Gebäudesanierungen im Kontext der Klimaschutzpolitik/Building refurbishments in the context of climate protection policy

Der regulatorische Rahmen zum Klimaschutz ist seit 1976 sowohl international als auch national spezifiziert und verschärft worden. Mit dem KSG sind zuletzt sektorscharfe Emissionsziele verankert worden. GEG und BEG stellen dabei den aktuell gültigen regulatorischen Rahmen für bauliche Mindestanforderungen und Fördermaßnahmen dar. Die langjährige Entwicklung im Gebäudesektor zeigt, dass die jährlichen Emissionen seit 1970 um circa 50 % reduziert worden sind. Zugleich würden mit einer Fortschreibung des langjährigen Trends die festgelegten Klimaziele bis 2045 deutlich verfehlt. Der überwiegend vor 1978 erbaute deutsche Wohngebäudebestand verursacht zwei Drittel der Emissionen im Gebäudesektor, zeigt aufgrund des geringen baulichen Wärmeschutzes sowie überwiegend fossil beschickter Heizungsanlagen ein erhebliches Potenzial zur Dekarbonisierung und wird vorliegend fokussiert betrachtet. Die erforderliche Erhöhung der Sanierungsquote hat ökobilanzielle Implikationen mit Auswirkungen auf das verfügbare Emissionsbudget. Zur Erreichung der Klimaziele bedarf es ganzheitlicher Anreizmaßnahmen in Kombination mit einem entschiedenen Monitoring und innovativen Sanierungsmethoden.

The coalitional politics of the European Union’s environmental forest policy: Biodiversity conservation, timber legality, and climate protection

European forest policymaking is shaped by progressing European integration, yet with notable ideological divisions and diverging interests among countries. This paper focuses on the coalitional politics of key environmental forest issues: biodiversity conservation, timber legality, and climate protection policy. Combining the Advocacy Coalition Framework and the Shifting Coalition Theory, and informed by more than 186 key informant interviews and 73 policy documents spanning a 20-year timeframe, we examine the evolution of coalitional forest politics in Europe. We find that the basic line-up has remained stable: an environmental coalition supporting EU environmental forest policy integration and a forest sector coalition mostly opposing it. Still, strategic alliances across these coalitions have occurred for specific policy issues which have resulted in a gradual establishment of an EU environmental forest policy. We conclude with discussion of our findings and provide suggestions for further research.

The Participation of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission in the Process of Concluding International Agreements on Climate Protection

For many years the European Union has aspired to be the leader of global climate protection policy. By setting increasingly ambitious challenges in its efforts against global warming, the EU has tried to encourage other countries to compete in this field at international level. In this article, the authors present the roles of the Council of the European Union and the European Commission in the process of concluding international agreements on climate protection. The division of competences between the two institutions is important in the situation when the agreements are concluded within Union’s non-exclusive competence such as the one in the field of environmental protection. In case of such agreements both the Union and its Member States are contracting parties. However, not only the division of competences is at the centre of the EU external action, but also the development of appropriate solutions that will ensure the effective achievement of climate policy objectives.

Investment incentive reduced by climate damages can be restored by optimal policy

Increasing greenhouse gas emissions are likely to impact not only natural systems but economies worldwide. If these impacts alter future economic development, the financial losses will be significantly higher than the mere direct damages. So far, potentially aggravating investment responses were considered negligible. Here we consistently incorporate an empirically derived temperature-growth relation into the simple integrated assessment model DICE. In this framework we show that, if in the next eight decades varying temperatures impact economic growth as has been observed in the past three decades, income is reduced by ~ 20% compared to an economy unaffected by climate change. Hereof ~ 40% are losses due to growth effects of which ~ 50% result from reduced incentive to invest. This additional income loss arises from a reduced incentive for future investment in anticipation of a reduced return and not from an explicit climate protection policy. Under economically optimal climate-change mitigation, however, optimal investment would only be reduced marginally as mitigation efforts keep returns high.

Cooperation Between Institutions of the European Union and Its Member States in the Creation of Climate Protection Policy

Climate policy is a complexed area of cooperation between Member States and European Union institutions. The ambitious goals that the EU sets for itself in this matter are not always possible to be met by all Member States, hence the ability to work out compromise solutions is of great importance. Member States have different internal conditions, which determine the objectives of their economic and energy policies, therefore they do not always have convergent interests in this area. The decision-making centre where EU climate protection policy is created is: the European Council, where key elements of this policy are agreed (such as reduction targets), and so-called an ‘institutional triangle’, i.e. EU Council, European Parliament and European Commission which are directly involved into the legislative process. This configurations is a platform where cooperation of the Member States manifests itself in various forms and intensity and where these countries may attempt to force their interests in the process of creating EU policy. The authors present the legal bases of the European Union's competences in the field of climate policy and the role of the EU institutions in its creation with particular focus on mechanisms that allow Member States to influence the shape of that policy.

Verteilungskonflikte durch die europäische Klimaschutzpolitik – Verschärft die EU die Hungerproblematik?

In this essay the European energy and climate protection policy and its effects on developing countries are to be discussed. Are their nutrition problems being detereorated or do additional exports establish opportunities for a sustainable development? I argue that coherence of energy security and climate protection policy, as aimed by the European Commission, cannot be achieved by the measures taken so far. First of all the paper discusses the primacy of competition policy while, in the second place, strategic selectivity of climate instruments will be dealt with. Thridly, the „faith in technology“ will be approached and the fourth issue is dedicated to agrofuels and the commodification of developing countries’ ressources. As a result the EU energy and climate policy is about to aggravate nutrition problems. What is needed is a Transformation to a sustainable economy to realigning the north-south divide on the one and to overcome inconsistencies between ener gy security and climate policy on the other hand.