Voluntary agreements as a substitute for regulations and economic instruments: Lessons from the German voluntary agreements on CO 2-reduction

Voluntary agreements in various forms are being increasingly regarded as an instrument to substitute or complement regulating and pricing instruments. As, from a theoretical point of view, this instrument has strong proponents and opponents, it is important to make a careful analysis of the achievements of current voluntary agreements and their specific advantages or drawbacks in their specific objective and social context. The following paper analyses the voluntary agreements of the German economy with respect to CO2 emission targets, achievements up to 1995, the monitoring process implemented, as well as the foreseeable progress up to 2005. The analysis distinguishes among the industrial branches (where trade associations signed the declaration for their member companies), the electricity supply sector and the remaining energy sector (gas and water supply, municipal supply companies, mineral oil trade), which, for the first time, has declared reduction targets for their clients. For voluntary agreements to become as successful as regulating and economic instruments, it is important for all the parties involved to see the declarations as a process which transforms the quantitative goals into moving targets

How first comes energy efficiency? Assessing the energy efficiency first principle in the EU using a comprehensive indicator-based approach

The energy efficiency first (EE1) principle was defined and established as a leading principle of the European Union’s energy policy with the Clean Energy for All Europeans package in 2016. The principle requires demand resources to be considered on par with supply-side solutions and prioritized whenever they are less costly or deliver more value than alternative options. This approach should be applied in every planning process, decision-making, and investment regarding the energy sector. In order to examine to which degree the EE1 principle is actually implemented by the Member States, we developed a composite indicator, which consists of 13 criteria. These criteria capture the multiple facets of the EE1 principle and thus can also be used as a guide for the EU Member States in their operationalization of the EE1 principle. After the development of the methodology, the indicator-based approach is tested to assess the implementation of the EE1 principle in the national energy and climate plans of 14 Member States. The aim of this step is to demonstrate the feasibility of the indicator and its applicability as an assessment tool across different countries in the EU. The results imply that the fundamentals of the principle are understood and realized. Nevertheless, most countries would still fail to ensure an equal treatment between supply and demand-side resources and neglect the multiple benefits associated with energy efficiency improvements. However, those finding should be considered with caution since only limited data was used to test the operationalization of the indicator on the EE1 principle

Intensification of moisture separation in the pulp convective drying process with ultrasound-assisted method

Traditional pulp convective drying (CD) is time-consuming and energy-intensive. This study aimed to assess the drying performance of pulp using ultrasound-assisted drying (UAD) and compared it with CD to intensify moisture separation. UAD was found to be fast and efficient with high effective moisture diffusivity of 2.77 × 10–10 ∼ 3.20 × 10–10 m2/s, low activation energy of 20.2 kJ/mol, and short drying time of 21.0 ∼ 16.5 min. It demonstrated that applying ultrasound could promote moisture separation with 26 %∼42 % reductions in drying time and 42 %∼22 % savings in energy consumption. The constant rate period was not presented and no significant differences in drying rates were observed when the moisture ratio was below 0.43 under the investigated conditions. The kinetics modeling results indicated that the Page model was the best to predict the pulp drying kinetics for both methods. It may lead to an alternative efficient approach for decarbonizing the drying process in pulp and paper production

Identifying future district heating potentials in Germany: a study using empirical insights and distribution cost analysis

District heating will play an important role in the transition towards climate-neutral heating. Various studies on modelling the energy system show that district heating and the related expansion of the networks can have different levels of importance. A main reason is that the costs for distribution grid expansion are not well or not at all considered and empirical evidence for a threshold for cost-effective distribution costs is missing in such studies. In this paper, we aim to improve empirical evidence allowing to improve the representation of future district heating expansion in energy systems models. For that, the current status of district heating is analysed in high spatial resolution for Germany. The results show that with the currently accepted average costs, a large range of the possible future market share of district heating for buildings between 17 - 52% is possible by 2050, with the parameters of the connection rate and the renovation rate of the building stock. We conclude that the district heating share could be increased by the factor of 2 to 5 in the future, proving the importance of climate-neutral district heating in the transition

Paving the way: Analysing energy transition pathways and green hydrogen exports in developing countries – The case of Algeria

The measures needed to limit global warming pose a particular challenge to current fossil fuel exporters, who must not only decarbonise their local energy systems, but also compensate for the expected decline in fossil fuel revenues. One possibility is seen in the export of green hydrogen. Using Algeria as a case study, this paper analyses how different levels of ambition in hydrogen exports, energy efficiency and fuel switching affect the cost-optimal expansion of the power sector for a given overall emissions reduction path. Despite falling costs for photovoltaics and wind turbines, the results indicate that in countries with very low natural gas prices, such as Algeria, a fully renewable electricity system by 2050 is unlikely without appropriate policy measures. The expansion of renewable energy should therefore start early, given the high annual growth rates required, which will be reinforced by additional green hydrogen exports. In parallel, energy efficiency is a key factor as it directly mitigates CO2 emissions from fossil fuels and reduces domestic electricity demand, which could instead be used for hydrogen production. Integrating electrolysers into the power system could potentially help to reduce specific costs through load shifting. Overall, it seems advisable to analyse hydrogen exports together with local decarbonisation in order to better understand their interactions and to reduce emissions as efficiently as possible. These results and the methodology could be transferred to other countries that want to become green hydrogen exporters in the future and are therefore a useful addition for researchers and policy makers

Identifying future district heating potentials in germany: a study using empirical insights and distribution cost analysis

District heating will play an important role in the transition towards climate-neutral heating. Various studies on modelling the energy system show that district heating and the related expansion of the networks can have different levels of importance. A main reason is that the costs for distribution grid expansion are not well or not at all considered and empirical evidence for a threshold for cost-effective distribution costs is missing in such studies. In this paper, we aim to improve empirical evidence allowing to improve the representation of future district heating expansion in energy systems models. For that, the current status of district heating is analysed in high spatial resolution for Germany. The results show that with the currently accepted average costs, a large range of the possible future market share of district heating for buildings between 17–52% is possible by 2050, with the parameters of the connection rate and the renovation rate of the building stock. We conclude that the district heating share could be increased by the factor of 2 to 5 in the future, proving the importance of climate-neutral district heating in the transition

Spatial analysis of renewable and excess heat potentials for climate-neutral district heating in Europe

District heating can play a decisive role in the transformation to a climate-neutral building sector, replacing fossil fuels. Renewable and excess heat potentials for district heating are often spatially limited and a consistent EU-wide analysis of the potentials is not yet available. In this paper, we quantify the renewable and excess heat potentials that could supply future district heating areas for the entire EU. We combine different data sets with a high spatial resolution and conduct spatial matching. Subsequently, we cluster the results for the potentials for individual district heating areas to derive representative types. The results show that the renewable and excess heat potentials together with heat pumps are overall sufficient to supply the future district heating demand, with high technical potentials from geothermal heat and excess heat from wastewater treatment plants. Decreasing the system temperatures increases the amount of available potentials. Lower heat densities and the overall character of the future supply sources require a paradigm shift in DH systems. Large central CHP units will need to be replaced by a diversity of several smaller sources, often combined with heat pumps and utilized at lower system temperatures

Energieeffizienz, Strukturwandel und Produktionsentwicklung der deutschen Industrie

Aufbauend auf den Ergebnissen der Enquete-Kommission "Vorsorge zum Schutz der Erdatmosphäre des 11. Deutschen Bundestages im Jahre 1990 hatte die Bundesregierung in mehreren Kabinettsbeschlüssen Anfang der 90er Jahre die wesentlichen Grundelemente einer umfangreichen Strategie zur Reduktion der anthropogenen Emissionen von Treibhausgasen festgelegt. Besonderes Gewicht haben dabei die energiebedingten Emissionen und hier besonders die CO$_{2}$-Emissionen, die durch die Verbrennung fossiler Energieträger entstehen. Seit den ersten Beschlüssen der Bundesregierung, die CO$_{2}$-Emissionen bis zum Jahre 2005 um üehr als 25 % gegenüber seinem Ausgangswert von 1,08 Mrd. t im Jahre 1987 zu vermindern, sind die Emissionen der Treibhausgase deutlich zurückgegangen, die CO$_{2}$-Emissionen bis Ende 1995 auf etwa 890 Mio. 1. Das Reduktionsziel wurde von Bundeskanzler Kohl auf der ersten Nachfolgekonferenz der Klimarahmenkonvention im April 1995 in Berlin nochmals bestätigt. Heute bezweifeln nicht wenige Praktiker in Wirtschaft und Verwaltung, daß dieses Ziel unter halbwegs akzeptablen Kosten und bei dem verbleibenden Zehn-Jahres-Zeithorizont noch zu erreichen sei, weil die bisherigen CO$_{2}$-Emissionsminderungen ausschließlich in Ostdeutschland durch den Zusammenbruch der Wirtschaft und die erhebliche Substitution von Braunkohle durch Erdgas und Heizöl sowie mehr Energieeffizienz erreicht wurden. Andererseits betonen die Klimatologen, Geophysiker und Biologen, daß die Zielsetzung der Verminderung klimarelevanter Gasemissionen der Industrieländer weitere Etappen für 2020 mit 40 bis 50 % (ebenfalls bezogen auf das Jahr 1987) und für Mitte des kommenden Jahrhunderts mit 80 % zu erfüllen habe, wenn man eine nicht vermeidbare moderate Zunahme der Nutzung von fossilen Energieträgern der Schwellen- und Entwicklungsländer in den nächsten Jahrzehnten mitbetrachte. Aufgrund bisheriger Analysen sind einige Energiewirtschaftler - darunter auch die Autoren - der Meinung, daß die Kosten der zur Zielerreichung notwendigen Maßnahmen durchaus im Rahmen des Möglichen seien und andere positive Begleitwirkungen wie netto mehr Beschäftigung, eine bessere Position der Investitionsgtüterindustrie im Export und weniger Umweltschaden zu erwarten seien. Um die Frage von Akzeptanz und Kosten verschiedener klimapolitischer Optionen auf eine hinreichend präzise Basis stellen zu können, dient nunmehr u.a das IKARUS-Instrumentarium dazu, die politische Diskussion um energie-, verkehrs- und klimapolitische Optionen anhand quantitativ arbeitender Modelle und einer großen Datenbank zu unterstützen. Innerhalb von vier Jahren wurde nunmehr ein Instrumentarium erarbeitet, das einerseits über eine einheitlich strukturierte, breit und wissenschaftlich gut abgesicherte Datenbasis verfügt und andererseits aus einer Reihe von Rechenmodellen für Analysen besteht, die der Komplexität des [...

Contribution of copy number variants to schizophrenia from a genome-wide study of 41,321 subjects

Copy number variants (CNVs) have been strongly implicated in the genetic etiology of schizophrenia (SCZ). However, genome-wide investigation of the contribution of CNV to risk has been hampered by limited sample sizes. We sought to address this obstacle by applying a centralized analysis pipeline to a SCZ cohort of 21,094 cases and 20,227 controls. A global enrichment of CNV burden was observed in cases (OR=1.11, P=5.7×10−15), which persisted after excluding loci implicated in previous studies (OR=1.07, P=1.7 ×10−6). CNV burden was enriched for genes associated with synaptic function (OR = 1.68, P = 2.8 ×10−11) and neurobehavioral phenotypes in mouse (OR = 1.18, P= 7.3 ×10−5). Genome-wide significant evidence was obtained for eight loci, including 1q21.1, 2p16.3 (NRXN1), 3q29, 7q11.2, 15q13.3, distal 16p11.2, proximal 16p11.2 and 22q11.2. Suggestive support was found for eight additional candidate susceptibility and protective loci, which consisted predominantly of CNVs mediated by non-allelic homologous recombination