You may also like
Düsseldorf, 2.3.2020. The federal government can give new impetus to public housing construction in Germany in the short term and thus help to ease the acute housing shortage in many large cities. The key to this are three federally owned companies that flexibly support Länder and municipalities in the development of construction projects and the construction of new housing: First, a consulting company that provides planning capacities to cities and municipalities. Secondly, a land fund that helps municipalities nationwide financially and conceptually to acquire building land and finance infrastructure. Thirdly, an investment company that strengthens the equity of municipal housing companies through financial participation. This is shown by Prof. Dr. Sebastian Dullien, Scientific Director of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute (IMK) of the Hans Böckler Foundation and Prof. Dr. Tom Krebs of the University of Mannheim in a new concept for an Federal initiative "Future Housing.*
The initiative is primarily intended to ensure that more housing is built. Other goals are: a stronger social mix in cities, the promotion of ecologically sustainable construction and a reduction in construction costs. "These goals can only be sensibly achieved by centralising certain elements of housing construction," the economists write. However, the close cooperation of the federal companies with the local administrations and housing associations would also incorporate the special expertise on the ground. The initiative could "start practically immediately with relatively small volumes", the economists write - and already achieve "a noticeable increase in public housing construction in the initial phase." According to the researchers' calculations, around 90,000 additional flats could be built in the short term with ten billion euros in federal funding. In the medium term, the model would be scalable as desired, depending on how many flats are needed in the coming years and decades.
The demand for new buildings is estimated to be at least 330,000 flats per year in Germany by 2030. However, only about 285,000 new dwellings were built per year recently. "New housing construction in Germany must therefore be further increased to meet long-term demand," the researchers write. "This should actually argue for a massive expansion of public housing promotion, but until recently the opposite was the case." This becomes particularly clear when looking at the stock of social housing: While there were still 4 million social housing units in the early 1980s, today there are only 1.2 million. Every year, about 80,000 social housing units are no longer subsidised and only about 25,000 new ones are built. "The housing shortage has negative macroeconomic consequences because people cannot realise their productivity potential," write Dullien and Krebs - for example, because they have to reduce their working hours if long journeys from the surrounding areas are necessary. "In addition, segregation and ghettoisation occur, which impairs educational opportunities."
According to Dullien and Krebs, the federal companies can solve bottlenecks that, in the view of many experts, massively hinder the necessary large-scale new construction of affordable and high-quality housing at the same time. For example, after many years of staff cuts, many municipalities have too few skilled workers in their building administrations to process applications quickly or to develop building areas. Financially weak cities and municipalities sold building land in their ownership to the highest bidder for a long time, who then often built mostly high-priced flats. Municipal housing associations remained far below their means in many cities.
The consultancy would support municipal administrations in the development of housing and district projects. Such projects are often highly complex and require the participation of many experts: engineers, urban planners, property developers, economists, cultural scientists, humanities and social scientists, geographers and landscape architects all have to work closely together. In addition, complicated financing questions have to be answered and public relations work has to be done. In many cases, the municipalities are overwhelmed by this. A company at the federal level that specialises in the development of residential neighbourhoods could make its expertise available when needed - similar to what the city of Hamburg, for example, has practised at the state level with the founding of HafenCity Hamburg GmbH. This company - a wholly owned subsidiary of the city - has taken care of the planning and management of the HafenCity district.
One of the prerequisites for a housing policy oriented towards the common good is that land remains in public hands. The land fund is intended to provide the financial means for this. Thanks to the fund's support, municipalities could afford to keep or even buy building land instead of leaving it to investors. Currently, pre-emptive rights at the municipal level are often not used because the municipalities either lack the money to purchase the land or lack the funds for public use in the near future. In addition to financial contributions, the land fund could also contribute land from federal property and organisational know-how.
The equity fund would strengthen municipal housing societies financially by increasing their equity and support municipalities or Länder in establishing public housing societies. Although many municipal housing societies have recently expanded their construction activities, some are still holding back on new construction in order not to lower their equity ratio too much. Low equity ratios lead to higher financing costs for construction loans. Increasing equity with funds from the equity fund would ease the situation for public housing societies.
According to Dullien and Krebs, the three federal companies should be legally independent entities that are wholly owned by the public sector. In addition to the usual supervisory bodies, there should also be a scientific advisory board made up of representatives of professional associations and the scientific community. The capital stock of the companies would essentially be financed by the federal government. Financing these companies through loans would be a "financial transaction" for the federal government and would therefore not fall under the rules of the debt brake. The federal corporations could also raise money through external financing.
*Sebastian Dullien, Tom Krebs (2020): Wege aus der Wohnungskrise, IMK Report No. 156, March 2020. Düsseldorf
pdf download:
www.boeckler.de/pdf/p_imk_report_156_2020.pdf
Keywords:
DE-News, Research, New books and studies, Quarters, Settlements, Housing, Housing policy
2 min, post from September 15, 2020
Tim is a photographer, father of Liam and rides his cargo bike all over Graz.
Keywords:
Car Free, Bike-/Velo-City, Movies, Movies < 4 Min, Mobility, News Blog Austria, Sufficiency
This week, the Federal Cabinet intends to approve the draft bill for the coal phase-out law. However, the timetable for the shutdown of coal-fired power plants to be voted on deviates in several places from the coal compromise reached last year. The Baden-Württemberg Solar Cluster has pointed this out and is calling for significant improvements. According to the draft law, carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced significantly less than agreed in the first ten years: By 2030, only five gigawatts of power are to be switched off instead of 20 gigawatts. In addition, the number of CO2 certificates will not be reduced to the same extent as coal-fired power generation. "This violates the spirit of the coal compromise and must be corrected," says Solar Cluster Managing Director Franz Pöter. The renewed blockade of renewable energies - despite announcements to the contrary - must also come to an end, says Pöter. The draft bill does not include the lifting of the 52 gigawatt cap, which prevents the expansion of photovoltaics. The 1,000 metre distance regulation is a similar obstacle to the expansion of wind power generation.
The draft from the Federal Ministry of Economics is intended to legally implement the coal compromise that was painstakingly reached with associations and industry. There is not only criticism of the content: "We had 22 hours to formulate a statement," criticises Pöter. "A discussion was probably not wanted." In the view of the industry association, the CO2 reduction in the first ten years, for example, is far too low: it falls well short of the agreement in the coal compromise. According to the compromise, ten million tonnes of CO2 are to be avoided each year. This corresponds to a reduction of around two gigawatts of coal-fired power plant capacity. However, the draft only contains 0.5 gigawatts per year, a quarter of what was originally agreed.
"It is unacceptable for politicians to draft a coal phase-out law that exceeds the financial framework of the coal compromise and yet only implements a small part of the agreed CO2 reduction," criticises Pöter. If the draft becomes law, Germany will emit around 40 million tonnes more CO2 by 2030 - a major burden for the climate target.
Surplus of CO2 certificates looms, electricity price does not fall, renewables are hindered
Not all CO2 allowances from the shutdown power plants are to be removed from the market either. The resulting surplus would depress the CO2 price in the emissions trading system in future. This would allow the remaining coal-fired power plants to operate profitably on the market more often and thus emit more greenhouse gas. Furthermore, electricity prices are not to fall after all. In any case, this is no longer mandatory in the draft. This also has a negative impact on the energy transition: The conversion of a coal-fired power plant operated by Uniper to a more climate-friendly gas-fired power plant has been rejected. The argument: 2,000 jobs would be affected.
The curbing of the coal phase-out is also associated with a blockade of renewable energies. They are actually supposed to replace the electricity generation from coal-fired units that is being phased out. "Despite promises to the contrary, the 52-gigawatt cap on photovoltaics has still not been abolished," criticises Franz Pöter. "Many photovoltaic projects have been cancelled or at best postponed in recent months due to the unclear legal situation." Wind energy is not faring any better: the 1,000 metre distance regulation between wind turbines and residential areas poses a further obstacle to the expansion of wind power generation. The target formulated by the German government of generating 65 per cent of electricity from renewable energies by 2030 cannot be achieved with these restrictions. What is needed is a doubling of installed capacity by 2030 - that would mean 100 gigawatts of wind energy and 100 gigawatts of photovoltaics.
False arguments Jobs and system security
The current framework conditions have consequences for the domestic wind industry in particular, which has already lost around 35,000 jobs since 2017 - that is far more than all current jobs in the lignite industry combined. Photovoltaics suffered a similar fate a few years earlier, with 75,000 jobs lost. However, the future potential for jobs in the photovoltaic and wind energy sectors remains high compared to the coal industry. "It is therefore disproportionate to block the restructuring of the energy supply with reference to jobs in the coal industry," continued Pöter. "A smart industrial and economic policy for the energies of the future is urgently needed."
The energy system security argument does not go far either: despite a green electricity share of almost 43 per cent on average in 2019 and a 65 per cent share over two weeks in March 2019, grid stability has continued to increase in recent years. This is demonstrated by the historically low number of grid outages in 2018, with the Federal Network Agency confirming that the energy transition has not yet had any impact on system stability. The electricity grids can also be kept stable with a higher proportion of renewable energy. "The claim that we have to deviate from the coal compromise in order to guarantee system security cannot be substantiated with facts," says Pöter. "But it is fuelling fear among the population and industry. These unfounded statements are irresponsible and economically damaging."
---------------- Info box ----------------
Six demands of the Solar Cluster Baden-Württemberg e.V.
The draft bill for the Coal Phase-out Act must contain the following points:
- The CO2 reduction path agreed in the coal compromise must be adhered to. The shutdown dates for coal-fired power plants must therefore not be delayed and the residual electricity volumes must not be increased.
- CO2 certificates to the extent of the shutdown power plants must be withdrawn from the market.
- The state must not prevent the market-driven conversion of coal-fired power plants to gas-fired power plants.
- It must be possible to reduce electricity prices by refinancing the EEG levy on a pro rata basis within the framework of the 40 billion euros.
- The 52 gigawatt cap for photovoltaics must be removed immediately, and the 1,000 metre distance regulation for wind must not be adopted.
- Jobs in the solar and wind sectors must not be jeopardised in favour of coal-fired power generation.
Source: Press release of the Solar Cluster Baden-Württemberg from 27 January 2020
Keywords:
DE-News, Renewable, Funding, Climate protection, News Blog Baden-Württemberg, PV, Environmental policy, Ecology
In its August issue, ÖKO-TEST magazine evaluated 15 different roof insulation materials, including 5 with the natureplus seal of approval. The products are mainly suitable for insulation between rafters. The good performance of conventional products made of glass and rock wool, which all achieved "good", was striking. Of the natureplus-certified products, 2 insulation materials made of wood fibres - "Gutex Thermoflex" and "Pavaflex" by Pavatex - achieved the best rating in the test with "very good", while other products only scored "satisfactory" ("Isocell" cellulose fibre, "Thermo-Jute" by Thermo Natur) or "sufficient" (Ziro "Corktherm 040").
ECO criteria do not play a role
However, natureplus Managing Director Thomas Schmitz finds the prioritisation of ÖKO-TEST "questionable". He criticises that the topic of manufacturing energy played no role whatsoever in the test. The use of renewable resources (renewable raw materials or recycled materials) also had no influence on the rating. "This does not fit in with the theme of ÖKO-Test," says Schmitz. The natureplus-tested products, on the other hand, all met high standards in these evaluation criteria, which were not taken into account by ÖKO-TEST.
Link:
www.natureplus.org/index.php?id=157...
Keywords:
Stock, DE-News, New books and studies, Thermal insulation
