What about local climate governance? A review of promise and problems

A large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions is produced in urban areas, particularly in high income countries. Cities are also vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and particularly so in developing countries. Therefore, local climate policies for mitigation and adaptation have to play an important role in any effective global climate protection strategy. Based upon a systematic literature review, this article gives a comprehensive overview of motivation and challenges for local climate governance. A large part of the literature focuses on mitigation and cities in industrialized countries. The review also includes the smaller and emerging body of literature on adaptation and cities in developing or industrializing countries. Motivations and challenges we find fall into broad categories like ‘economic’, ‘informational’, ‘institutional’, ‘liveability’ or ‘political/cultural’. We conclude that the mix of motivation and challenges is city-specific, and that the national framework conditions are important. It matters, whether cities engage in mitigation or adaptation policies, whether they are located in developing, industrializing or industrialized countries, and at which stage of climate policy-making cities are. For many cities, cost savings are a primary motivation for local mitigation policies, while perceived vulnerability and a commitment to development is the primary motivator for adaptation policies. The collective action problem of climate protection (also known as ‘Tragedy of the Commons’) and inappropriate legal frameworks are key barriers to mitigation policies. Challenges for adaptation include financial constraints, and a lack of expertise, cooperation, leadership and political support. Understanding their specific motivation and challenges may support cities in developing appropriate local climate action plans. Furthermore, the understanding of motivation and challenges can inform other policy levels that want to help realize the local climate protection potential.Climate policy, local authorities, cities, mitigation, adaptation, energy, local climate governance

Is Green Infrastructure a Game Changer for Sustainable Regional Development? A Scenario Approach for Stuttgart Region

There are numerous challenges for municipalities and regions: affordable housing, overburdened infrastructure, air quality, increasing pressure on open spaces, expansion of renewable energies, climate adaptation. Certainly, the list is not complete. Moreover, these issues – as a typical characteristic of complex situations – interact with one another in various ways. As one of Germany’s most dynamic and densely populated locations the Stuttgart Region is particularly affected by these challenges. Therefore, protecting and developing the landscape is a longstanding concern of its overall spatial planning strategy (e.g. development-axes, regional green corridors, landscape park, public transport policy). In view of the sheer number of tasks, the ongoing dynamics as well as strongsectoral policy instruments, the question can be raised as to how far green infrastructure can be a game changer for a substantive transformation towards sustainability. Against this background, a scenario-approach is carried out aiming for the integration of various knowledge-areas into a supra-sectoral and strategic view on regional transformation. Taking the example of the Stuttgart Region, the diversity and interdependencies of land use are taken into consideration and synthesised in form of a qualitative system analysis. The scenario development is part of the RAMONA-project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) in the framework of the “Stadt-Land-Plus”-measure. The project deals with the intervention regulation under the Nature Conservation Act1 (“Eingriffsregelung”) and inherent opportunities for urban and regional development. The scenario based approach therefore starts with open-space-indicators such as “degree of imperviousness”, “compensation measures” as well as “green infrastructures” and puts them into a wider perspective of socio-technical development (e. g. settlement structure, infrastructure, traffic volume, agriculture or health) in order to obtain comprehensive pictures of the Stuttgart Region in the year 2050

What about local climate governance? A review of promise and problems

A large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions is produced in urban areas, particularly in high income countries. Cities are also vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and particularly so in developing countries. Therefore, local climate policies for mitigation and adaptation have to play an important role in any effective global climate protection strategy. Based upon a systematic literature review, this article gives a comprehensive overview of motivation and challenges for local climate governance. A large part of the literature focuses on mitigation and cities in industrialized countries. The review also includes the smaller and emerging body of literature on adaptation and cities in developing or industrializing countries. Motivations and challenges we find fall into broad categories like ‘economic’, ‘informational’, ‘institutional’, ‘liveability’ or ‘political/cultural’. We conclude that the mix of motivation and challenges is city-specific, and that the national framework conditions are important. It matters, whether cities engage in mitigation or adaptation policies, whether they are located in developing, industrializing or industrialized countries, and at which stage of climate policy-making cities are. For many cities, cost savings are a primary motivation for local mitigation policies, while perceived vulnerability and a commitment to development is the primary motivator for adaptation policies. The collective action problem of climate protection (also known as ‘Tragedy of the Commons’) and inappropriate legal frameworks are key barriers to mitigation policies. Challenges for adaptation include financial constraints, and a lack of expertise, cooperation, leadership and political support. Understanding their specific motivation and challenges may support cities in developing appropriate local climate action plans. Furthermore, the understanding of motivation and challenges can inform other policy levels that want to help realize the local climate protection potential

What about local climate governance? A review of promise and problems

A large proportion of greenhouse gas emissions is produced in urban areas, particularly in high income countries. Cities are also vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, and particularly so in developing countries. Therefore, local climate policies for mitigation and adaptation have to play an important role in any effective global climate protection strategy. Based upon a systematic literature review, this article gives a comprehensive overview of motivation and challenges for local climate governance. A large part of the literature focuses on mitigation and cities in industrialized countries. The review also includes the smaller and emerging body of literature on adaptation and cities in developing or industrializing countries. Motivations and challenges we find fall into broad categories like ‘economic’, ‘informational’, ‘institutional’, ‘liveability’ or ‘political/cultural’. We conclude that the mix of motivation and challenges is city-specific, and that the national framework conditions are important. It matters, whether cities engage in mitigation or adaptation policies, whether they are located in developing, industrializing or industrialized countries, and at which stage of climate policy-making cities are. For many cities, cost savings are a primary motivation for local mitigation policies, while perceived vulnerability and a commitment to development is the primary motivator for adaptation policies. The collective action problem of climate protection (also known as ‘Tragedy of the Commons’) and inappropriate legal frameworks are key barriers to mitigation policies. Challenges for adaptation include financial constraints, and a lack of expertise, cooperation, leadership and political support. Understanding their specific motivation and challenges may support cities in developing appropriate local climate action plans. Furthermore, the understanding of motivation and challenges can inform other policy levels that want to help realize the local climate protection potential

Vom Kennwert zum System – Prospektive Nachhaltigkeitsindikatoren der Landnutzung

Große gesellschaftliche Transformationen sind langwierige und komplexe Prozesse, die zahlreiche Wissensbereiche auf der Mikro-, Meso- und Makroebene sowie ökologische, ökonomische und soziale Implikationen betreffen. Das herkömmliche Nachhaltigkeitsmonitoring strebt dabei im Sinne einer präzisen Zustandsbeschreibung oftmals vielzählige Detailinformationen an und arbeitet meist mit nebeneinanderstehenden Indikatoren. Die Interaktion zwischen den Einzelindikatoren – das wesentliche Charakteristikum komplexer Situationen – bleibt dabei mithin unberücksichtigt. Auf Basis der Cross-Impact-Bilanzanalyse werden mit dem vorliegenden Beitrag daher die wechselseitigen Bedingtheiten der Landnutzung am Beispiel der Region Stuttgart in den Blick genommen und zu Szenarien verdichtet

Bioenergy Villages – A Blueprint for Rural Energy Supply?

Many European municipalities develop energy supply concepts based on renewable energies to reduce energy related greenhouse gas emissions and stimulate regional and rural economies. Improvement of security of supply using regional energy sources is an additional motivation for renewable energy investments. An increasing number of municipalities in the rural environment seek to meet all their energy demands with biomass. This article provides a system analysis of "Bioenergy Villages", balancing costs and CO2 reduction of a rural model village in Germany. The results show that a 100 % energy supply based on biomass potentials within the boundaries of the municipality is technically possible but not reasonable with respect to land-use competition and costs of energy supply. The production of transport fuels based on energy crops (rape seed) leads to significant increase of costs and is dependent on a considerable raw material import from outside the municipality. Heat and power demand can be covered with biomass without a noTable increase in competition to other land use patterns and to relatively low costs. Thus utilization of biomass for heat and power production leads to a cost efficient CO2 reduction whereas the transportation fuel production comes along with relatively high reduction costs and depletion of regional biomass and land area potentials.bioenergy village, rural supply concepts, rural energy planning, system analysis, life cycle assessment

A confusion of tongues or the art of aggregating indicators--Reflections on four projective methodologies on sustainability measurement

To achieve consensus on the broad term sustainability abstractness is required. In turn, to take sustainability as an action guiding mandate for implementation it needs to be concrete. The paper seeks to bridge the gap from theory of sustainability to practical application by implementing four different methods, i.e. social cost analysis, ecological footprint analysis, exergy approach and multi criteria decision analysis (MCDA). These methods will be exemplarily applied for sustainability analysis of household heating technologies focusing on wood pellet boilers, wood chip fired district heating stations and natural gas fired condensing boilers. Based on the integrated assessment of exemplary heat supply technologies a critical outlook on the four projective approaches is given.Sustainability measurement Indicators Integration Aggregation Projection

Baden Württemberg Heat Atlas - Preparation of the Guidelines and Their Implementation for Exemplary Regions

Ziel des Vorhabens ist die Erstellung eines Wärmeatlanten für Baden-Württemberg zur Darstellung der räumlichen und zeitlichen Verteilung des Wärmebedarfs auf lokaler Ebene. Zur Visualisierung des räumlichen Wärmebedarfs als auch der Bereitstellungspotenziale unterschiedlicher Energieträger, insbesondere der leitungsgebundenen Energieträger (Fernwärme, Gas), dient ein Geographisches Informationssystem (GIS). In einem ersten Schritt der Forschungsarbeit wird zunächst ein Leitfaden erarbeitet, der die notwendigen Datengrundlagen, die prinzipielle Vorgehensweise bei der Erstellung, die Aufbereitung der Daten in Geographischen Informationssystemen und die Nutzungsmöglichkeiten eines Wärmeatlas darstellt. Neben den Wärmepotenzialen im Siedlungsbereich werden auch die entsprechenden Bedarfswerte der industriellen und kommunalen Objektversorgung erfasst. Zudem werden auch Informationen zum Angebot an Energieträgern, z. B. Biomasse, Geothermie oder Solarthermie, bereitgestellt, so dass auch energieträgerbezogene Potenziale ermittelt werden können. Außerdem wird die Vorgehensweise zur Beurteilung der Wirtschaftlichkeit von konkurrierenden Wärmeerzeugungsanlagen erläutert. Damit wird den Entscheidungsträgern eine Basis für die Beurteilung lokaler Versorgungskonzepte zur Verfügung gestellt. Im zweiten Arbeitsschritt wird auf der Basis des erarbeiteten Leitfadens für Modellregionen in Baden-Württemberg ein Wärmeatlas erstellt. Basierend auf diesen Ergebnissen werden notwendige Parameter für einen Ausbau oder Neubau der Nah-/Fernwärmeversorgung festgelegt und in den GIS-Karten kenntlich gemacht. Dadurch sollen die Voraussetzungen geschaffen werden, Versorgungsgebiete zu identifizieren, für die eine leitungsgebundene Wärmeversorgung, möglichst auf KWK-Basis, sinnvoll erscheint. Die Ergebnisse für die Modellregionen dienen als Grundlage für die näherungsweise Hochskalierung des Wärmebedarfs und der Potenziale auf Baden-Württemberg insgesamt. Auch hier werden GIS-Darstellungen genutzt, um die räumliche Verteilung über die Landesfläche anschaulich präsentieren zu können.The objective of the project is to build up a heat map for Baden-Wuerttemberg to illustrate the spatial and temporal distribution of the heat demand on a local scale. A geographic information system (GIS) is used to visualize the spatial heat demand and also the potential to allocate any heat for different energy carriers, particular of those which are pipeline-bound, as district heat and gas. In the first work package a guidebook will be created, wherein the necessary data bases, the proceeding in principle with the generation, the presentation of the data in geographical information systems, and the possible usage of a heat map will be represented. Besides the heat potential within the settlement area, the appropriate demand values will be seized also for the industrial and the local object supply. Also information about the existing potentials of biomass, geothermal or solar energy will be made available, so that energy carrier related potentials can be determined. The second stage of the project comprises the construction of a heat map for selected exemplary regions of Baden-Württemberg, according to the guidelines set up in the first stage. Based upon these results the parameters necessary for an expansion or installation of district heat supply systems are fixed and marked within the GIS system. This shall enable the identification of areas that might be suitable for a pipeline-based heat supply, ideally with a CHP backbone. The results for the exemplary regions serve as basis for the high scaling of the potentials on Baden-Wuerttemberg altogether. GIS representations are used also here, in order to be able to present the spatial distribution over the landscape

Addressing Goal Conflicts: New Policy Mixes for Commercial Land Use Management

Commercial land use management that focuses on a future-oriented urban and regional development must address multiple goals. Effective policy mixes need to simultaneously (1) improve city-regional and inter-municipal cooperation, (2) reduce land take, and (3) assure the long-term economic development of a region. Using the Northern Black Forest in Germany as a case study, we brought together planning and land use research with public policy analysis. We applied cross-impact balances (CIB) to build and analyze a participatory policy-interaction model. Together with a group of 12 experts, we selected effective individual measures to reach each of the three goals and analyzed their interactions. We then assessed the current policy mix and designed alternative policy mixes. The results demonstrate that current approaches to commercial land use management present internal contradictions and generate only little synergies. Implementing innovative measures on a stand-alone basis runs the risk of not being sufficiently effective. In particular, the current practice of competing for municipal marketing and planning of commercial sites has inhibiting effects. We identified alternative policy mixes that achieve all three goals, avoid trade-offs, and generate significant synergy effects. Our results point towards a more coherent and sustainable city-regional (commercial) land-use governance