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Hoping to support sustainability, countries have established policies to foster the bioeconomy (BE), based on the use of biomass and knowledge on biological principles. However, appropriate monitoring is still lacking. We estimate global key environmental footprints (FPs) of the German BE in a historic analysis from 2000–2015 and in projection until 2030. Overall, the agricultural biomass FP is dominated by animal-based food consumption, which is slightly decreasing. The forestry biomass FP of consumption could potentially shift from net import to total supply from domestic territory. Agricultural land use for consumption is triple that of domestic agricultural land (which covers half of Germany) and induced substantial land use change in other regions from 2000–2015. The FP of irrigation water withdrawals has decreased over 2000–2015 and might continue to decline in absolute terms by 2030, but the share of supply regions with water stress might increase. The climate FP of BE contributes 18–20% to the total climate FP of domestic consumption, while employment makes up 10% and value added only 8% of the total German economy. These findings imply that sufficient monitoring of the BE needs to consider both production and consumption perspectives, as well as global FPs of national economies.
German bioeconomy 01.06.2021 Publikationen Energie & Klimaschutz Bücher

The EU’s regulatory framework for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) was developed for “classical” transgenic GMOs, yet advancements in so-called “new genomic techniques (NGTs)” have led to implementation challenges regarding detection and identification. As traceability can complement detection and identification strategies, improvements to the existing traceability strategy for GMOs are investigated in this study. Our results are based on a comprehensive analysis of existing traceability systems for globally traded agricultural products, with a focus on soy. Alternative traceability strategies in other sectors were also analysed. One focus was on traceability strategies for products with characteristics for which there are no analytical verification methods. Examples include imports of “conflict minerals” into the EU. The so-called EU Conflict Minerals Regulation requires importers of certain raw materials to carry out due diligence in the supply chain. Due diligence regulations, such as the EU’s Conflic
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Meeting energy and climate targets requires phasing out the use of fossil fuels in the heating sector, demanding an extensive overhaul of infrastructure. The expansion of district heating and electricity distribution grids will be essential for this transition, while parts of the gas distribution network will become redundant. Regional and municipal heating plans, mandated by the EED and the decarbonised gas and hydrogen market package, require planning that should involve identifying areas where gas distribution networks will be decommissioned or dismantled in the future. The process will be accelerated by phasing out or introducing efficiency regulations for heating installations. How should the efficient and orderly transformation of the gas network be accomplished? To this end, we compare the status-quo as well as recent the developments of gas grid infrastructures across four European countries, namely Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and the UK. Additionally, we analyse the current regulations for ga
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Hoping to support sustainability, countries have established policies to foster the bioeconomy (BE), based on the use of biomass and knowledge on biological principles. However, appropriate monitoring is still lacking. We estimate global key environmental footprints (FPs) of the German BE in a historic analysis from 2000–2015 and in projection until 2030. Overall, the agricultural biomass FP is dominated by animal-based food consumption, which is slightly decreasing. The forestry biomass FP of consumption could potentially shift from net import to total supply from domestic territory. Agricultural land use for consumption is triple that of domestic agricultural land (which covers half of Germany) and induced substantial land use change in other regions from 2000–2015. The FP of irrigation water withdrawals has decreased over 2000–2015 and might continue to decline in absolute terms by 2030, but the share of supply regions with water stress might increase. The climate FP of BE contributes 18–20% to the total climate FP of domestic consumption, while employment makes up 10% and value added only 8% of the total German economy. These findings imply that sufficient monitoring of the BE needs to consider both production and consumption perspectives, as well as global FPs of national economies.
German bioeconomy 01.06.2021 Publikationen Energie & Klimaschutz Bücher

The global loss of fertile soils is widely recognized as one of the most pressing environmental and social problems of the next decades. Against this backdrop, political action is urgently needed to promote the sustainable use and management of soil, both domestically and at the international level. While particularly international soil policy has been neglected for decades, land and soil degradation have started to gain some international political momentum in recent years. This paper analyses how the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) as a key multilateral environmental agreement (MEA) within international environmental law contributes to the international governance of sustainable soil use. Firstly, we give a brief overview of the international governance of soil sustainability to date, locating the role of the CBD in this context. Secondly, we elaborate on how the CBD deals with soil (biodiversity) issues—e.g., in its Strategic Plan and Aichi Targets, through principles for the sustainable use of biodiversity, the CBD’s Ecosystem Approach as well as the International Soil Biodiversity Initiative. In the discussion, we highlight the value and shortcomings of the soil topic under the CBD. We also develop options on how sustainable soil management could be strengthened within the CBD and through the CBD. We conclude that the CBD can indeed contribute to the political promotion of sustainable soil use but that presently there are few incentives for CBD parties to push the process forward. Also, to be effective, the CBD is dependent on meaningful progress in international politics on the broader topic of sustainable land use.
Soils: Status and Future Options 15.02.2017 Umweltrecht & Governance Bücher

Recent years have seen the development of numerous innovations in social, constructional, and transportation planning for different forms of communal housing. They illustrate how more sustainable practices in transport and land use can be achieved through the collective provision and use of space and mobility services. The question remains, however, of who needs to be involved in such bottom-up approaches and when in order to ensure their success. What changes are necessary to anchor these approaches in the wider context of urban and transport planning? This paper presents three examples of neighbourhood mobility concepts and the collaborative use of space and land. A research project accompanied the development of these concepts in a real-world laboratory design. The scientists used social-empirical methods and secondary analyses to evaluate social and ecological effects, economic viability and the process of joint development. The results show the high sustainability potential of such neighbourhood concepts: they enable residents to meet their mobility needs, while using fewer vehicles through shared use, reducing the number of journeys and changing their choice of transport. At the same time, promoting and developing community services has been shown to be inhibited by preconditions such as existing planning law. Opportunities and obstacles have been identified and translated into recommendations for action, focusing on municipal urban planning, transport planning, and the housing industry.
08.03.2021 Publikationen Mobilitätswende Ressourcen & Mobilität Bücher

As a key element of its strategy to increase energy efficiency and renewable energies in buildings, Germany has recently revised its building energy act. The revision of the law has received unprecedented media attention and has dominated the energy policy discourse in 2023 in Germany and beyond. Driven by the German tabloid “BILD”, a campaign making use of populist discourses and misinformation has filled the front pages of German newspapers. The high media reception of the so-called “heating hammer” has strongly impacted not only the provisions of the law itself but has also caused considerable damage to future energy efficiency policy developments, leading to a withdrawal of a previously announced tightening of energy efficiency standards as well as the watering down of Germany´s position in the trilogue negotiations on the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. Given the relevance of the process and the discourse for current and future policy developments, our paper provides an analysis of the differ
Publikationen Energie & Klimaschutz Umweltrecht & Governance Bücher

A reduction of energy service demand in all sectors is required to reach ambitious climate and other sustainability goals. A growing number of energy and climate scenarios does include detailed assumptions and quantified parameters for the reduction of energy service demand. However, the indicators and units used to measure the demand reduction potential of energy services differ from study to study and are thus difficult to compare. To help fill the existing research gap around the assumptions and quantification of sufficiency potentials, we analyse quantified European-focused sufficiency scenarios that are ambitious with respect to energy demand reduction.
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The EU’s regulatory framework for genetically modified organisms (GMOs) was developed for “classical” transgenic GMOs, yet advancements in so-called “new genomic techniques (NGTs)” have led to implementation challenges regarding detection and identification. As traceability can complement detection and identification strategies, improvements to the existing traceability strategy for GMOs are investigated in this study. Our results are based on a comprehensive analysis of existing traceability systems for globally traded agricultural products, with a focus on soy. Alternative traceability strategies in other sectors were also analysed. One focus was on traceability strategies for products with characteristics for which there are no analytical verification methods. Examples include imports of “conflict minerals” into the EU. The so-called EU Conflict Minerals Regulation requires importers of certain raw materials to carry out due diligence in the supply chain. Due diligence regulations, such as the EU’s Conflic
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International carbon markets can be an important tool in achieving countries’ mitigation targets under the Paris Agreement, but they are subject to a number of environmental integrity risks. An important risk is that some countries have mitigation targets that correspond to higher levels of emissions than independent projections of their likely emissions. If such ‘hot air’ can be transferred to other countries, it could increase aggregated emissions and create a perverse incentive for countries not to enhance the ambition of future mitigation targets. Limits to international transfers of mitigation outcomes have been proposed to address this risk. This article proposes a typology for such limits, explores key design options, and tests different types of limits in the context of 15 countries. Our analysis indicates that limits to international transfers could, if designed appropriately, prevent most of the hot air contained in current mitigation targets from being transferred, but also involve trade-offs between different policy objectives. Given the risks from international transfer of hot air and the uncertainty over whether other approaches will be effective in ensuring environmental integrity, we recommend that countries take a cautious approach and pursue a portfolio of approaches to ensure environmental integrity, in which case limits could provide for additional safeguards.
under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement 08.11.2018 Energie & Klimaschutz Bücher