Exploring the synergies between cross compliance and certification schemes

This report presents some of the interim results of the project 'Facilitating the CAP reform: Compliance and competitiveness of European agriculture'. It examines the similarities and differences between mandatory cross compliance standards and those set by voluntary certification schemes. There is a potential synergy between cross compliance and certification schemes, not least because both approaches set minimum standards and enforce those standards through inspection systems. Although there are some strong limitations, there is sufficient overlap in the standards set and in approaches to control to warrant further investigation of the potential for the harmonisation of standards and collaborative approaches to control

Coal and Climate Change

This overview adopts a critical social science perspective to examine the state of play and potential futures for coal in the context of climate change. It introduces key trends in coal consumption, production and trade, before appraising the relevant literature. Finding surprisingly little literature directly focussed on coal and climate change compared with related fields, it appraises existing work and highlights key areas for future work. In addition to established bodies of work on the situated politics of coal and the political economy of coal, new work calling for demand side policies to be supplemented with supply side policies highlights the increasing importance of how normative contestations drive debates over coal, suggesting that future work needs to engage not only much more directly with climate change as an issue, but particularly with the place of coal in a just transition. Because of coal’s mammoth contribution to climate change and the complex political economy which drives its production and consumption, it is likely that coal will remain at the centre of difficult questions about the relationship between climate action and development for some time

The overlooked role of discourse in breaking carbon lock-in:the case of the German energy transition

Over the last fifteen years, research on carbon lock-in has investigated why de-carbonization evolves so slowly in Western industrialized countries. In this paper, we argue that the role of discourses has been overlooked in the literature on carbon lock-in. We argue that discourses are both part of lock-in mechanisms, and important factors in explaining change using the concept of discursive turning points. This implies that we need to carefully investigate the dominant discourses that constitute and justify the very technologies, institutions and behaviours of the status quo. For the case of the German energy transition, we demonstrate the importance of discursive turning points for overcoming carbon lock-in, based on a literature review. Germany’s long-standing lock-in of fossil fuels and nuclear power was undermined by the rise of the energy transition discourse. This discourse transitioned from a very marginal position to dominance through a number of factors, winning against the energy mix discourse. On the way, the energy transition discourse became de-radicalised. Coal has been able to defend its role in the German energy mix in the name of affordability and energy security. While renewables continue to grow, this happens alongside a remaining carbon lock-in. We conclude that discursive lock-in and discursive turning points are useful analytical tools that help to explain how the transition to renewable energies unfolds. In future research, the interaction between discursive lock-ins and other types of lock-in should be investigated

Ihre Meinung ist gefragt. Wie lange vertragen sich konventionelle und erneuerbare Energien auf dem Weg zur komplett regenerativen Stromversorgung?

A discussion covers the future energy supply of Germany; inorduction to the subject; scenarios for a complete regenerative electric power generation; system solution for the conversion; system conflict between renewable and conventional electric power generation (approaches to flexibility and limits of conventional power plants; the disappearance of residual loads); making flexibility by grid expansion and power storage; and summary and outlook. The BWK asks its readership for their opinions as to how the nation should shape its future energy supply. The results of ongoing studies at the advisory council of experts (Sachverständigenrat für Umweltfragen, SRU) indicate that generation of energy entirely renewably is economically feasible by 2050, environmentally friendly, and technically feasible, insofar as the necessary storage capacity and broad ranging balancing of the fluctuating electric power generated are included. In the transition period, the power plant install ations have to be flexible. Service life lengthening of the nuclear power plants and building new coal power plants with carbon capture and storage (CCS) as bridge technologies can contribute to flexibility only to a limited extent. They present the risk to increase systematic conflicts and to brake the expansion of renewable energies. Energy policy must today decide on a framework of stable conditions on which investments can be created. Parallel to the planning for the expansion of renewable energies, a schedule for the closing out of conventional power plant capacities is needed. An urgent priority is the grid expansion domestically and on the European level. The furtherance of storage technology is also a priority. This includes compressed air storage for short term energy storage, the linking of pump storage power plants capacities with neighboring countries such as a cooperation with Norway or the storage of regenerative energy of technically generated methane in the existing natural gas grid

Exploring the synergies between cross compliance and certification schemes

This report presents some of the interim results of the project 'Facilitating the CAP reform: Compliance and competitiveness of European agriculture'. It examines the similarities and differences between mandatory cross compliance standards and those set by voluntary certification schemes. There is a potential synergy between cross compliance and certification schemes, not least because both approaches set minimum standards and enforce those standards through inspection systems. Although there are some strong limitations, there is sufficient overlap in the standards set and in approaches to control to warrant further investigation of the potential for the harmonisation of standards and collaborative approaches to control