensible allocation to modernisation or refurbishment costs," says David.
According to the scientist, her approach leads to the omission of measures that are nonsensical from a structural engineering point of view and do not bring about any climate-relevant improvement of the building components: "With my method, such measures are not relevant for rent increases and are therefore uneconomical for landlords. In addition, your calculation method ensures that the modernization levy actually approaches the level of the ancillary cost savings as a rule. The award winner is therefore particularly pleased that the sustainability aspect of her work has been recognised with the BUND Research Award: "Rental housing stock can only be developed sustainably if ecological, economic and social aspects are given equal consideration. Functional cost splitting makes a significant contribution to this."
This year, the BUND Research Award will be presented at a virtual conference. Among other things, keynote speaker and environmental scientist Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker will discuss with the three award winners how science can develop more relevance and effectiveness for sustainability goals. The transfer into practice is also an important concern for David. Her next goal is to further develop functional cost splitting into an instrument that can also be understood by laypersons - preferably as an online tool.
Personal details:
Kirsten David is a guest researcher at HCU in the subject areas "Design and Analysis of Structures" with Prof. Dr.-Ing. Annette Bögle and "Construction Economics" with Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Reinhold Johrendt as well as a lecturer in the interdisciplinary study programmes. Her doctoral thesis was supervised by Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Reinhold Johrendt and Prof. Dr.-Ing. Thomas Krüger, (subject area "Project Management and Project Development in Urban Planning") and is freely available:
https://edoc.sub.uni-hamburg.de//hcu/volltexte/2019/508/.
David runs the homepage
www.funktionales-kostensplitting.de
and tweets on topics such as rents, housing and sustainability.
https://twitter.com/DrKirstenDavid1
Keywords:
Construction and operating costs, Stock, DE-News, Research, Climate protection, New books and studies, Contests & Prizes
No stopping, no weaving through, no suddenly opened car doors: With the expansion of motorways for bicycles only, Norway's government wants to create an incentive to take the bike more often.
Norway's goal: less harmful emissions, and soon. Pollutant emissions from traffic and transport are to be reduced by as much as 50 per cent. For car traffic in the city, this means: It should not grow any further without restricting the mobility of citizens. In this context, the Norwegian government speaks of a "zero-growth" target.
Link to the article from (unfortunately no longer online; as of 10/2020):
Keywords:
Bike-/Velo-City, News Blog Europe (without DE), News Blog Norway
