ALBERT

Description: Effective policies to mitigate climate change need to be accompanied by a socially just transition. Based on experiences of past and ongoing transition policies in coal regions in Europe and with indications to the specificity of framework conditions and challenges and to the potential effectiveness and transferability of approaches, this paper presents lessons learnt which can be inspirational for similar transitions in other coal regions and for transitions in other sectors.

Description: This case study examined the structural change in the Ruhr area caused by the low international competitiveness of German hard coal mining over the period from the late 1950s to 2015. It analysed the structural change process and the structural policies implemented as a reaction to this process with the objective to make this knowledge available for future structural change processes in other (coal) regions by deploying various qualitative and quantitative methods of empirical social and economic research. A discourse analysis helped to recognise who supported which structural policy approaches and why - and thus gives indications of the possible relevance of experiences for other regions.

Description: This case study examined the structural change in Lusatia caused by the system change from a centrally planned economy to a market economy in the period 1990-2015. It analysed the structural change process and the structural policies implemented as a reaction to this process with the objective to make this knowledge available for future structural change processes in other (coal) regions by deploying various qualitative and quantitative methods of empirical social and economic research. A discourse analysis helped to recognise who supported which structural policy approaches and why - and thus gives indications of the possible relevance of experiences for other regions.

Description: The COVID-19 pandemic has affected human mobility via lockdowns, social distancing rules, home quarantines, and the full or partial suspension of transportation. Evidence-based policy recommendations are urgently needed to ensure that transport systems have resilience to future pandemic outbreaks, particularly within Global South megacities where demand for public transport is high and reduced access can exacerbate socio-economic inequalities. This study focuses on Metro Manila - a characteristic megacity that experienced one of the most stringent lockdowns worldwide. It analyzes aggregated cell phone and GPS data from Google and Apple that provide a comprehensive representation of mobility behavior before and during the lockdown. While significant decreases are observed for all transport modes, public transport experienced the largest drop (-74.5 %, on average). The study demonstrates that: (i) those most reliant on public transport were disproportionately affected by lockdowns; (ii) public transport was unable to fulfil its role as public service; and, (iii) this drove a paradigm shift towards active mobility. Moving forwards, in the short-term policymakers must promote active mobility and prioritize public transport to reduce unequal access to transport. Longer-term, policymakers must leverage the increased active transport to encourage modal shift via infrastructure investment, and better utilize big data to support decision-making.

Description: Dominant agricultural and food systems lead to continuous resource depletion and unacceptable environmental and social impacts. While current calls for changing agrifood systems are increasingly framed in the context of sustainability transitions, they rarely make an explicit link to transition studies to address these systemic challenges, nor do transition scholars sufficiently address agri-food systems, despite their global pertinence. From this viewpoint, we illustrate several gaps in the agri-food systems debate that sustainability transition studies could engage in. We propose four avenues for research in the next decade of transition research on agri-food systems: 1) Crossscale dynamics between coupled systems; 2) Social justice, equity and inclusion; 3) Sustainability transitions in low- and middle-income countries; 4) Cross-sectoral governance and system integration. We call for a decade of new transition research that moves beyond single-scale and sector perspectives toward more inclusive and integrated analyses of food system dynamics.

Description: Technological breakthroughs and policy measures targeting energy efficiency and clean energy alone will not suffice to deliver Paris Agreement-compliant greenhouse gas emissions trajectories in the next decades. Strong cases have recently been made for acknowledging the decarbonisation potential lying in transforming linear economic models into closed-loop industrial ecosystems and in shifting lifestyle patterns towards this direction. This perspective highlights the research capacity needed to inform on the role and potential of the circular economy for climate change mitigation and to enhance the scientific capabilities to quantitatively explore their synergies and trade-offs. This begins with establishing conceptual and methodological bridges amongst the relevant and currently fragmented research communities, thereby allowing an interdisciplinary integration and assessment of circularity, decarbonisation, and sustainable development. Following similar calls for science in support of climate action, a transdisciplinary scientific agenda is needed to co-create the goals and scientific processes underpinning the transition pathways towards a circular, net-zero economy with representatives from policy, industry, and civil society. Here, it is argued that such integration of disciplines, methods, and communities can then lead to new and/or structurally enhanced quantitative systems models that better represent critical industrial value chains, consumption patterns, and mitigation technologies. This will be a crucial advancement towards assessing the material implications of, and the contribution of enhanced circularity performance to, mitigation pathways that are compatible with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement and the transition to a circular economy.

Description: The number of input-output assessments focused on energy has grown considerably in the last years. Many of these assessments combine data from multi-regional input-output (MRIO) databases with energy extensions that completely or partially depict the different stages through which energy products are supplied or used in the economy. The improper use of some energy extensions can lead to double accounting of some energy flows, but the frequency with which this happens and the potential impact on the results are unknown. Based on a literature review, we estimate that around a quarter of the MRIO-based energy assessments reviewed incurred into double accounting. Using the EXIOBASE MRIO database, we also analyse the effects of double accounting in the absolute values and rankings of different countries' and products' energy footprints. Building on the insights provided by our analysis, we offer a set of key recommendations to MRIO users to avoid the double accounting problem in the future. Likewise, we conclude that the harmonisation of the energy data across MRIO databases led by experts could simplify the choices of the data users until the provision of official energy extensions by statistical offices becomes a widespread practice.

Description: Quantitative environmental assessments are crucial in working effectively towards sustainable production and consumption patterns. Over the last decades, life cycle assessments (LCA) have been established as a viable means of measuring the environmental impacts of products along the supply chain. In regard to user and consumption patterns, however, methodological weaknesses have been reported and, several attempts have been made to improve LCA accordingly, for example, by including higher order effects and behavioural science support. In a discussion of such approaches, we show that there has been no explicit attention to the concepts of consumption, often leading to product-centred assessments. We introduce social practice theories in order to make consumption patterns accessible to LCA. Social practices are routinised actions comprising interconnected elements (materials, competences, and meanings), which make them conceivable as one entity (e.g. cooking). Because most social practices include some sort of consumption (materials, energy, air), we were able to develop a framework which links social practices to the life cycle inventory of LCA. The proposed framework provides a new perspective of quantitative environmental assessments by switching the focus from products or users to social practices. Accordingly, we see the opportunity in overcoming the reductionist view that people are just users of products, and instead we see them as practitioners in social practises. This change could enable new methods of interdisciplinary research on consumption, integrating intend-oriented social sciences and impact-oriented assessments. However, the framework requires further revision and, especially, empirical validation.

Description: The paper provides an integrated assessment of environmental and socio-economic effects arising from final consumption of food products by European households. Direct and indirect effects accumulated along the global supply chain are assessed by applying environmentally extended input-output analysis (EE-IOA). EXIOBASE 3.4 database is used as a source of detailed information on environmental pressures and world input-output transactions of intermediate and final goods and services. An original methodology to produce detailed allocation matrices to link IO data with household expenditure data is presented and applied. The results show a relative decoupling between environmental pressures and consumption over time and shows that European food consumption generates relatively less environmental pressures outside Europe (due to imports) than average European consumption. A methodological framework is defined to analyze the main driving forces by means of a structural decomposition analysis (SDA). The results of the SDA highlight that while technological developments and changes in the mix of consumed food products result in reductions in environmental pressures, this is offset by growth in consumption. The results highlight the importance of directing specific research and policy efforts towards food consumption to support the transition to a more sustainable food system in line with the objectives of the EU Farm to Fork Strategy.

Description: This study presents in detail: the use of plastic products and the opportunities for recyclate use in the construction sector, quantities of plastic used, take-back systems, recycling techniques, current recyclate use and plastic construction product packaging.Potentials for increasing high-quality recyclate use were identified. Existing hurdles and options for action for industry and politics are presented. Current recyclate use as well as its potential use are strongly dependent on the application area of plastics. The biggest hurdles for the use of recycled materials are product life time, dismantling and technical requirements.

Description: Industrial demand response can play an important part in balancing the intermittent production from a growing share of renewable energies in electricity markets. This paper analyses the role of aggregators - intermediaries between participants and power markets - in facilitating industrial demand response. Based on the results from semi-structured interviews with German demand response aggregators, as well as a wider stakeholder online survey, we examine the role of aggregators in overcoming barriers to industrial demand response. We find that a central role for aggregators is to raise awareness for the potentials of demand response, as well as to support implementation by engaging key actors in industrial companies. Moreover, we develop a taxonomy that helps analyse how the different functional roles of aggregators create economic value. We find that there is considerable heterogeneity in the kind of services that aggregators offer, many of which do create significant economic value. However, some of the functional roles that aggregators currently fill may become obsolete once market barriers to demand response are reduced or knowledge on demand response becomes more diffused.

Description: CICERONE aims to bring national, regional and local governments together to jointly tackle the circular economy transition needed to reach net-zero carbon emissions and meet the targets set in the Paris Agreement and EU Green Deal. This document represents one of the key outcomes of the project: a Strategic Research & Innovation Agenda (SRIA) for Europe, to support owners and funders of circular economy programmes in aligning priorities and approaching the circular economy transition in a systemic way.

Description: Cities around the globe are implementing innovative transport solutions as part of measures to address pertinent socio-economic and environmental challenges in urban areas and help drive the transition to low carbon development. Planning and implementing such solutions require an effective and collective approach that includes the needs and aspirations of all relevant stakeholders. In the planning and implementation of urban transport projects, capacity building components have assumed great significance but seem to be the most eluded activity for project implementers. The Living Lab concept, which allows for co-creation in innovation development, presents the opportunity to adopt innovative participatory approach in capacity building activities in transport projects; and is largely seen as a potential catalyst for rapid transformation to low carbon and sustainability transitions in cities. To this end, this paper highlights the usefulness of the Living Lab approach and provides some perspectives on how key elements of the approach are adapted in the process of assessing the capacity needs of nine (9) cities in planning and implementing e-mobility innovations. The cities are participating in an innovation research project. In the case studied, the project’s capacity needs assessment process was analyzed using an assessment framework built on four (4) key elements of the Living Lab approach, namely: extent of real-life contextualization, level of participation, diversity of stakeholders, and the time span of engagement. Insights from the assessment suggest that relevant project partners and city representatives with diverse expertise were actively involved from the onset and throughout the first 5 months of the project in defining and refining the capacity needs of partner cities based on local e-mobility conditions. This co-creative process helped determine priority areas where the need for capacity building mostly lied. Designing and operationalizing capacity building interventions tailored to the identified needs, as realized in the project, could therefore help build the necessary capacity and complement other measures aimed at developing e-mobility in the project’s partner cities.

Description: The idea for the Green Recovery Tracker was born in spring 2020 when governments started making announcements on economic Corona recovery measures. From a climate and resilience perspective it is key that those recovery packages, investments and subsidies are in line with long-term climate and sustainability targets. Thus, recovery packages should not only boost the economy in the short-term, but also strike the path to a just transition towards climate neutrality. Against this background, Wuppertal Institute and E3G have launched the Green Recovery Tracker project in late summer 2020 to shed light on the following questions: What can be considered an effective green recovery? What are good examples, which can be used as an inspiration for recovery programs aiming to support sustainable development? Where do the individual Member States stand with respect to aligning their recovery activities with the climate policy agenda? In this report, you will find our Methodology as well our Policy Briefing highlighting our key takeaways of our country and sectoral analyses. It further includes a section on "What can we learn from our experience with the Green Recovery Tracker?". The briefing concludes with a "Guidance for future funding programs and achieving climate targets overall".

Description: By use of macro-economic model EXIOMOD, the expected impacts of actions described in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda (SRIA) have been analyzed. The results of this analysis show that the R&I actions described in the SRIA contribute to decoupling economic growth from resource use. The actions are expected to cause an increasing gross domestic product and a decreasing raw material demand. This results in an increasing extracted resource productivity, a measure used to show the decoupling of economic growth and resource use. It can however be questioned whether the actions in the SRIA - or the measures implemented in the model - assume a strong enough pace for decoupling economic growth and material use. The actions contribute to the climate goals of the European Commission, by showing a pathway through which the emissions of greenhouse gas can be reduced.

Description: Any energy efficiency impact evaluation can be done from different analytical perspectives, e.g. the investor/end-user perspective, program administrator perspective or the societal perspective. COMBI applies the "societal perspective", as this is most relevant for policy-making. COMBI draws on a reference scenario until the year 2030 including existing (partially already ambitious) policies. By modelling 21 sets of "energy efficiency improvement" (EEI) actions, a second efficiency scenario was modelled amounting to additional energy savings of around 8% p.a. in 2030, that is comparable to the EUCO+33 to EUCO+35 scenario. This D2.7 quantification report summarises the quantification approaches applied in the COMBI project and main project findings. It therefore draws on other COMBI reports that contain this information in greater detail in order to summarise quantifications. The report is structured in three main sections: 1. The COMBI approach and methods, explaining key methodological approaches both for individual impact quantifications and for the aggregation of impacts 2. Quantification results, giving an overview on main figures of quantified indicators and 3. Insights from cross-impact analysis, which gives a comparison between monetised impacts and presents their use for Cost-Benefit calculations in the COMBI online tool.

Description: Organic waste to energy (OWtE) technologies have been developed and implemented in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) countries. However, they are still far away to significantly contribute not only to treat the ever-increasing waste volumes in the region but also to supply the regional energy demand and meet national carbon emission goals. The technical complexity of these technologies aligned with lack of research, high investment costs and political deficiencies have not allowed for an appropriate implementation of OWtE in the region, where the applicability of large-scale plants remains to be demonstrated. This research presents the state-of-the art of OWtE technologies in the context of the LAC countries based on archival research method. In addition, it presents challenges and opportunities that the region is facing for an adequate implementation of these technologies. The main findings show that OWtE have the potential to improve waste and energy systems in the region by reducing environmental impacts along with a series of social and economic benefits, such as increasing access to a sustainable energy supply. Diverse researches indicate principally anaerobic digestion, fermentation (e.g. 2G bioethanol, etc.), microbial fuel cells, gasification and pyrolysis as efficient technologies to treat solid organic wastes and produce bioenergy.

Description: The study sheds light on the background of the prevention of plastic waste from packaging and disposable products by explaining the need for action, the environmental impacts and risks to human health. Experiences of the members of the PREVENT Waste Alliance and their partners in the prevention of plastic waste by multi-actor partnerships are presented by means of 17 best practice examples. Finally, the study gives recommendations for the reduction of plastic waste and the further work of the PREVENT Waste Alliance. These include success factors for waste prevention, necessary next steps and conclusions regarding the necessary political framework conditions.

Description: Wolfgang Sachs wrote a seminal series of essays for the New Internationalist in 1992 called "Development: a guide to the ruins". The concept of development lives on - and takes on new shapes as it is reframed by the UN, reinterpreted by the Vatican or hijacked by authoritarian populists to serve their own nationalist agenda. But, he argues now, we need to move beyond its misguided assumptions into a new post-development era based on eco-solidarity.

Description: Much of the current literature on climate clubs sees mitigation costs creating free rider incentives as the main problem of climate policy. Climate clubs are supposed to solve this problem by creating additional incentives for mitigation. Looking more in detail, one sees that the situation differs from sector to sector. Some industry sectors indeed have substantial cost and competitiveness issues. In others such as electricity and transport, there are costs at micro level but balance for economy and society as a whole is rather positive. International climate policy in general and clubs in particular should therefore be tailored to sectoral specifics.

Description: The COMBI project aimed at quantifying the multiple non-energy benefits of energy efficiency in the EU-28 area and incorporate those multiple impacts into decision-support frameworks for policy-making. Therefore, all multiple impacts of energy efficiency are analysed from an overall societal view in the project. The COMBI policy recommendations resulting from the evaluation outcomes are presented in this report. COMBI draws on a reference scenario until the year 2030 including existing policies. By modelling 21 sets of "energy efficiency improvement" (EEI) actions, a second efficiency scenario was modelled amounting to additional energy savings of around 8% p.a. in 2030, and that is comparable to the EUCO+33 to EUCO+35 scenario. All figures quantified by COMBI relate to additional values, i.e. additional impacts resulting from additional EEI actions beyond the reference scenario as a consequence of additional policies. The project quantified in total 31 individual impact indicators with appropriate state-of-the-art models.

Description: On September 17, 2019, EU Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager allowed the electricity company Eon to take over and break up RWE subsidiary Innogy under lenientconditions. But there are numerous experts who have a different opinion and argue that the EU Commission approval is a "decision of enormous importance" that will "fundamentally change the entire sector". The result of this decision is that this mega-deal creates two monolithic giants in the German energy sector with unprecedented market power. If one compares the situation with the purchase of the electricity supplier Nuon by Vattenfall in 2009, questions arise. Back then, the competition authorities forced Vattenfall to divest parts of Nuon's business in individual cities, which resulted in the supplier "lekker energie". Following this example, the competition authorities should have consistently forced Eon to sell parts of the business, such as larger distribution companies. A transaction of this magnitude should always be viewed critically in competition law. The legitimate question therefore arises as to why the German and European competition authorities (the Federal Cartel Office, the Federal Network Agency, the Monopolies Commission and the European Competition Commission) faced this deal with barely audible criticism and why they did not react with far-reaching prohibition requirements. "Competition doubts are certainly justified". Because if the two largest German energy groups completely eliminate each other's competition and completely divide up their business areas among themselves, this will have far-reaching consequences for the energy sector. Especially against the background that the energy transition in Germany has so far been characterised by decentralised structures and civic participation (especially in the case of electricity generation from renewable energies). In this paper, the authors will demonstrate what this Eon/RWE deal means for competition and the energy transition.

Description: The Wuppertal Institute conducted an impact analysis of the NRW Sustainability Bond #4 of 2018 on behalf of the State Government of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The most recent bond has a volume of EUR 2.025bn, a term of 10 years and consists of 52 eligible projects from the State's 2017 general budget (sustainable value-added was confirmed in a second party opinion by oekom research1). This report analyses the contribution of the bond to climate mitigation, sustainable land use and social impacts. It also includes information on the impacts of the previous three bonds (NRW Sustainability Bond #1 to #3).

Description: This theory note develops a theoretical approach which integrates the negative spillovers that international institutions often impose on each other into our thinking about their normative legitimacy. Our approach draws on the political philosophy of Rainer Forst which revolves around the right to justification. It suggests that regime complexes facilitate the breakup of institution-specific orders of justification by prompting invested actors to justify negative spillovers vis-a-vis each other. Thus, regime complexes enable more encompassing justifications of negative spillovers than stand-alone international institutions. Against this backdrop, we submit that the proliferation of regime complexes represents normative progress in global governance.

Description: Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement explicitly acknowledges the need to incentivize and facilitate the participation of private entities in the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions. Under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), private sector actors had already the opportunity to participate in a new and fast-growing market. However, they faced numerous challenging investment barriers. The study provides an overview on key factors and barriers determining private sector participation in Article 6 mechanisms. It distinguishes between the three topics demand side factors, rules and standards for market mechanisms, and supply side factors and provides for each of them options to mitigate or overcome barriers. In a short analysis, it further explores three of the identified options: - Improving the design and support of national systems and capacities is an important pre-requisite for the private sector to be able to generate and sell ITMOs - The up-scaling of mitigation activities e. g. through (sub-) sector level crediting, and policy crediting helps private sector actors to benefit from economies of scale - Exploring the potential of digitization of measuring, reporting and verification (MRV), e. g. the use of sensors, internet of things, artificial intelligence and blockchain to make the project cycle more efficient and reduce transaction costs. Overall, the report stresses the importance of host country readiness to provide the private sector with a robust and trusted environment that allows for the adoption of Article 6 mechanisms.

Description: This paper analyses and compares industry sector transformation strategies as envisioned in recent German, European and global deep decarbonisation scenarios. The first part of the paper identifies and categorises ten key strategies for deep emission reductions in the industry sector. These ten key strategies are energy efficiency, direct electrification, use of climateneutral hydrogen and/or synthetic fuels, use of biomass, use of CCS, use of CCU, increases in material efficiency, circular economy, material substitution and end-use demand reductions. The second part of the paper presents a meta-analysis of selected scenarios, focusing on the question of which scenario relies to what extent on the respective mitigation strategies. The key findings of the meta-analysis are discussed, with an emphasis on identifying those strategies that are commonly pursued in all or the vast majority of the scenarios and those strategies that are only pursued in a limited number of the scenarios. Possible reasons for differences in the choice of strategies are investigated. The paper concludes by deriving key insights from the analysis, including identifying the main uncertainties that are still apparent with regard to the future steps necessary to achieve deep emission reductions in the industry sector and how future research can address these uncertainties.

Description: This SUITS policy brief aims to highlight how the transformational process of the nine local authorities involved in SUITS into learning organizations made these cities far better prepared to cope with the challenges due to the pandemic than they would otherwise have been. Due to the higher levels of organizational resilience and the awareness of individuals' importance during such external crises, the nine local authorities were not just trying to react to the unforeseen challenges, but were able to act with a clear pathway and to use their experiences to facilitate their learning from recent years. Of course, the pandemic could not have been foreseen, but as SUITS local authorities are becoming learning organizations, they are enhancing their organizational capacity. In so doing, they have been learning a required resilience to reduce the "complexity and confusion - of what to do best" in the beginning of the crisis and to cope with the challenges. This advantage was of enormous relevance for the local authorities.

Description: Despite Germany's Paris Agreement pledge and coal exit legislation, the political debate around carbon-intensive coal remains heated. Coal power and mining have played an important, yet changing role in the history of German politics. In this paper, we analyze the entire parliamentary debate on coal in the German parliament (Bundestag) from its inception in 1949 to 2019. For this purpose we extract the more than 870,000 parliamentary speeches from all protocols in the history of the Bundestag. We identify the 9167 speeches mentioning coal and apply dynamic topic modeling – an unsupervised machine learning technique that reveals the changing thematic structure of large document collections over time - to analyze changes in parliamentary debates on coal over the past 70 years. The trends in topics and their varying internal structure reflect how energy policy was discussed and legitimized over time: Initially, coal was framed as a driver of economic prosperity and guarantee of energy security. In recent years, the debate evolved towards energy transition, coal phase-out and renewable energy expansion. Germany’s smaller and younger parties, the Greens and the Left Party, debate coal more often in the context of the energy transition and climate protection than other parties. Our results reflect trends in other countries and other fields of energy policy. Methodologically, our study illustrates the potential of and need for computational methods to analyze vast corpora of text and to complement traditional social science methods.

Description: The waste prevention program (WPP) from 2013 must be evaluated every 6 years and updated if necessary. The review and evaluation of the implementation of the WPP took place within the scope of the project. Based on the analysis results for the implementation of the WPP at federal, state and municipal level and an assessment of existing prevention potentials, concrete proposals for a possible further development and updating of the program on prioritized waste streams and corresponding priority prevention approaches were developed. In addition, structural adjustment and change needs of the WPP were worked out and further research was shown.

Description: In this project commissioned by the German Environment Agency, important aspects of the mechanism under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement were examined in more detail. This mechanism is to succeed the CDM under the Kyoto Protocol from 2021 onwards, but it will contain decisive improvements, especially with regard to a robust accounting of emission reductions and better integration into the national climate policy of the host country. The report is addressed to the international experts, in particular to the delegates to the climate conference and observers, and is therefore written in English. A German summary is included. The following topics are covered: How does the mechanism achieve an overall reduction of global emissions? Are there opportunities to use benchmarks to establish baselines? Can contributions to increasing ambition be made by using Art. 6.4? What contribution can the voluntary market make to increasing ambition in the future? Introduction of incentives for the participation of private companies under Art. 6.4 of the PA. The role of the Art. 6.4 mechanism on the way to a net zero emission world. The project provides a contribution to the general discussion in the EU as well as to the Article 6 - Negotiations under the UNFCCC. It is a contribution that presents backgrounds and interrelationships for individual questions concerning the design of the new market mechanisms under Article 6 and can thus contribute to a more informed decision-making process.Since there are, however, several different ways of designing a mechanism that can avoid double counting and provide incentives for increasing ambition, this project is only one of several current contributions to the international discussion.

Description: Germany's eco-innovation performance has declined compared to previous reports and scores 123 against 100 of the EU average. It is still quite high with respect to the input side of eco-innovation and relatively good, i.e. above EU average concerning socio-economic and eco- innovative outputs. However, the revised eco-innovation index shows weaknesses in eco-innovation activities and environmental outcomes. All in all, Germany ranks 6 this year.

Description: Digitalisation is disrupting business practices worldwide and transforming consumption patterns. While a global increase in wealth is leading to higher consumption rates, consumption-related decisions are increasingly based on digital information and marketing; furthermore, shopping increasingly takes place online and products and services are more and more digitalised. The transformative character of digitalisation calls for political action in order to ensure sustainable consumption in a new and dynamically changing context. Focusing on consumption is imperative in combatting many global challenges. Take climate change: consumption-based emissions (i.e. emissions from domestic final consumption and emissions caused by the production of imported goods) are rising more rapidly than production-based emissions in high-income countries. Meanwhile most political measures target production-based emissions (i.e. territorial emissions). The German council for sustainable development (Rat für Nachhaltige Entwicklung) has called for the §principle of sustainable development [to] serve as the political framework for digital transformation" as "digitalisation has the potential to engender disruptive developments in the business world as well as society as a whole that carry both great opportunities and significant risks". Thus, to implement the 2030 Agenda, in particular SDG 12, and the National Program Sustainable Consumption, it is key to seize the opportunities that digitalisation presents for sustainable consumption and tackle the challenges. This assessment report thus examines the following key question: "What are the implications of the digital transformation of consumption patterns for the implementation of the German sustainability strategy in, by and with Germany?"

Description: The transition from today's "take, make, waste" economic paradigm to a circular economy requires a joint effort from actors on all levels: governments, business, and civil society. While companies are among the drivers of the circular transformation, they find it hard to achieve a circular economy on their own. Hence, cross-industry collaboration is one of the imperatives for scaling a circular economy. Against this background, econsense, together with Accenture and the Wuppertal Institute, launched its study "Germany's Transition to a Circular Economy - How to Unlock the Potential of Cross-Industry Collaboration". Based on a survey and expert interviews within the econsense community, the study finds that companies are yet to unlock the full potential of cross-industry collaboration. While two thirds of analysed industry collaborations have a high potential for scaling the circular economy, only 43 per cent of those already show a high degree of interaction. The study provides concrete guidance for companies to get started with circularity and identify the right partners for cross-industry collaboration. Specifically, the report recommends companies: 1) Understand what circularity is about and map it on their own operations and processes. 2) Understand the different circular business models and identify the ones relevant to each business. 3) Discover areas where collaboration can help to create the needed foundation and to execute circular actions.

Description: Digitalisation is taking place at a fast pace in all European countries and it is transforming the economies, societies, communication, jobs and the necessary skills for the workplace and everyday life. The Covid-19 pandemic is also accelerating digitalisation at many levels. To address the great challenges resulting from this, the European Commission has launched the Green Deal, a long-term transformation strategy towards an innovative and sustainable society. Three important initiatives under the Green Deal are the New Circular Economy Action Plan, the Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and the Zero Pollution Action Plan. The various strategies and action plans draw up a large portfolio of measures, instruments and milestones that are always linked to digital technologies. Ideally, these are eco-innovative and sustainable and contribute to improving living conditions in Europe. The EIO Biennial Report 2020, which looks at a different topic every two years, considers digitalisation a major opportunity to accelerate the transition to a circular Europe. In the current report, the authors provide an overview of eco-innovation trends, illustrated by digital technology and policy practices that can further drive the circular economy.

Description: For achieving a transition towards sustainable development, central importance is attached to science and education, and especially higher education. Suitable formats are needed for empowering students to perform transformative research. On the basis of transdisciplinary and transformative real-world laboratory research and futures studies, we develop encompassing learning and teaching module: the Transformative Innovation Lab (til). The lab builds on insights into five key competencies and three types of knowledge needed for developing socially robust sustainability innovations. In this paper, the main features of this experiential and reflexive format are presented and linked to a handbook for facilitating the lab. Central learnings for implementing the format in existing study programmes from two test runs at two German universities are shared and discussed.

Description: The Wuppertal Institute conducted an impact analysis of the NRW sustainability bond #5 of 2019 on behalf of the State government of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). The most recent bond has a volume of EUR 2.25 bn, a term of 15 years and consists of 52 eligible projects from the State's 2018 general budget (sustainable value-added was confirmed in a second party opinion by ISS-oekom). This report analyses the contribution of the bond to climate mitigation, sustainable land use and social impacts. It also includes information on the impacts of the previous four bonds (NRW sustainability bond #1 to #4).

Description: The new mechanism defined under Article 6.4 of the Paris Agreement is supposed to allow for international cooperation with regard to climate change mitigation and thereby enable an increase in overall mitigation. Nevertheless, the design of the mechanism under Article 6.4 should also make sure that it is not be in conflict with the long-term goal of net-zero GHG emissions but even better foster national pathways leading to this objective. Building this into the mechanism requires to shift the focus from short- and mid-term considerations to the long-term perspective in one way or another. This discussion paper explores three different approaches that may help to foster the long-term objective of net-zero GHG emissions in the operationalization of Article 6.4, namely positive and negative lists, additionality with regard to a baseline consistent with both, NDCs and long-term targets, as well as adaptation of existing instruments and criteria from climate finance. The detailed discussion of the ap-proaches shows that the approaches should not be seen as mutually exclusive but rather as comple-mentary to each other. From the analyses, two storylines emerge how to combine aspects of the differ-ent approaches in a reasonable way to foster the long-term objective of net-zero GHG emissions under Article 6.4.

Description: Technological innovations in energy-intensive industries (EIIs) have traditionally emerged within the boundaries of a specific sector. Now that these industries are facing the challenges of deep decarbonisation and a significant reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is expected to be achieved across sectors, cross-industry collaboration is becoming increasingly relevant for low-carbon innovation. Accessing knowledge and other resources from other industrial sectors as well as co-developing innovative concepts around industrial symbiosis can be mutually beneficial in the search for fossil-free feedstocks and emissions reductions. In order to harness the potential of this type of innovation, it is important to understand not only the technical innovations themselves, but in particular the non-technical influencing factors that can drive the successful implementation of cross-industry collaborative innovation projects. The scientific state of the art does not provide much insight into this particular area of research. Therefore, this paper builds on three separate strands of innovation theory (cross-industry innovation, low-carbon innovation and innovation in EIIs) and takes an explorative case-study approach to identify key influencing factors for cross-industry collaboration for low-carbon innovation in EIIs. For this purpose, a broad empirical database built within the European joint research project REINVENT is analysed. The results from this project provide deep insights into the dynamics of low-carbon innovation projects of selected EIIs. Furthermore, the paper draws on insights from the research project SCI4Climate.NRW. This project serves as the scientific competence centre for IN4Climate.NRW, a unique initiative formed by politicians, industry and science to promote, among other activities, cross-industry collaboration for the implementation of a climate-neutral industry in the German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). Based on the results of the case study analysis, five key influencing factors are identified that drive the implementation of cross-industry collaboration for low-carbon innovation in EIIs: Cross-industry innovation projects benefit from institutionalised cross-industry exchange and professional project management and coordination. Identifying opportunities for regional integration as well as the mitigation of financial risk can also foster collaboration. Lastly, clear political framework conditions across industrial sectors are a key driver.

Description: The reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by energyintensive industries to a net zero level is a very ambitious and complex but still feasible challenge, as recent studies show for the EU level. "Industrial Transformation 2050" by Material Economics (2019) is of particular relevance, as it shows how GHG-neutrality can be achieved in Europe for the sectors chemicals (plastics and ammonia), steel and cement, based on three main decarbonisation strategies. The study determines the resulting total demands for renewable electricity, hydrogen and for the capture and storage of CO2 (CCS). However, it analyses neither the regional demand patterns that are essential for the required infrastructure nor the needed infrastructure itself. Against this background the present paper determines the regional distribution of the resulting additional demands for electricity, hydrogen and CCS in Europe in the case that the two most energy and CCS intensive decarbonisation strategies of the study above will be realised for the existing industry structure. It explores the future infrastructure needs and identifies and qualitatively assesses different infrastructure solutions for the largest industrial cluster in Europe, i.e. the triangle between Antwerp, Rotterdam and Rhine-Ruhr. In addition, the two industrial regions of Southern France and Poland are also roughly examined. The paper shows that the increase in demand resulting from a green transformation of industry will require substantial adaptation and expansion of existing infrastructures. These have not yet been the subject of infrastructure planning. In particular, the strong regional concentration of additional industrial demand in clusters (hot spots) must be taken into account. Due to their distance from the high-yield but remote renewable power generation potentials (sweet spots), these clusters further increase the infrastructural challenges. This is also true for the more dispersed cement production sites in relation to the remote CO2 storage facilities. The existing infrastructure plans should therefore be immediately expanded to include decarbonisation strategies of the industrial sector.

Description: In order to achieve the UNFCCC Paris Agreement goals, climate policies worldwide require considerable ratcheting-up. Policy sequencing provides a framework for analysing policy process dynamics that facilitate ratcheting-up. We apply a sequencing perspective to two key EU climate and energy policies, the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), to comparatively test the empirical relevance of sequencing for single policies - in addition to sequencing across policies, which has been the focus of sequencing theory so far - and to uncover specific mechanisms. Our results confirm that sequencing, based on triggering positive and controlling negative feedback, is relevant both within and across policies. Policy choices that may facilitate ratcheting-up include tools to control costs, the possibility to centralise and harmonise in a multi-level governance context, options for compensation of reluctant actors, and the encouragement of learning processes.

Description: This assessment report identifies six key areas of sustainable consumption. Transforming those areas is associated with a significant, positive impact on sustainable development. In this way, those key areas lay the foundation to set clear priorities and formulate concrete policy measures and recommendations. The report describes recent developments and relevant actors in those six fields, outlines drivers and barriers to reach a shift towards more sustainability in those specific areas, and explores international good-practice examples. On top of this, overarching topics in the scientific discourse concerning sustainable consumption (e.g. collaborative economy, behavioural economics and nudging) are revealed by using innovative text-mining techniques. Subsequently, the report outlines the contributions of these research approaches to transforming the key areas of sustainable consumption. Finally, the report derives policy recommendations to improve the German Sustainable Development Strategy (DNS) in order to achieve a stronger stimulus effect for sustainable consumption.

Description: Last year's conference of the global climate change regime took place from 2 until 15 December 2019 in Madrid, Spain. Despite marking a new record for overtime in the history of the UNFCCC, the conference did not only fail to meet the increasing public demand for swift and strong climate action, it also failed on its formal mandate to finalise the Paris rulebook. A record number of issues were left unresolved and shelved for the next session. COP25 thereby highlighted how much work still lies ahead both domestically and internationally if 2020 is to see a step-up in climate action that is consistent with the long-term goal of the Paris Agreement.

Description: The paper describes quantitative scenarios on a possible evolution of the EU petrochemical industry towards climate neutrality. This industry will be one of the remaining sectors in a climate neutral economy still handling hydrocarbon material to manufacture polymers. Concepts of a climate neutral chemical industry stress the need to consider the potential end-of-life emissions of polymers produced from fossil feedstock and draft the vision of using renewable electricity to produce hydrogen and to use renewable (hydro)carbon feedstock. The latter could be biomass, CO2 from the air or recycled feedstock from plastic waste streams. The cost-optimization model used to develop the scenarios describes at which sites investments of industry in the production stock could take place in the future. Around 50 types of products, the related production processes and the respective sites have been collected in a database. The processes included cover the production chain from platform chemicals via intermediates to polymers. Pipelines allowing for efficient exchange of feedstock and platform chemicals between sites are taken into account as well. The model draws on this data to simulate capacity change at individual plants as well as plant utilization. Thus, a future European production network for petrochemicals with flows between the different sites and steps of the value chain can be sketched. The scenarios described in this paper reveal how an electrification strategy could be implemented by European industry over time with minimized societal costs. Today's existing assets as well as geographical variance of energy supply and the development of demand for different plastic sorts are the major model drivers. Finally, implications for the chemical industry, the energy system and national or regional governments are discussed.

Description: For some time, 3D printing has been a major buzzword of innovation in industrial production. It was considered a game changer concerning the way industrial goods are produced. There were early expectations that it might reduce the material, energy and transport intensity of value chains. However for quite a while, the main real world applications of additive manufacturing (AM) have been some rapid prototyping and the home-based production of toys made from plastics. On this limited basis, any hypotheses regarding likely impacts on industrial energy efficiency appeared to be premature. Notwithstanding the stark contrast between early hype and practical use, the diffusion of AM has evolved to an extent that at least for some applications allows for a preliminary assessment of its likely implications for energy efficiency. Unlike many cross-cutting energy efficiency technologies, energy use of AM may vary substantially depending on industry considered and material used for processing. Moreover, AM may have much greater repercussions on other stages of value chains than conventional cross-cutting energy efficiency technologies. In case of AM with metals the following potential determinants of energy efficiency come to mind: - A reduction of material required per unit of product and used during processing; - Changes in the total number and spatial allocation of certain stages of the value chain; and - End-use energy efficiency of final products. At the same time, these various streams of impact on energy efficiency may be important drivers for the diffusion of AM with metals. This contribution takes stock of AM with metals concerning applications and processes used as well as early evidence on impacts on energy efficiency and combine this into a systematic overview. It builds on relevant literature and a case study on Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing performed within the REINVENT project.

Description: Participatory modeling - the involvement of stakeholders in the modeling process - can support various objectives, such as stimulating learning processes or promoting mutual understanding of stakeholders. Participatory modeling approaches could therefore be useful for the governance of transitions, but a systematic account of potential application areas of participatory modeling methods in transition governance is still lacking. This article addresses this gap by providing a review of participatory modeling methods and linking them to phases and objectives of transition governance. We reviewed participatory modeling studies in transition research and related fields of social-ecological modeling, integrated assessment and environmental management. We find that participatory modeling methods are mostly used for participatory visioning and goal setting as well as for interactive strategy development. The review shows the potential for extending the application of participatory modeling methods to additional phases of transition governance and for the exchange of experiences between research fields.

Description: The energy system of Jordan is facing a rise in energy demand while at the same time having quite limited own conventional energy resources. Especially because of their high import dependency, Jordan is starting to change its energy system and puts a higher focus on renewable energy (like wind and solar) and energy efficiency. In this short paper the authors discuss the transformation of energy companies in Germany and highlight the possibilities of energy efficiency services. Furthermore, they examinate the transferability to Jordan, based on the results of a questionnaire among Jordan energy experts. Due to the low level of research knowledge in the specific field, this is an exploratory research approach. The role, challenges and opportunities of Jordan's state-owned National Electric Power Company NEPCO have been highlighted.

Description: It has been widely recognized that there is an urgent need for more sustainable urban transport policy and planning. To understand ambitious policy approaches, "relatively successful" cities are regularly subject of analyses. This paper also focuses on relatively successful cities - by reviewing the application documents of the winner cities of the European Green Capital Award (EGCA). Award schemes not only aim to reward leading participants, but likewise aim to contribute to knowledge transfer and the dissemination of good practice examples to non-participants. So far award schemes and good practice approaches have received limited attention by research. This paper reviews and analyses the application forms of the EGCA winning cities to learn about ambitious policy approaches to sustainable and climate-friendly urban transport.

Description: Financial institutions play a crucial role in achieving the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. They can manage capital flows for financing the required transformation towards a decarbonized industry. Currently established policy programs and regulations at European and national level increasingly address financial institutions to make their climate warming impact measurable and transparent. However, required science-based assessment methods have not been sufficiently developed so far. This paper discusses methodological opportunities and challenges for measuring carbon footprints of financial institutions. Based on a scientific case study undertaken with the German GLS Bank, the authors introduce an innovative method for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions from a bank's asset with a focus on loans. The authors apply an input/output database to calculate greenhouse gas (GHG) intensities and allocate them with bank's loans and investments. Moreover, the paper provides insights of calculating avoided GHG emissions initiated by a bank's investment and loans. In conclusion, a high degree of consistent and standardized assessment methods and guidelines need to be developed and applied to promote comparability and transparency.

Description: Effective actions to mitigate climate change are urgently needed, especially in the context of cities, which are major sources of global CO2 emissions. Establishing and managing knowledge systems that integrate local knowledge can contribute to establishing more effective responses to climate change as well as transformative change towards sustainability. However, it is still unclear how new forms of urban governance should acquire, store, create, or disseminate knowledge for fostering sustainability transitions effectively. In this study, we present a multilevel knowledge system approach based on design principles informed especially by the knowledge management literature. These address (i) working environments across multiple levels, (ii) knowledge forms and types, and (iii) knowledge processes. We apply this approach to municipal climate action in the German energy transition. In particular, we focus on the operational work of municipal climate action managers of regional centers of Lower Saxony, one of the largest of the 16 federal states, and investigate their involvement in knowledge processes. Based on semi-structured interviews in 14 of the 17 regional centers, we show that structural pre-conditions for successful knowledge management and organizational learning are present. However, we also show that there is a need for improvement regarding (i) the multilevel coordination for accelerating routine operation, (ii) the persistence of local operational knowledge, and (iii) the exploitation of local innovations. Relying on these results, we offer general recommendations for municipal climate action and suggest that policies should (i) rely on local knowledge for effective decision-making, (ii) foster multilevel exchanges of explicit and tacit knowledge for implementation, and (iii) enable open-ended learning processes that leverage local innovations for creating usable transformational knowledge.

Description: The annual Climate Change Conference took place on 2-15 December in Katowice, Poland. It included the twenty-fourth Conference of the Parties (COP-24) to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the fourteenth Meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (MOP-14), the resumed first Meeting of the Parties to the Paris Agreement (MOP-1), and their subsidiary bodies. The conference had two main objectives: operationalizing the Paris Agreement by adopting detailed rules for its implementation and starting the process of strengthening the parties' climate protection contributions.

Description: By applying a phase model for the renewables-based energy transition in the MENA countries to Israel, the study provides a guiding vision to support the strategy development and steering of the energy transition process. The transition towards a renewable-based energy system can reduce import dependencies and increase the energy security in Israel. Key issues that need to be tackled in order to advance the energy transition in Israel are the expansion of flexibility options, discussion on the long-term role of natural gas, increasing participation and awareness, and exploring the future role of power-to-X in the energy system.

Description: In current German debates on sustainable urbanisation and urbanism, new urban actors reviving buildings, brownfields or whole neighbourhoods are discussed as potential drivers of urban transformation towards sustainability as well as potential co-producers for conventional actors in urban development and planning. These actor's projects can be understood as spatially confined niches for experimentation with (built) urban space itself. Building upon the concepts of niche entrepreneurship (Pesch et al., 2017) and the framework of strategic action field theory (Fligstein & McAdam, 2011; 2015), we ask how these actors secure support for their projects and how these projects in turn are altered in this process. Based upon a case study from Wuppertal, Germany, we show that in struggling for support of powerful actors, these actors often have to significantly compromise, and that these compromises can be understood as contextualisation in the project's spatial and institutional environment.

Description: Consumption by private households in various areas of demand - housing, mobility, nutrition, services and products - contributes to around 10 % of total emissions in Germany. Of this, higher-income households are responsible for a disproportionate share. At the same time, many households often lack the knowledge, time, or motivation to deal with their own energy-relevant and climate-impacting behaviours. In this context, energy advice services play an important role for raising awareness, activating consumers and imparting knowledge about available options for action. However, conventional energy advice services are mostly limited to the topics of building and appliance energy efficiency - especially for middle- and high-income households - without considering private consumption behaviour and the related social practices as a whole. In practice, there has been little differentiation to date in addressing target groups in a way that takes into account different lifestyles and realities and the underlying values and motivations in a pluralistic society. The present paper presents a methodological approach to develop targeted energy advice approaches in urban environments that are oriented towards the motivations of different types of households with medium and high incomes. It proposes a three-step approach consisting of 1) a microdata-based population analysis to identify and categorize target subgroups, 2) an inventory of existing advice offers with regard to their coverage and approach and 3) a gap analysis based on the results of the preceding steps. Applied to a large city in Germany, the analysis finds that gaps are rarely found with regard to communicated facts but rather the way in which information is conveyed. Accordingly, recommendations relate to more effectively use windows of opportunity and framing of measures to match target group motivations.

Description: The Paris Agreement combines collective goals with individual countries' contributions. This hybrid approach does not guarantee that the individual contributions add up to what is required to meet the collective goals. The Paris Agreement therefore established the Global Stocktake. Its task is to "assess collective progress" towards achieving the long-term goals of the agreement as of 2023 and every five years thereafter. Corresponding to this role, this report addresses three questions: What should an effective Global Stocktake look like? What information and data are needed? Is it possible to execute an effective Global Stocktake within the mandate of the Paris Agreement?

Description: On the pathway to climate neutrality, EU member states are obliged to submit national energy and climate plans (NECPs) with planned policies and measures for decarbonization until 2030 and long-term strategies (LTSs) for further decarbonization until 2050. We analysed the 27 NECPs and 15 LTSs submitted by October 2020 using an interrater method. This paper focuses on energy sufficiency policies and measures in the transport sector. We found a total of 236 sufficiency policy measures with more than half of them (53 %) in the transport/mobility sector. Additionally, we found 41 measures that address two or more sectors (cross-sectoral measures). From the explicit sufficiency measures within the transport sector, 82 % aim at modal shift. A reduction of transport volumes is much less addressed. Countries plan to use mainly fiscal and economic instruments. Those are in many cases investments in infrastructure of low-carbon transport modes and taxation instruments. Plans on decarbonisation measures are also frequently mentioned. The majority of cross-sectoral measures are carbon taxes or tax reforms, also economic instruments. On the one hand it is encouraging that Member States strongly emphasize the transport sector in their NECPs and LTSs - at least quantitatively and concerning sufficiency measures - because this sector has been the worst-performing in climate mitigation so far. On the other hand, the measures described seem not sufficient to reach ambitious climate targets, and we doubt that the presented set of policy instruments will get the transport sector on track to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in the necessary extent.

Description: A clear understanding of socio-technical interdependencies and a structured vision are prerequisites for fostering and steering a transition to a fully renewables-based energy system. To facilitate such understanding, a phase model for the renewable energy transition in MENA countries has been developed and applied to the country case of Algeria. It is designed to support the strategy development and governance of the energy transition and to serve as a guide for decision makers. The analysis shows that Algeria has already taken first steps towards a renewable energy transition. According to the MENA phase model, Algeria can be classified as entering the "Take-Off Renewables" phase. Nevertheless, fossil fuels still play a dominant role in the Algerian energy sector and in the economy as a whole. To support the renewables take-off, strong support is therefore needed at all levels. Only then can the necessary framework conditions be created to encourage participation and to attract investment from the private sector. To this end, a long-term energy strategy should to be developed that takes into account the renewable energy potential to support an efficient transformation of the Algerian energy supply and enables a smooth transition.

Description: The unprecedented challenge of reaching carbon neutrality before mid-century and a large share of it within 2030 in order to keep under the 1.5 or 2 °C carbon budgets, requires broad and deep changes in production and consumption patterns which, together with a shift to renewables and reinforced efficiency, need to be addressed through energy sufficiency. However, inadequate representations and obstacles to characterising and identifying sufficiency potentials often lead to an underrepresentation of sufficiency in models, scenarios and policies. One way to tackle this issue is to work on the development of sufficiency assumptions at a concrete level where various implications such as social consequences, environmental co-benefits, conditions for implementation can be discussed. This approach has been developed as the backbone of a collaborative project, gathering partners in 20 European countries at present, aiming for the integration of harmonised national scenarios into an ambitious net-zero European vision. The approach combines a qualitative discussion on the role of energy sufficiency in a "systemic" merit order for global sustainability, and a quantitative discussion of the level of sufficiency to be set to contribute to meeting 100 % renewables supply and net-zero emissions goals by 2050 at the latest. The latter is based on the use of a dashboard, which serves as a common descriptive framework for all national scenario trajectories and their comparison, with a view to harmonising and strengthening them through an iterative process. A set of key sufficiency-related indicators have been selected to be included in the dashboard, while various interrelated infrastructural, economic, environmental, social or legal factors or drivers have been identified and mapped. This paves the way for strengthening assumptions through the elaboration of "sufficiency corridors" defining a convergent, acceptable and sustainable level of energy services in Europe. The process will eventually inform the potential for sufficiency policies through a better identification of leverages, impacts and co-benefits.

Description: The basic materials industries are a cornerstone of Europe's economic prosperity, increasing gross value added and providing around 2 million high-quality jobs. But they are also a major source of greenhouse gas emissions. Despite efficiency improvements, emissions from these industries were mostly constant for several years prior to the Covid-19 crisis and today account for 20 per cent of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions. A central question is therefore: How can the basic material industries in the EU become climate-neutral by 2050 while maintaining a strong position in a highly competitive global market? And how can these industries help the EU reach the higher 2030 climate target - a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of at least 55 per cent relative to 1990 levels? In the EU policy debate on the European Green Deal, many suppose that the basic materials industries can do little to achieve deep cuts in emissions by 2030. Beyond improvements to the efficiency of existing technologies, they assume that no further innovations will be feasible within that period. This study takes a different view. It shows that a more ambitious approach involving the early implementation of key low-carbon technologies and a Clean Industry Package is not just possible, but in fact necessary to safeguard global competitiveness.

Description: A clear understanding of socio-technical interdependencies and a structured vision are prerequisites for fostering and steering a transition to a fully renewables-based energy system. To facilitate such understanding, a phase model for the renewable energy transition in MENA countries has been developed and applied to the country case of Iraq. It is designed to support the strategy development and governance of the energy transition and to serve as a guide for decision makers. The transition towards renewable energies is still at a very early stage in Iraq. Despite the drop in renewable technology costs over the last decade and the increasing deployment of renewables in the MENA region, the pathway towards renewable energies seems to be challenging for Iraq. This is attributable to the country's political instability and the dominant economic role played by the fossil fuel sector. The most pressing concern for Iraq's electricity sector is the need to secure a constant electricity supply. At operational level, Iraq's electricity infrastructure requires significant investment to rebuilt, retro-fit and expand its overall capacity and to improve efficiencies. Yet, the need to rebuild the energy system after the war and the subsequent violent conflicts could offer an opportunity for a transition towards renewables that would benefit Iraq in the short term and also provide a long-term economic development perspective. To take advantage of this opportunity, Iraq needs to improve the framework conditions for renewable energies and raise awareness about the benefits it offers. Renewable energy regulations need to be introduced, market development supported, a realistic timeframe for the transition process established and an appropriate and reliable legal framework developed. The results of the analysis along the transition phase model towards 100% renewables are intended to stimulate and support the discussion about Iraq's future energy system by providing an overarching guiding vision for the energy transition and the development of appropriate policy strategies.

Description: A clear understanding of socio-technical interdependencies and a structured vision are prerequisites for fostering and steering a transition to a fully renewables-based energy system. To facilitate such understanding, a phase model for the renewable energy transition in MENA countries has been developed and applied to the country case of Egypt. It is designed to support the strategy development and governance of the energy transition and to serve as a guide for decision makers. Egypt, with its abundant solar and wind energy potential, has excellent preconditions to embark on the pathway towards a 100% renewable energy system. The country has successfully taken its first steps in this direction by attracting international finance and implementing several large-scale solar and wind projects. Yet, while Egypt has made significant progress, increased efforts are still required if the country aims to proceed towards a fully renewables-based system. The stronger system integration of renewable energies requires, for example, an alignment of regulations for the electricity, mobility and heat sectors. In this context, Egypt would be well advised to develop and implement an overall strategy for the energy transition that includes not only electricity generation but all sectors. By placing a stronger focus on renewable energy, also to decarbonise the industrial sector, Egypt, as Africa's second most industrialised country, could seize the opportunity for economic development within a decarbonising global economy. The results of the analysis along the transition phase model towards 100% renewable energy are intended to stimulate and support the discussion on Egypt's future energy system by providing an overarching guiding vision for the energy transition and the development of appropriate policies.

Description: With the move to a hydrogen-based primary steel production envisioned for the near future in Europe, existing regional industrial clusters loose major assets. Such a restructuring of industries may result in a new geographical distribution of the steel industry and also to another quality of vertical integration at sites. Both implications could turn out as drivers or barriers to invest in new technologies and are thus important in respect to vertical integration of sites and to regional policy. This paper describes an approach to model production stock invest for the steel industries in North-Western Europe. Current spatial structures are reproduced with capacity, technical and energy efficiency data on the level of single facilities like blast furnaces. With the model developed both investments in specific technologies and at specific production sites can be modelled. The model is used to simulate different possible future scenarios. The case with a clear move to hydrogen-based production is compared to a reference scenario without technological shift. The scenarios show that existing trends like movement of production to the coast may be accelerated by the new technology but that sites in the hinterland can also adapt to a hydrogen economy. Possible effects of business cycles or a circular economy on regional value chains are explored with a Monte-Carlo analysis.

Description: The aim of this study is to contribute to a learning process about innovative and successful approaches to overcoming problems and challenges of urban environmental protection. To this end, a detailed overview of the importance of environmental challenges, political priorities and successful solutions in selected countries and cities is given. Based on this, the study analyzes specific success factors and discusses the extent to which these can be transferred and replicated to other cities. Finally, recommendations are made for cities, countries and the international community on how environmental protection at the urban level can be further strengthened. The role of German cities and institutions will also be discussed. The case studies analyzed include Belo Horizonte in Brazil, Moscow in Russia, Kochi in India, Beijing in China, Cape Town in South Africa and Jakarta in Indonesia. These cities were selected because they have already implemented successful policies, measures and other initiatives in the past. For each city, the study analyzes relevant policy documents in order to present the respective challenges and political priorities. The analysis aims to understand the effectiveness of the plans and instruments taking into account the national political environment. Despite the cross-sectoral approach, the analysis of each case study focuses on specific sectors in order to produce well-founded results. The success factors that are worked out based on this sectoral analysis are placed in a holistic context in order to be able to make generalizable statements about success factors.

Description: Especially in the arid areas of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), water availability plays an important role in the expansion planning of industrial-scale solar power plants. Although power plants may account for only a very small portion of local water demand, competition for water with other sectors is expected to increase when water resources are insufficient for meeting local needs. This can lead to conflicts between different users (such as communities, farmers, tourism, businesses and utilities). Despite the increasing attention on the water-energy nexus, comprehensive studies analysing the interdependencies and potential conflicts between energy and water at the local level are absent. To examine the linkages between water resources and energy technologies at the local level, this case study was selected because Morocco is one of the countries most affected by water scarcity and, at the same time, it is also one of the most promising countries in North Africa for the development of renewable energies and offers excellent conditions for solar and wind power plants. Nevertheless, the country's electricity system is still largely based on conventional energy sources, and the country is more than 95% dependent on energy imports. To strengthen the country's energy security and reduce the financial burden associated with energy imports, Morocco is pursuing an ambitious renewable energy expansion strategy: by 2020, around 42% of the national electricity demand should be met by renewable energies. In view of Morocco's ambitious plans, it is particularly important to identify the potential conflicts and synergies resulting from the expansion of renewable energies in relation to the water sector.

Description: Direct Air Capture (DAC) is increasingly being discussed as a possibility to limit climate change. In this study, a possible rollout of the DAC technology at German coastal areas is analysed based on an existing climate neutrality scenario. For the year 2045 the resulting costs as well as land, water and energy consumption are examined. It is concluded that a realization of the DAC technology in Germany might be possible from a technical point of view. However, there is a high demand for land and energy. Since a rollout is needed to start in 20 years at the latest, the required discussion and evaluation should be initiated as quickly as possible.

Description: The energy sector today accounts for about 10% to 15% of global freshwater withdrawal. Most water in the energy sector is used for generating electricity, especially for cooling processes in thermal power plants. At the same time the demand for electricity is expected to increase significantly due to population growth and economic development in emerging and developing economies. Growing demand is also driven by electrification strategies pursued by industrialized countries to decarbonize their economies. With the global demand for electricity expected to increase significantly in the coming decades also the water demand in the power sector is expected to rise. However, due to the on-going global energy transition, the future structure of the power supply - and hence future water demand for power generation - is subject to high levels of uncertainty because the volume of water required for electricity generation varies significantly depending on both the generation technology and cooling system. In light of these challenges the objective of this analysis is to provide more systematic and robust answers in terms of the impacts of different decarbonization strategies in the electricity sector on water demand at global and regional level. The focus is on operational water use for electricity generation.

Description: This report was prepared by the Wuppertal Institute in cooperation with the German Economic Institute as part of the SCI4climate.NRW project. The report aims to shed light on the possible phenomenon that the availability and costs of "green" energy sources may become a relevant location factor for basic materials produced in a climate-neutral manner in the future. For this purpose, we introduce the term "Renewables Pull". We define Renewables Pull as the initially hypothetical phenomenon of a shift of industrial production from one region to another as a result of different marginal costs of renewable energies (or of secondary energy sources or feedstocks based on renewable energies). Shifts in industrial production in the sense of Renewables Pull can in principle be caused by differences in the stringency of climate policies in different countries, as in the case of Carbon Leakage. Unlike Carbon Leakage, however, Renewables Pull can also occur if similarly ambitious climate policies are implemented in different countries. This is because Renewables Pull is primarily determined by differences in the costs and availability of renewable energies. In addition, Renewables Pull can also be triggered by cost reductions of renewable energies and by changing preferences on the demand side towards climate-friendly products. Another important difference to Carbon Leakage is that the Renewables Pull effect does not necessarily counteract climate policy. Similar to Carbon Leakage, it is to be expected that Renewables Pull could become relevant primarily for very energy-intensive products in basic materials industries. In these sectors (e.g. in the steel or chemical industry), there is also the possibility that relocations of specific energy-intensive parts of the production process could trigger domino effects. As a result, large parts of the value chains previously existing in a country or region could also be subjected to an (indirect) Renewables Pull effect. For the federal state of NRW, in which the basic materials industry plays an important role, the possible emergence of Renewables Pull is associated with significant challenges as climate policy in Germany, the EU and also worldwide is expected to become more ambitious in the future. This report aims to enable and initiate a deeper analysis of the potential future developments and challenges associated with the Renewables Pull effect. Thus, in the final chapter of the report, several research questions are formulated that can be answered in the further course of the SCI4climate.NRW project as well as in other research projects.

Description: Two thirds of today's world trade is based on global value chains and supply networks. Purely regional supply chains have become less important in recent decades. The effects of these globalised structures are manifold. On the one hand, they promote employment and generate prosperity. On the other hand, they are beset by extreme social, ecological and economic imbalances. The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the fragility of existing supply chain systems. The lockdown continues to disrupt complex supply chains and many problems of existing production and consumption continue to worsen. COVID-19 is one example of the crises that can shake globally networked supply chains in the short term. Other crises, such as climate change, develop more insidiously and are less immediately recognisable. Different as they are, such crises have one thing in common: they highlight the vulnerability of global social and economic structures and illustrate the impact of global trade on the regions and people of the world. This is precisely where global sustainability strategy comes in - it aims to fundamentally reduce differences and inequalities in opportunities and quality of life. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced the entire world into upheaval, creating an opportunity to make sustainability a central political resilience strategy. In the wake of the Corona pandemic, the discussion about resilient communities has flared up. In order to guarantee supply in the face of such crises, these should be more strongly regional and circular in their economic approach and global and sustainable in their perspective. The aim should be sustainable, transparent, non-exploitative supply chains that guarantee the security of supply to cover basic needs and public services despite sudden changes and crises. This discussion paper draws a future scenario of globally cooperative, circular regional economies that fundamentally reduce global inequalities in opportunities and quality of life, while at the same time permanently preserving the natural foundations of life.

Description: This chapter reconstructs the main actors, objectives and the pertinent contextual factors that co-determined the German coal phase-out. The German decision to phase out coal no later than 2038 was prepared by intense negotiations under the German "coal commission". It was tasked with finding an end date for coal-fired electricity generation and proposing ways and means to support coal workers and the affected regions. This latter objective was the dominant one, supported by a coalition of trade unions, industry, state-level governments as well as major political parties fearing a surge of far-right populism. Meanwhile, meeting the German climate targets was a key condition in the mandate of the coal commission. Yet, the German targets date back to 2010 and are not aligned with the more ambitious objectives enshrined in the Paris Agreement. This explains why the German coal phase-out schedule is so late and so expensive.

Description: An important instrument to enhance the market uptake of energy-efficient new buildings and the energy-efficient renovation of existing buildings in the European Union (EU) are the Energy Performance Certificates (EPC). However, their implementation and use has varied between EU Member States. The European Commission has therefore provided funding to a number of Horizon2020 projects to develop next-generation EPC schemes. One of these is the QualDeEPC project, aiming to both improve quality and cross-EU convergence of EPC schemes, and particularly the link between EPCs and deep renovation. The objective of the project is to improve the practical implementation of the assessment, issuance, design, and use of EPCs as well as their renovation recommendations, in the participating countries and beyond. This paper presents the policy proposals and concepts for tools that the QualDeEPC project has developed as priorities for enhanced EPC schemes: - Improving the recommendations for renovation, which are provided on the EPCs, towards deep energy renovation - An online tool for comparing EPC recommendations to deep energy renovation recommendations - Creating Deep Renovation Network Platforms (One-stop Shops plus networking and joint communication of supply-side actors) - Regular mandatory EPC assessor training (on assessment and renovation recommendations) required for certification/accreditation and registry - Achieving a high user-friendliness of the EPC - Voluntary/mandatory advertising guidelines for EPCs - Improving compliance with the mandatory use of EPCs in real estate advertisements The paper will focus on the aspects related to improving the impact of EPCs for stimulating deep renovation. It will also present lessons learnt from the discussion with stakeholders at national and European workshops and from the testing of the proposals and tools in around 100 buildings, as well as from the first steps of their country-specific adaptation.

Description: Within the Shaping Digitalisation project, we aim to highlight and discuss the opportunities that digitalisation can bring to Germany. In particular, we are discussing three stand-out areas where action is most needed to achieve ecological transformation: mobility, the circular economy, and agriculture and food. This report addresses the second area in need of action. Up until now, discussions on the circular economy have been limited to recycling and the re-use of materials. We must expand the scope of these discussions to include new, resource-efficient business models and the comprehensive transformation of value chains and industrial structures. Our analysis has found that digitalisation is indispensable for this transformation if used properly. We hope this report will provide the impetus needed to kick-start a climate- and resource-friendly industrial transformation in Germany. Here, we have incorporated the findings of our interdisciplinary workshop on "Shaping the Digital-Ecological Industrial Transformation - Business Models and Political Framework Conditions for Climate and Resource Protection" that was attended by experts from international research institutes, civil organizations, public authorities, and private companies.

Description: Model-based scenario analyses of future energy systems often come to deviating results and conclusions when different models are used. This may be caused by heterogeneous input data and by inherent differences in model formulations. The representation of technologies for the conversion, storage, use, and transport of energy is usually stylized in comprehensive system models in order to limit the size of the mathematical problem, and may substantially differ between models. This paper presents a systematic comparison of nine power sector models with sector coupling. We analyze the impact of differences in the representation of technologies, optimization approaches, and further model features on model outcomes. The comparison uses fully harmonized input data and highly simplified system configurations to isolate and quantify model-specific effects. We identify structural differences in terms of the optimization approach between the models. Furthermore, we find substantial differences in technology modeling primarily for battery electric vehicles, reservoir hydro power, power transmission, and demand response. These depend largely on the specific focus of the models. In model analyses where these technologies are a relevant factor, it is therefore important to be aware of potential effects of the chosen modeling approach. For the detailed analysis of the effect of individual differences in technology modeling and model features, the chosen approach of highly simplified test cases is suitable, as it allows to isolate the effects of model-specific differences on results. However, it strongly limits the model's degrees of freedom, which reduces its suitability for the evaluation of fundamentally different modeling approaches.

Description: As the climate crisis is accelerating and the pressure to act is steadily increasing, many companies are claiming themselves or their products carbon neutral. This is usually achieved by offsetting residual emissions with carbon certificates (carbon offsetting). However, recent revelations about the inadequate quality of carbon credits and legal uncertainties surrounding the use of such offset claims are increasingly raising doubts about this approach. This Wuppertal Report examines how the EU can promote integrity in corporate climate action. Taking into account the new framework of the Paris Agreement, the paper outlines various options for how the EU could push for more integrity and effectively combat greenwashing through the targeted use of Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. In their recommendations, the authors advocate addressing the most serious consequences of ongoing offset practices through increased regulation of offset claims. If a ban on offset claims cannot be implemented, claims requirements and carbon offset regulations should be further specified, for example, by prohibiting any type of double counting of emissions reductions. In addition to tightening the rules for corporate offset claims within Europe, the EU could help partner countries make informed decisions when approving climate change mitigation measures and respective carbon credits. The report also emphasizes the EU's special role in international climate negotiations, where it should advocate for a strong legal framework for climate action under Article 6.

Description: The rise of pedal-assisted bicycles (e-bikes) has the potential to contribute to reducing ubiquitous automobility and its negative externalities on the global climate, mobility justice and the quality of urban life. But what makes this new practice so successful in recruiting new practitioners? What policies can ensure that e-bikes are used in a wide range of situations, thus substituting as much car driving as possible - or even reducing the number of cars? The study focuses on commuting as this use case frequently entails the main obstacles to e-biking in daily routines (e.g., sweat, weather, transporting children or goods). The analysis is primarily based on interviews with practitioners and initially provides a thorough depiction of the practice elements (meanings, materials and competences) involved in e-bike commuting. It furthermore elicits key drivers of and barriers to daily e-bike commuting, points to a number of elements that are important to overcome these barriers and develops two tangible policy approaches to foster the substitution of e-biking for car driving.

Description: Leftovers are particularly at risk of being discarded, and therefore a main component of household food waste. This study provides insights into sources of heterogeneity in leftover management behaviours, with a particular focus on the use of meal kits providing matched portion and ingredient sizes, and identifies consumer segments via a latent class analysis. We investigate whether belonging to a segment with positive attitudes toward leftovers, and engagement in conscious leftover management behaviours decreases the amounts of dinner leftovers and food waste. Besides, we demonstrate that several food waste antecedents, emotions, personal norms, intention and dinner procurement routines elicit leftover management segment membership. In addition to examining such individual differences, we also investigate the role of meal-level determinants, in particular, whether meal kits heterogeneously affect dinner leftovers depending on the consumer's leftover management segment. Data was collected from 868 households from six countries, using an online survey and diaries. Results of the latent class analysis point towards five consumer segments. We found differences in dinner leftovers amount across classes and detected heterogeneous effects of meal kits. That is, meal kits were able to diminish leftovers in two segments, but not in the other segments. These results provide novel insights into consumer heterogeneity regarding the occurrence, antecedents, and potential solutions of leftovers and resulting household food waste. Implications for both theory and policy are discussed.

Description: In view of the accelerating climate crisis, the Russian invasion of Ukraine highlighted the dependency of fossil fuels on the part of Germany and the European Union (EU). With the priority aim to reduce the import dependency from the Russian Federation while providing energy security and staying on track with climate mitigation efforts, the Federal Government was presented with major challenges. Prior to the war, an approximate 34% of the mineral oil, 53.6% of the natural gas, and 50% of hard coal supplies to Germany originated from Russian sources. As of 2023, however, Germany is independent from Russian energy imports. This paper examines implications of the global energy crisis induced by the invasion on the energy sector in Germany. As a basis for achieving this analysis, a short overview of the energy situation in the country before the war and a demonstration of the provisional conditions is presented. This is followed by an analysis of the main consequences of the war and medium and long-term strategies to reach Germany's climate goals while maintaining energy security. Lastly, foreseeable consequences regarding the European and German climate goals are discussed.

Description: The steel industry is responsible for a quarter of all industrial greenhouse gas emissions. So far, the environmental savings are mainly due to steel recycling. Besides recycling, the circular economy offers strategies to increase material efficiency and thus decrease the primary raw material demand. However, the potentials remain unexploited because circular economy concepts with a higher degree of circularity are not considered. The presented case study of an industrial machining knife illustrates how the production process can be improved by implementing various circular strategies. The environmental performance is analyzed by calculating and comparing the carbon footprint, the cumulative energy demand and the material footprint, and the material efficiency indicator. The results show that the implementation of the three overarching strategies of the circular economy - narrowing, closing, and slowing - contributes to a significant increase in material efficiency. The implementation also has a positive effect on the overall environmental performance. The circular production processes require less energy and resources and cause fewer emissions. Auxiliary processes such as additional transport routes are relevant, as they can reduce or even overcompensate for savings. These processes must be adequately considered and designed.

Description: The production of green hydrogen in Germany is more competitive than expected compared to imports. This is the key finding of a meta-analysis conducted by the Wuppertal Institute on behalf of the North Rhine-Westphalia Association for Renewable Energies (Landesverband Erneuerbare Energien NRW). The hydrogen study focuses primarily on the year 2030 and beyond - and confirms the advantages of green hydrogen produced in Germany from domestic renewable energies, especially when the evaluation is viewed from a holistic system perspective.

Description: The adoption of the Paris Agreement in 2015 and the passing of the Climate Action Law in Germany in 2019 established the legal need for the basic material industry in Germany to decarbonise. For the industry sector, the target is sets at a 49-51% GHG reduction by 2030 compared to 1990. Even though the sector specific targets are likely to become obsolete, a Hydrogen Strategy, Industry Strategy and Climate Protection Contracts are currently being developed or elaborated on. These are to further ensure and enable the basic material industry in Germany to decarbonise. These developments are emphasising the relevance of studying the industry decarbonisation at the time of conducting this research. As the institutionalisation of the industry decarbonisation is influenced by discourse, the analysis of the discourse is an important tool for studying the power effects produced by and built into the discourse. This is the first research aiming to provide a structured analysis of the discourse on industry decarbonisation in Germany. Drawing on discourse analysis and the Multilevel-Perspectives framework, this research investigated the power and dominance of storylines to influence the discourse of the industry transformation towards decarbonisation. In this research insights were obtained into the storylines used in this discourse, the actors who are part of this discourse, the frequency of storylines used and the percentage of actors making use of these storylines. Additionally, insights were generated into the discursive network and potential coalitions. This research made use of the Discourse Network Analysis software in combination with Visone and Excel for data collection, analysis, and visualisation. Based on 117 documents of various categories from the years 2012 to 2023, the discourse on German industry decarbonisation is discovered to be dominated by storylines of mainly technological or economic nature. The general sentiment discovered by the different actors is positive with the storylines focusing on establishing the conditions for the industry to decarbonise and no resistance being communicated. The discourse is furthermore dominated by most storylines. 18 out of 27 storylines are being used by more than 56% of all actors. The high overlap in storyline indicates discursive homogeneity. The homogeneity is further indicated through the lack of emerging discourse coalitions and the therewith connected lack of struggles for discursive dominance. One coalition can be defined with some actors being deeper involved and some being less involved in the discourse. As decisions on the transition path for Germany's industry to decarbonise are still to be taken the lack of discursive struggles has come to my surprise. In the discussion I reflect on how the positive sentiment, the discursive homogeneity and the great number of dominant storylines may come about.

Description: The COVID-19 pandemic has jolted societies out of normality, possibly creating new conditions for sustainability transformations. What does this mean for sustainability research? Because of the scope of the crisis, researchers have been heavily involved: not only have they had to speed up the pace of scientific production to provide urgently needed COVID-19 knowledge, but they have also been affected citizens. For sustainability science, this calls for an experience-based reflection on the positionality and orientation of research aiming to support sustainability transformations. Twenty sustainability researchers discussed their sustainability research on COVID-19 in three workshops based on the following questions: How does the pandemic - and the measures taken to deal with it - affect sustainable development? What can we learn from the pandemic from the perspective of societal transformation? The present discussion paper emerged from this multidisciplinary exchange among sustainability researchers, considering five topics: impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on sustainability transformations; learning for sustainability transformations; the role of solidarity; governance and political steering; and the role of science in society. Our discussions led to a meta-level reflection on what sustainability research can learn from research on COVID-19 regarding topics and disciplinary angles, time dimensions, the role of researchers, and how adequate preparation for both crises and long-term transformations requires interdisciplinary interaction.

Description: The transition to a greener and more circular economy has been a European policy priority for several years. The Circular Economy Action Plan of 2020 underlines the ambition. The following EEA initiatives are meant to support the transition process: - Bellagio Process on circular economy monitoring principles (EPA network); - Enhancement of EEA indicators on circular economy (ETC/WMGE); - Explorative work on novel data streams (FWC); - Co-creation work - knowledge sharing of monitoring experience (ETC/Eionet). The scope of the present task was to report on the co-creation process that was undertaken at the end of 2020. The co-creation process was organised to identify: (i) best practices on monitoring strategies, data sources and target setting; and (ii) areas of circularity measuring and monitoring that remain challenging and require additional investment. The co-creation process partially built on the work done during the Bellagio Process/Initiative which was run in parallel. This ETC report presents and documents the evidence gathered throughout the co- creation process as well as providing a retrospective analysis of the links to the Bellagio Principles.

Description: As investors and financial intermediaries, private banks are increasingly confronted with climate change concerns. But to what extent do banks identify as the changemakers driving climate alignment forward? To advance this question, this paper analyzes the South African banking sector with a specific focus on Standard Bank and Nedbank as exemplary case studies. Relying on the concept of "climate mainstreaming", we critically assess the banks' annual reports and compare their self-portrayal with publicly available sources on the bank's business practices, chiefly provided by non-governmental organizations and media. We find that Nedbank pushes a holistic narrative of climate change as an inevitable business opportunity. Standard Bank, in turn, relies on a "narrative of balance" between climate change and other profit-oriented investments to safeguard its stakes in the fossil industry. In so doing, this paper sheds light on greenwashing practices within disclosure specifically and the lack of binding corporate regulation more generally.

Description: Most air-conditioned buildings in India operate as Mixed-Mode Buildings (MMBs), either fully air-conditioned or with natural ventilation depending on the weather. Energy consumption for space cooling is a vital end-use service in buildings. Air-conditioning is expected to increase significantly due to high growth estimates in building construction, sales of Room Air-Conditioners (RACs), and real income growth. Therefore, this thesis examines the most influential design and control parameters that influence the potential of MMBs in India in relation to their thermal and energy performance. The primary features of MMBs analysed in the research project are as follows: shutting windows at night makes night ventilation redundant; natural ventilation through ceiling fans and windows is utilised to maintain optimal thermal conditions in naturally-ventilated mode and RACs are employed in air-conditioned mode. This thesis poses three research questions and aims to answer them. Firstly, what are the research gaps in assessing thermal and energy performance in mixed-mode buildings in India? Secondly, what is their potential concerning key operating conditions, and which parameters affect this potential? Lastly, how can these influential parameters be optimised? To answer these questions, three research methods were employed: 1) literature review; 2) large-scale simulation of building energy performance combined with uncertainty and sensitivity analysis; and 3) field studies of user behaviour with regards to RACs and the impact of ceiling fans and RACs on indoor conditions and energy consumption. The study identifies the cooling set point temperature as the most influential control parameter. In general, input parameters related to building design, shape and geometry were considered more important than those related to construction parameters. Furthermore, the study highlights that a set point temperature of 28 or 30°C is sufficient to maintain indoor comfort according to the Indian Model for Adaptive Comfort (IMAC) for residential buildings. If a specific airflow is required, it would use the least energy to run the ceiling fan at a low speed, usually set at 1.

Description: Power-law city-size distributions are a statistical regularity researched in many countries and urban systems. In this history of science treatise we reconsider Felix Auerbach’s paper published in 1913. We reviewed his analysis and found (i) that a constant absolute concentration, as introduced by him, is equivalent to a power-law distribution with exponent ≈1, (ii) that Auerbach describes this equivalence, and (iii) that Auerbach also pioneered the empirical analysis of city-size distributions across countries, regions, and time periods. We further investigate his legacy as reflected in citations and find that important follow-up work, e.g. by Lotka (Elements of physical biology. Williams & Wilkins Company, Baltimore, 1925) and Zipf (Human behavior and the principle of least effort: an introduction to human ecology, Martino Publishing, Manfield Centre, CT (2012), 1949), does give proper reference to his discovery - but others do not. For example, only approximately 20% of city-related works citing Zipf (1949) also cite Auerbach (Petermanns Geogr Mitteilungen 59(74):74–76, 1913). To our best knowledge, Lotka (1925) was the first to describe the power-law rank-size rule as it is analyzed today. Saibante (Metron Rivista Internazionale di Statistica 7(2):53–99, 1928), building on Auerbach and Lotka, investigated the power-law rank-size rule across countries, regions, and time periods. Zipf's achievement was to embed these findings in his monumental 1949 book. We suggest that the use of “Auerbach–Lotka–Zipf law” (or "ALZ-law") is more appropriate than "Zipf's law for cities", which also avoids confusion with Zipf’s law for word frequency. We end the treatise with biographical notes on Auerbach.