CO2-Emissions should be reduced by 65 percent over the next ten years compared to 1990 in order to achieve climate neutrality - Energy system must be converted to 100 percent renewable energies by 2040 - Investment of 3,000 billion euros required to meet European Green Deal and Paris climate targets - German EU Council Presidency can ensure that Corona aid packages link economic stimulus with climate protection
The European Green Deal sets the bar very high: Europe is to become climate neutral by 2050. However, these targets can only be achieved if CO2-emissions by 2030 not only by 40 percent compared to 1990, but by 65 percent. To achieve this, energy production would have to be completely converted to renewable energies by 2040. The necessary investments are high, but they will pay off. These are the most important results of a new study by the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin). On the occasion of the German EU Council Presidency, the economists from DIW Berlin and the Technical University of Berlin involved in the study have calculated under which circumstances the goals of the European Green Deal could be achieved and what costs this would entail. "So far, the EU Commission has assumed a CO2-reduction target of 40 percent. But this will not make Europe climate-neutral by 2050, as our calculations show. The targets must be much more ambitious," says study author Claudia Kemfert.
Graphic: DIW Berlin
The authors have therefore compared a baseline scenario of 40 percent with a climate protection scenario that assumes a CO2-reduction of 65 percent by 2030 compared to 1990, as demanded by some groups in the EU Parliament. In fact, the calculations show that under these circumstances, the climate neutrality targeted in the Green Deal could be achieved. "However, this is only possible if we switch our energy system to 100 percent renewables - and do so already by 2040," says study author Karlo Hainsch. Even with a complete switch to renewables, the energy supply would remain secure, as the study's hourly calculations show - even for countries that still rely heavily on fossil or nuclear energy, such as Poland and France.
"The German EU presidency could kill two birds with one stone: economic recovery and climate protection." Christian von Hirschhausen
Such a scenario would save around 60 billion tonnes of CO2. "However, a switch to 100 percent renewable energy cannot be had for free. Extensive investments will have to be made," says study author Leonard Göke. According to the calculations, the investment required for renewable energies amounts to around 3000 billion euros. This is an enormous amount, but it is offset by savings of almost 2000 billion euros alone, which would no longer have to be spent on importing fossil fuels. Since both the EU and most national governments in Europe have put together extensive aid packages because of the Corona crisis, these could form a good basis for supporting the necessary investments.
"The German EU Presidency could kill two birds with one stone: economic recovery and climate protection," says study author Christian von Hirschhausen. "To do so, it must ensure that the extensive stimulus packages under the European Green Deal are used for investments in renewable energies and energy efficiency." In addition, there is still the Just Transition Fund, which the EU has set up to provide financial support for structural change in the regions of Europe that are affected very differently by the measures. "Particular care must be taken to ensure that the funds are channelled into sustainable climate-neutral projects and not used for the de facto stabilisation of fossil fuel development paths," warns study author Pao-Yu Oei. The current economic crisis, which is setting new parameters worldwide and across sectors, could now be used to decisively tackle the necessary measures towards climate neutrality.
Over EUR 28 billion for "climate protection measures": KfW is one of the most important supporters of the Paris climate goals
Promotional bank is a global pioneer with its standardised SDG mapping
Strong international interest in KfW SDG mapping
KfW is today publishing the results of the SDG mapping of new commitments throughout the Group in 2019. In order to clarify the individual contribution made by KfW's new commitments to achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals, KfW has developed a standardised procedure: 1,500 indicators are used each year to determine to which SDGs KfW's new commitments can be assigned. This makes the contribution transparent at both group and business sector level.
The mapping of individual new commitments from 2019 to the Sustainable Development Goals shows the following funding priorities:
SDG 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities (approx. EUR 29.0 billion)
SDG 13: Climate action (around EUR 28.2 billion)
SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth (approx. EUR 28.1 billion)
SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy (approx. EUR 26.4 billion)
"With more than EUR 28 billion for 'climate action', we are one of the most important supporters of the Paris climate goals worldwide," explains Dr Günther Bräunig, Chairman of the Executive Board and Chief Sustainability Officer of KfW Bankengruppe. "The fact that we are also making substantial contributions to all other 16 SDGs at the same time shows how we combine the environmental with the economic and social dimensions of sustainability as part of our broad legal mandate."
The financial sector can and must make significant contributions to the efforts to achieve greater climate protection and sustainability. As a transformative promotional bank, KfW is assuming particular responsibility in this regard and already launched the "KfW Roadmap Sustainable Finance" project in summer 2018, the aim of which is to develop a stringent and multidimensional sustainability concept for the bank. One of the first results is the group-wide SDG mapping, which makes KfW's contributions to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) transparent. With this volume-based and largely automated mapping approach, KfW is one of the pioneers worldwide in terms of recording and publishing SDG financing targets.
Since the initial publication of the SDG mapping of KfW's 2018 new commitments in September 2019, international interest in KfW's SDG mapping has been high. Many partners are currently planning similar publications and would therefore like to learn more about KfW's own mapping methodology. An exchange to this effect has now taken place with several European promotional banks and multilateral organisations, among others.
Berlin, 24.6.2021: Commenting on today's discussion of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) in the German Bundestag Sascha Müller-Kraenner, Federal Executive Director of Deutsche Umwelthilfe (DUH):
"The grand coalition is breaking its promise to set higher expansion targets for renewable energies for the year 2030 before the end of this election period. An agreement failed mainly due to the energy transition brakemen within the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. In doing so, the federal government is ignoring the implementation of the new EU climate targets and disregarding the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court to tackle more ambitious climate protection measures before 2030. The amendment to the Renewable Energy Sources Act is missing the heart of the matter. As recently as the end of 2020, Federal Economics Minister Peter Altmaier had announced an ambitious expansion path for wind and solar energy for the first quarter of 2021. After a long wait, there was only the famous drop in the ocean: four gigawatts of onshore wind energy and six gigawatts of photovoltaics are the targets for 2022. Longer-term expansion targets? No such thing. Quite obviously, the need for a rapid transformation of our energy supply has not yet reached the CDU/CSU, despite all their climate protection pledges in the election campaign."
The rising demand for electricity from electric heat pumps and electromobility necessitates the expansion of at least six gigawatts of onshore wind energy and at least ten gigawatts of photovoltaics - and this annually until 2030. The financial participation of municipalities in ground-mounted photovoltaics and easier repowering of wind turbines, on the other hand, are fundamentally positive measures.
The Federal Award ENVIRONMENT & BUILDING initiated by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) and the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) under the patronage of Federal Minister Svenja Schulze honors projects that already realize the idea of a new Bauhaus in the sense of holistically sustainable buildings. In 2021, the prize will be awarded for the second time, this time in four categories. All players in the building sector are eligible to apply. The closing date for entries is 25 May 2021.. The prize will be awarded on 7 September by Parliamentary State Secretary Florian Pronold and UBA President Dirk Messner.
The discussion about the climate, environmental and health impacts of buildings and their construction has long since reached the centre of society. Topics such as primary energy demand, grey energy or healthy building are no longer just the preserve of experts, but are also attracting the attention of more and more private and public building owners. And rightly so - because the building sector consumes enormous raw material and energy resources, and building products can be harmful to the environment and health. Sustainable solutions already exist today and are already being implemented. The Federal ENVIRONMENT & BUILDING Award therefore honours lighthouse projects in the field of sustainable building and helps to bring the EU Commission's vision of a "New European Bauhaus" to life.
About the Federal Award
This year, the Federal Award will again be presented in the categories "Residential Buildings", "Non-residential Buildings" and "Neighbourhoods". A fourth category, "Climate-friendly refurbishment", is new. In addition to these competition categories, the jury may award special prizes for particularly innovative approaches among the projects submitted.
Conditions of participation
Due to the thematic breadth, all actors in the building sector are invited to apply: from builders and developers to offices for architecture, building services engineering, urban or landscape planning to manufacturers or research institutions. The call for entries is aimed at buildings that have already been completed in Germany or neighbourhoods that are at an advanced stage of planning; multiple applications in different categories are possible (also applies to refurbishment projects!).
What awaits the winners
The award winners will receive public attention on several levels. The award ceremony will take place on 7 September 2021 at the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety in Berlin, where the award-winning projects will be presented to experts and the media. The award-winning projects will also be featured on the websites of UBA and the Federal Environment Ministry. UBA is having films made on the award-winning sustainability examples, which the winners can then use for their own public relations work. Furthermore, all award-winning projects will be documented in a book.
Further
For more information on the conditions of participation in the Federal Environment & Building Award and last year's winners, please visit the Federal Award website: www.umweltbundesamt.de/bundespreis-umwelt-bauen.
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.