ALBERT

Description: The IRGC risk governance framework refers to an integrated concept on how to deal with a variety of physical, environmental and social risks characterized by complex, uncertain and ambiguous impacts. The framework has been informed by interdisciplinary research drawing from sociological and psychological research, including investigations about regulatory styles, institutional regimes and public participation. The notion of governance pertains to the many ways in which all relevant actors, individuals and institutions, public and private, deal with interventions that impact nature and human societies. It includes formal institutions and regimes as well as informal arrangements for including stakeholders and the public at large.

Description: Risk and uncertainty communication of often directed towards addressing the relevance and meaning of probability distributions over negative outcomes and statistical confidence intervals. As much as a professional handling of complex mathematical operations is needed, this will cover only a fraction of what uncertainty communication needs to addres. In those cases where estimates of uncertainty come close to educated guesses, simple beliefs or even total ignorance, other important cues may be more important than formal expertise in risk assessments. These include trust in the risk management agencies or other influential actors, personal experience, indigenous or community-based knowledge, common sense and argumentative or persuasive power. Once the full range of uncertainty is in the focus of risk managemem and communication institutions, an interdisciplinary, inclusive and demand-driven communication strategy needs to be developed. As recommended in the paper by Lofstedt and Bouder, such a targeted approach to risk and uncertainty communication requires interdisciplinary expertise, competence in the social and natural sciences, and practical experience in designing public discourses.

Description: In recent years, bottom–up civil society initiatives have advanced urban transformation processes in Berlin. Following previous research suggesting that bottom–up participation could have a positive impact on community resilience (CR), we analyse the impact of engagement on Berlin–based civil society initiatives. Whilst a positive effect on resilience can be found, we identify governance processes that would be necessary to enable the full potential of bottom–up participation for CR. Resilience, understood as the capacity of a community to thrive in times of change and uncertainty, is becoming increasingly important for the functioning of (urban) communities; hence, finding ways of strengthening it is deemed necessary.

Description: In the light of the major global crises such as pandemics, war, climate change and inequality, scientific research faces new challenges and targets. Scientific studies are supposed to provide background knowledge, to facilitate the desired transformation towards a sustainable future and to offer assistance for resolving complex problems that accompany societies in transition. Concepts such as transformative, transdisciplinary or co-creative research elucidate the direction in which scientific research finds its new role(s). Based on the discussion of these concepts and their different roots, the entry analyzes a new modular concept for a transdisciplinary scientific approach combining and integrating classic curiosity-driven research with goal oriented (advocacy) knowledge and catalytic, process-oriented expertise. In particular it emphasizes the role and function of curiosity-driven research for a comprehensive design of transdisciplinarity and transformative research. There is no doubt that society needs better transformative knowledge to facilitate actions towards sustainability but such knowledge rests on evidence-based insights from disciplinary and interdisciplinary research efforts. The entry provides an orientation of how this classic research outcomes can effectively be integrated into a transdisciplinary context.

Description: Cities and other human settlements are major contributors to climate change and are highly vulnerable to its impacts. They are also uniquely positioned to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and lead adaptation efforts. These compound challenges and opportunities require a comprehensive perspective on the public policy of human settlements. Drawing on core literature that has driven debate around cities and climate over recent decades, we put forward a set of boundary objects that can be applied to connect the knowledge of epistemic communities and support an integrated urbanism. We then use these boundary objects to develop the Goals-Intervention-Stakeholder-Enablers (GISE) framework for a public policy of human settlements that is both place-specific and provides insights and tools useful for climate action in cities and other human settlements worldwide. Using examples from Berlin, we apply this framework to show that climate mitigation and adaptation, public health, and well-being goals are closely linked and mutually supportive when a comprehensive approach to urban public policy is applied. © The Author(s) 2024.

Description: The European Commission's REPowerEU plan set the target of importing 10 million tonnes of 'green' hydrogen into the European Union (EU) by 2030. Against this backdrop, this paper sets out to assess a central question: which countries can be identified as suitable partners for European green hydrogen imports? Using Germany as a reference case, the article develops a quantitative sustainability and governance index (SGI), assessing five dimensions identified as central to ranking external partners: (i) the political will to scale up a green hydrogen sector; (ii) a country's integration with the EU/Germany; (iii) its commitment to international engagement and climate targets and policies; (iv) environmental regulatory effectiveness; and, (v) its governance performance. With this, the SGI offers a novel way of thinking about potential EU green hydrogen partnerships. Rather than focusing on the geography of renewables or cost structures underpinning a country's export potential, the present index captures the extent to which countries may be suitable for green hydrogen partnerships if judged by political and environmental factors. The empirical analysis suggests significant differences between a total of 113 assessed countries as per their overall index ranking, but also the individual dimensions composing the index. This allows drawing conclusions on the policy focus of potential partnerships, taking choices when facing trade-offs regarding individual dimensions, and prioritizing among the latter.

Description: This article examines limits to per capita living space (i.e. living smaller and/or sharing living space) as a measure for achieving sufficiency in housing. It studies the acceptance, motivation and side-effects of voluntarily reducing living space in five European Union countries: Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Spain and Sweden. Insights are derived from an extensive collection of qualitative empirical material collected from citizen and stakeholder ‘thinking labs’ across the five case countries. Overall, the data reveal an initial reluctance among citizens to reduce living space voluntarily. They also point to some major structural barriers: the housing market and its regulatory framework, social inequality, or dominant societal norms regarding ‘the ideal home’. Enhanced community amenities can compensate for reduced private living space, though contingent upon a clear allocation of rights and responsibilities. Participants also reported positive effects to living smaller, including increased time for leisure activities and proximity to services. This was often coupled with urbanization, which may also be part of living smaller in the future.

Description: A rapid and full decarbonisation of both energy and industry is essential to meet the targets in the Paris agreement, which brings coal- and carbon-intensive regions under significant pressure. Some regions have advanced in their transition and can provide insights in the system change processes. In this paper, we investigate the socio-economic transition processes of Essen and Duisburg as part of the wider structural change in the Ruhr Region/ Germany. We explore causes and effects of their trajectories in the last 30 + years and identify differences in outcome as a function of the interventions and/or contextual differences, while investigating whether either city crossed a tipping point in their transition process (yet). Therefore, we specifically evaluate the cities’ development trajectories by seeking evidence for “no”, “incremental” or “radical or tipping” changes in sets of qualitative and quantitative indicators. Our analysis shows that both cities experienced incremental changes in their demographic, economic and political trajectories but we found no evidence for either city to have crossed a tipping point in their transition process yet. However, distinct developments in the cities’ policy narratives and visions indicate qualitative changes while putting them on different development trajectories potentially leading to tipping points in the future. Our study shows that the sequence of interventions and timing are important factors for the trajectory of a region determining the quality of societal change. It also suggests that radical change and tipping are the exception rather than the rule, especially in the highly complex social systems of cities.

Description: Disasters and crises affect more people around the world than reported in official documents by national or international agencies. Meanwhile, climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic, several wars worldwide and other crises expose a large proportion of the entire population to substantial risks, as well as profoundly affecting human health globally. Many of these impacts remain unnoticed by governance authorities, since many coping strategies are based on bottom-up activities rather than top-down policies. This raises the question: how can we be adequately prepared for a next pandemic or other unforeseen extreme events? Social capital could provide some clues for resilient responses that could be integrated in risk planning and management practice. In this paper, a comprehensive review is provided based on bibliometric analysis. A total number of 2872 published articles were documented and classified. In addition, the geographic locations and the institutional affiliations were assessed and visualized. Four salient research themes were identified as follows: (1) Knowledge sources of the research domain; (2) Individual social capital and risky behaviors; (3) Disaster management and resilience building; and (4) Health issues in the COVID-19 Era. This study offered some practical insights for mobilizing and developing social capital in different phases of risk management. Nevertheless, more inter- and transdisciplinary research across domains is needed to articulate a more comprehensive view of the development of social capital in various risk situations.

Description: Solar energy is not only the most abundant energy on earth but it is also renewable. The use of this energy is expanding very rapidly mainly through photovoltaic technology. However, electricity storage remains a bottleneck in tackling solar resource variability. Thus, solar thermal energy becomes of particular interest when energy storage is required, as thermal energy storage is much cheaper than electricity storage. The objective of this paper is to make a short update on the CSP (Concentrated Solar Power) market as of the year 2023. It is based on the CSP-GURU database, which lists information on CSP power plants all over the world. Although this database is open, it is not easy to find UpToDate analysis. An overview of this expanding technology is presented and offers readable figures with the most important information. This includes the evolution of installed capacities worldwide along with upcoming projects (under construction) and technological trends. The evolution of storage capacities and operating temperatures is discussed. Investment costs and levelized cost of electricity are also provided to obtain reliable data for comparison with other energy technologies. Specific land requirements are highlighted, along with overall efficiency. Relevant examples are discussed in this paper. Eventually, it outlines the evolution of the CSP landscape with useful information for scientific and educational purposes.