Trailer, 5 min.
Title: Voices of Transition Performers: Claude Bourguignon, Rachel Baker, Martin Crawford, Christian Dupraz Release Date: May 2013 Country of production: France, Germany Directed by: Nils Aguilar Film length: 65 min Production Year: 2012
Synopsis: In his 65-minute documentary "Voices of Transition", German-French filmmaker and sociologist Nils Aguilar tells of catchy and stirring examples of socio-ecological change in England, France and Cuba. How can we feed the world in the future? What alternatives are there to conventional agriculture?
With 46 billion euros per year, the German government favours the mining and climate-damaging burning of coal, oil and gas in Germany.
This policy makes the energy transition more expensive and passes on a large part of the follow-up costs of fossil energies to society. This is the result of a study by the Forum Ökologisch-Soziale Marktwirtschaft (FÖS) commissioned by the independent environmental organisation Greenpeace. "Every euro squandered on dirty energies is an investment in further climate destruction," says Greenpeace energy expert Tobias Austrup. "There is still not a black zero for fossil subsidies, but a deep red minus in the federal budget." (The study online.)
Already in 2009, at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, the German government, together with the other governments, committed to ending fossil fuel subsidies, but without setting a date for the phase-out. "By 2020 at the latest, we must finally put an end to fuelling the climate catastrophe with billions in subsidies," Austrup demands. "A clear plan to phase out coal in Germany is needed so that the German government remains credible in foreign policy." In Italy and England, plans to phase out coal have already been adopted.
The lion's share of climate-damaging subsidies favours transport
The main beneficiary of fossil subsidies is transport with 28.5 billion euros. At just under eight billion euros, artificially cheap diesel is the largest single subsidy. The tax exemption for aviation fuel is worth 7.5 billion, the distance allowance a good five billion, the VAT exemption for international flights 4.4 billion and the company car privilege three billion. For a quarter of a century, transport has made no contribution whatsoever to climate protection. In 2016, according to the Federal Environment Agency, greenhouse gas emissions from transport were even one percent higher than in 1990.
"The transport turnaround cannot progress if internal combustion engines are supported with massive subsidies." The share of electric cars in new registrations in Germany was just 0.5 per cent in the first five months of 2017, according to the Federal Motor Transport Authority. Despite the German government's purchase premium, registration figures have barely risen.
Since 1999, the ABG Frankfurt Holding Around 3,000 flats have been built to the passive house standard for residents from 180 nations, ranging from subsidised flats to condominiums. Thanks to the low ancillary costs and the high level of living comfort, there are hardly any vacancies. "We build more cheaply than the competition, who either don't want Passive House or can't," said Frank Junker in his presentation at the 22nd International Passive House Conference, which took place in Munich on 9 and 10 March 2018 with over 1000 participants.
Like Mr Junker, numerous other speakers at the Passive House Conference showed in their presentations that energy-efficient building and renovation is economical and affordable.
Passive house in social housing
The founder of the Passive House Institute, Prof. Wolfgang Feist, now teaches energy-efficient building at the University of Innsbruck. The university was a co-organiser of the Passive House Conference in Munich. Feist illuminated the aspect of energy efficiency with a view to social housing. Particularly in the components of windows and ventilation, he said, it has become possible in recent years to choose much more efficient solutions without significantly higher costs. "If you do not realise a residential building as a passive house today, your tenants will pay more than if you provide them with flats in proper condition," Feist said.
Electricity from the sun and wind is too expensive? Wrong: according to new studies, green electricity is cheaper than fossil energy worldwide and in Germany.
Since 2009, prices for wind power have fallen by a third, for solar power by 80 per cent and in the next decade, solar power is set to become a further 60 per cent cheaper. 170 countries now have targets for renewables, and large financial investors are looking for these secure plants. Electricity storage systems are also expected to be 65 per cent cheaper by 2020 and their capacity is set to multiply from 1 to 250 gigawatts. And the rival authority IEA, the International Energy Agency of the OECD, which for years tried to talk down renewables, now sees similarly rapid growth and falling prices.
The 52° Nord quarter in Berlin's southeast convinced this year's jury of experts and, with its sustainable and architecturally coherent overall concept, wins the German Housing 2020 Award for the best quarter development.
The Award Deutscher Wohnungsbau is the first award for developers and clients in the area of multi-storey residential construction. The architecture prize is awarded by a jury of experts. This year's jury members include Reiner Nagel, Chairman of the Executive Board Federal Foundation for Building Culture, Sabine Schneider, Editorial Manager of the architecture magazine Baumeister and last year's winner Lars Krückeberg, GRAFT Architekten.
The award-winning 52° North quarter covers around 100,000 m² and is located in the Grünau district of Treptow-Köpenick between the banks of the Dahme River and the Teltow Canal on a former industrial wasteland. A striking feature of this district development is the 6,000 m² water basin, the ecological and visual heart of the district: as part of the overall sustainable concept, rainwater from the surrounding buildings is collected here and biologically purified by planting along the sides. Evaporation returns the rainwater to the natural water cycle and improves the microclimate in the quarter - an example of contemporary rainwater management based on the model of the sponge city.
A neighbourhood square with a café, publicly accessible riverside promenades, play and recreation areas, an energy centre and an eco-nursery round off the concept. Daniel Riedl, member of the Management Board of Vonovia SE and responsible for BUWOG's development in Germany: "In Quartier 52° Nord, we have implemented a quality-first approach, i.e. with the first construction phase we have designed a sustainable residential environment that creates flair and quality of life at the same time - for the new residents and also for the people in the surrounding area. This award confirms to us that architectural and sustainable qualities must be thought of together and are essential success factors in neighbourhood development."
With a large number of different architectural firms designing the individual buildings on the various construction sites, Quartier 52° Nord is today one of the largest inhabited architectural parks of the post-reunification era. The area is being developed in sections, with overall completion expected by 2024. Three construction phases are currently under construction in Quartier 52° Nord: BUWOG THE VIEW, BUWOG REGATTAHOF and the BUWOG LOTSENHÄUSER - realised in timber hybrid construction (KfW-40).
About BUWOG BUWOG can look back on 69 years of experience in the residential real estate sector. In Germany, BUWOG Bauträger GmbH currently concentrates on property development with a focus on Berlin, Hamburg and Leipzig and currently has a development pipeline of around 14,500 residential units. BUWOG is a subsidiary of Vonovia SE, Europe's leading housing company headquartered in Bochum (Germany).
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.
