Human rights and the clean development mechanism

The 2010 UN climate conference in Cancún emphasized that "Parties should, in all climate change related actions, fully respect human rights". However, so far there is no further guidance. This article discusses the relevant legal human rights norms and two case studies from the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The first case (Bajo Aguán, Honduras) shows that the current absence of any international safeguards can lead to registration of highly problematic projects. The second case (Olkaria, Kenya) suggests that safeguards, introduced here as a side effect of World Bank involvement, can have a positive impact, but that it is necessary to have them based on human rights. It therefore seems recommendable that the UN climate regime develop mandatory human rights safeguards. In addition or alternatively, individual buyer countries or groups of countries, such as the European Union, could introduce their own additional requirements for CDM projects

GLOMO - Global Mobility Model: Beschreibung und Ergebnisse

The development of both, emerging markets as well as the already establish markets (USA, Japan, Europe), is highly relevant for future success of the export-oriented German automotive industry. This paper describes the so called Global Mobility Model (GLOMO) based on the system dynamics approach, which simulates the future development of car sales by segment and drive technology. The modularized model contains population, income and GDP development in order to describe the framework in the most important markets (USA, Japan, EU, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa). According to the changes in framework conditions within these countries, worldwide car sales will nearly double up to 2030 (120 Mio. cars a year), with the most dynamic development in the Chinese market. The simulation results also show that - depending on the chosen scenario - a 40 %- share of alternative drive technologies within the worldwide car sales in 2030 seems to be possible

Climate Change and Transport

The transport sector is currently the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, which is the main anthropogenic greenhouse gas (IPCC, 2013). On the global perspective, transport emissions are increasing fast and they might soon catch up with those from the electricity and heat provision sector (IEA, 2015). In 2010 transport generated about 7.0 gigatonnes of direct greenhouse gas emissions. Mainly driven by fast development of emerging economies, transport might double its emissions by 2050 (IEA, 2015). Decarbonising transport is seen as more challenging compared to other sectors (cf. Creutzig et al., 2015). The fifth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) indicates that the increase in global average surface temperature is very likely due to the observed raise in anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and the target to keep global warming below 2L requires severe efforts by the society (IPCC, 2015). In contradiction, transport has not been in the focus of the political agenda (Creutzig et al., 2015) – mainly because policy makers believe that the economy is strongly dependent on cheap mobility and they fear to annoy their voters. The scientific community should strengthen their proclamation that current societies are still focusing on inefficient and oil dependent mobility technologies. Non-motorised modes, public transport, and electric vehicles might provide competitive and efficient abatement options with further social benefits in the future (Creutzig, 2015; Jochem et al., 2015). Otherwise, the ongoing increase in greenhouse gas emissions from transport will highly probably continue for the next decades, due to the rising global vehicle fleet and increasing volumes in freight transport and aviation

Mid-infrared laser sensors for mapping environment and combustions

[no abstract available

Regional – immer öfter erste Wahl? Argumente für die Verknüpfung von „Regionalität“ und „Bio“ aus Marketingsicht

Im Beitrag soll gezeigt werden, welche Argumente es dafür gibt, Regionalität im Ökologischen Landbau und in der Vermarktung seiner Produkte stärker zu akzentuieren

Human rights and the clean development mechanism

The 2010 UN climate conference in Cancún emphasized that "Parties should, in all climate change related actions, fully respect human rights". However, so far there is no further guidance. This article discusses the relevant legal human rights norms and two case studies from the Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). The first case (Bajo Aguán, Honduras) shows that the current absence of any international safeguards can lead to registration of highly problematic projects. The second case (Olkaria, Kenya) suggests that safeguards, introduced here as a side effect of World Bank involvement, can have a positive impact, but that it is necessary to have them based on human rights. It therefore seems recommendable that the UN climate regime develop mandatory human rights safeguards. In addition or alternatively, individual buyer countries or groups of countries, such as the European Union, could introduce their own additional requirements for CDM projects

Mapping innovation in the European transport sector : An assessment of R&D efforts and priorities, institutional capacities, drivers and barriers to innovation

The present document provides an overview of the innovation capacity of the European transport sectors. The analysis addresses transport-related innovation from three different angles. It identifies the drivers and barriers to innovation for the main transport sub-sectors; it assesses quantitative indicators through the detailed analysis of the main industrial R&D investors and public R&D priorities in transport; and it identifies the key actors for transport research and knowledge flows between them in order to detect shortcomings in the current institutional set-up of transport innovation. The analysis finds that despite the significant on-going research efforts in transport, largely driven by the automotive industry, the potential for systemic innovations that go beyond modal boundaries and leave the currently pre-dominant design are under-exploited due to prominent lock-in effects caused by infrastructure and the institutional set-up of the innovation systemsJRC.J.1-Economics of Climate Change, Energy and Transpor

Femtosecond laser-induced surface modification of the electrolyte in solid oxide electrolysis cells

Electrolyte-supported solid oxide cells are often used for steam electrolysis. Advantages are high mechanical stability and a low degradation rate. The aim of this proof of concept study was to use a femtosecond laser to process the electrolyte of an electrolyte-supported solid oxide cell and evaluate the effect of this laser treatment on the electrochemical performance. The femtosecond laser treatment induces a macroscopic and a superimposed microscopic structure. It can be proven that the electrolyte remains gas tight and the electrochemical performance increases independently of the laser parameters. The initial area-specific resistance degradation during a constant current measurement of 200 h was reduced from 7.9% for a non-treated reference cell to 3.2% for one of the laser-treated cells. Based on electrochemical impedance measurements, it was found that the high frequency resistance of the laser-treated cells was reduced by up to 20% with respect to the reference cell. The impedance spectra were evaluated by calculating the distribution of relaxation times, and in advance, a novel approach was used to approximate the gas concentration resistance, which was related to the test setup and not to the cell. It was found that the low frequency polarization resistance was increased for the laser-treated cells. In total, the area-specific resistance of the laser-treated cells was reduced by up to 14%

Supported gold- and silver-based catalysts for the selective aerobic oxidation of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural to 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid and 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxylic acid

The sustainable synthesis of two important intermediates relevant for the production of bio-based polymers, 2,5-furandicarboxylic acid (FDCA) and 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furancarboxylic acid (HFCA), via oxidation of 5-(hydroxymethyl)furfural (HMF) was investigated using supported gold- and silver-based catalysts in water with air as the oxidant. High yields and selectivities for the production of FDCA (89%) and HFCA (≥98%) were achieved under the optimized reaction conditions with Au/ZrO2 and Ag/ZrO2 catalysts, respectively. While FDCA was mainly formed in the presence of gold catalysts at a maximum productivity of 67 molFDCA h−1 molAu−1, silver catalysts showed a remarkably high activity in aldehyde oxidation producing HFCA in almost quantitative yields with a maximum productivity of 400 molHFCA h−1 molAg−1. By variation of the reaction parameters, the Au/ZrO2 catalyst could be tuned to produce also HFCA, whereas the Ag/ZrO2 catalyst exclusively produced HFCA in a wide range of reaction parameters. The observed differences in catalyst selectivities can be taken as a starting point for further mechanistic investigation on the oxidation of HMF, contributing to a fundamental understanding of this reaction which is particularly important for establishing the production of bio-based polymers