One million electric cars are to be on the road in Germany by 2020, at least that's what the German government wants. Sales figures are still lagging behind expectations. In addition, important questions arise about the origin of electricity and raw materials. ZDF has devoted a report to these questions in the series "planet e" entitled "Electric cars - top or flop?" and also interviewed ifeu Heidelberg. The programme is available in the ZDF Mediathek until 28.1.2017.
In addition to important aspects of the environmental balance, the paper also discusses the App My eDrive which is currently being developed by ifeu and the ADAC Technical Centre with funding from the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMUB).
Link to video:
www.zdf.de/…Elektroautos—Top-oder-Flop%253F
"In key policy areas, it is not enough to take additional steps; instead, a fundamental transformation must be initiated - the Federal Government recognises this with its dialogue version of the German Sustainability Strategy. The momentum for this transformation is now, and it needs tailwind from all ministries," explained Dr. Werner SchnappaufChairman of the German Council for Sustainable Development (RNE). "The version of the dialogue brings important innovations that will allow the policies of the coming years to be more closely aligned with the guiding principle of sustainability. The designation of transformation areas such as the energy and transport transition or the transition to a circular economy is an important step forward. At the same time, we believe that there is still room for improvement in some areas," said Schnappauf.
The Sustainability Council today publishes its Opinion on the further development of the German Sustainability Strategy and then presents it to Chancellor's Office Minister Prof. Dr. Helge Braun in a virtual exchange. The Council expressly welcomes the newly defined transformation areas, but these must be supplemented by concrete, interministerial strategies and roadmaps as well as ambitious and binding targets. Based on the transformation areas, the German government should develop a new set of key indicators for German sustainability policy and thus focus on the most important challenges of the future.
The Council's recommendations cover the following ten topics:
Strengthen coherence
Advancing sustainable finance
Changing course for a sustainable economy in the sense of the SDGs
Readjustment in the event of foreseeable missed targets
We need a new narrative!
Launching sustainability as a joint effort
Prepare the report to the United Nations rapidly
Emerging sustainably from the crisis
Taking forward the European contribution
For an ambitious German contribution to SDG implementation at international level
"Unfortunately, the international dimension falls short of the global challenges in the dialogue version and thus also of the Council's expectations," said Prof. Dr. Imme Scholz, Deputy Chair of the Council and Deputy Director of the German Development Institute (DIE). "The way we live and do business has a significant impact on others, especially on the countries of the Global South. That is why the SDGs must become the guiding principle in Germany's and the EU's multi- and bilateral relations as a whole. And for this to happen, the international dimension must also be adequately reflected in the Sustainable Development Goals and their indicators - in our statement, we make concrete suggestions for new goals and indicators," said Scholz. Many countries in the global South have been particularly hard hit by the economic and social consequences of the Corona pandemic, he said. "We must therefore support these countries in the upcoming transformation processes. Only together will we achieve the global climate and other sustainability goals," emphasized Imme Scholz.
In its statement, the Council also recommends publishing an abridged version of the new sustainability strategy in order to "introduce the topic into the discourse in the run-up to the Bundestag elections and the formation of a new government". To this end, renewed recommendations by the Council are also planned for the first half of 2021, which should place the guiding principle of sustainability more strongly than before at the centre of government action. In the Council's view, this also includes the inclusion of sustainability as a state objective in the Basic Law.
Planning, construction and management of inclusive housing complexes
The Institute for Urban Planning and Social Research WEEBER+PARTNER (Stuttgart) examined 16 case studies and interviewed responsible persons in municipal, cooperative and private housing companies. The projects are characterized by a wide range of planning and construction approaches. According to the study, social diversity requires structural diversity: Rental, social and owner-occupied apartments of different sizes and with diverse layouts were created in the new housing quarters. They are socially mixed - even within buildings - with the respective proportions in the neighbourhood being derived from local requirements. The new quarters also offer space for communal forms of living, for example for older people and those in need of care. And they are characterised by an attractively designed and green residential environment. Concept awards promote the planning and implementation of such projects: Through them, plots of land are not allocated according to the highest price, but for the best concept.
The study was funded by the Innovation Programme Future Construction of the Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Construction and Home Affairs (BMI).
Over 60 innovative projects have been developed in the three key areas of "Metrozones", "City in Climate Change" and "Cosmopolis". The IBA project film presents them.
The discussion about climate change and the growing demand for living space have increasingly brought timber construction into the focus of planners, architects and developers over the past year. After all, sustainable timber construction can make a significant contribution to climate protection and the creation of living space. The increased interest in timber construction is also reflected in the industry figures: the turnover of companies grew by 7 percent in 2019 compared to the previous year, the number of employees increased from around 68,000 to around 70,000 and the timber construction rate continued to grow in both residential (new construction) and non-residential (new construction) construction.
Holzbau Deutschland has published these and other facts, figures and forecasts on the structure of the sector, market and economic trends, the business situation and financing, as well as training and careers in the carpentry and timber construction trades in its "Situation Report Carpenters / Timber Construction 2020" published. It can be downloaded free of charge from the Association's website in the Business Administration section.
Even after Corona: Continue to drive forward climate protection
At the conclusion of the 11th Petersberg Climate Dialogue last week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel appealed that in the period after the Corona crisis, "when we launch economic stimulus packages, we should always keep climate protection firmly in mind and make it clear that we are not cutting back on climate protection, but investing in technologies that are fit for the future."
Timber construction has long been one of the sustainable technologies that can make an essential contribution to achieving climate protection goals. "Ecological, sustainable and resource-saving construction with wood must therefore continue to be the focus in residential construction as well as in redensification and gap filling in existing buildings. In order for timber construction to be recognized as an alternative on an equal footing with other construction methods, the framework conditions must be further improved and the building codes of the federal states must be adapted to the current state of the art," demanded Peter Aicher, Chairman of Holzbau Deutschland.
The current and further development in timber construction
Until the outbreak of the Corona pandemic, the mood in the timber construction industry was good. The satisfaction of carpentry and timber construction companies is also reflected in the Holzbau Deutschland business survey, in which almost 370 companies took part at the turn of the year 2019/2020. Their order backlog at the beginning of the year already averaged 17 weeks (previous year 15 weeks). The current exceptional situation in the wake of the Corona pandemic has not changed this much: According to recent surveys, most businesses are going about their work without any significant restrictions and in compliance with clearance and hygiene rules. Builders are also sticking to their construction projects. Many timber construction companies are currently benefiting from the existing high order backlog. For some of them, the workload will last until next year.
How turnover in timber construction will develop in 2020 and beyond, and what impact the Corona pandemic will have, cannot be reliably assessed at the present time. Regardless of the current situation, the timber construction industry has assumed a further 5 percent increase in sales by the beginning of March. The value is also based on the cautious confidence of the entrepreneurs from the economic survey of Holzbau Deutschland.
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.
Video available until 28.01.2017, 16:30
