Globales Preisabkommen: Ein Weg zu einer effektiven Klimapolitik?

This article outlines a potential route to an effective global climate protection agreement. It is argued that setting a globally uniform price for greenhouse gas emission abatement maximizes the chances for reaching such an effective agreement. Without an agreement on a globally uniform price, the Paris Treaty on limiting the increase in average temperatures to 2 degrees centigrade at most might fail. Germany should thus urge the other countries of the G20 Forum to agree on a common price on greenhouse gas emissions.     

Kurzfristige Kehrtwende bei der Beschaffung neu zu errichtender Anlagen für die Netzreserve in Deutschland

Shortly before the decision of the Electricity Market Law on June 22, 2016 took place, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) changed its mind with respect to the procurement of new power plants for the German grid reserve. Other than originally planned, this is no longer organized via a competitive bidding process. Instead, the responsibility for the procurement will be transferred to the transmission system operators, which therefore face the challenge of implementing an appropriate procurement mechanism. This paper presents an economic explanation for this short-term change. Our analysis reveals that the proposed transfer of the concept for the procurement of spare capacity to the procurement of the grid reserve was not appropriate. The bidders would have been exposed to significant risks, in particular due to high cost and calculation uncertainties, which are also critical with respect to the achievement of the objectives of the grid reserve. Therefore, we consider the decision of refusing the original procurement concept as the right step, although we consider a competitive procedure advantageous. However, such a procedure has to take the special requirements of the grid reserve into account. Yet this problem remains even after the transfer of responsibility from the BMWi to the transmission system operators.     

W?rmed?mmungs-Strategien im Haushaltssektor und ihr Beitrag zu Materialeffizienz und Emissionsminderung – eine Langfristanalyse bis zum Jahr 2050

An often controversial question is whether a massive insulation of houses in the overall balance does not cause more resource consumption and emissions than it saves in the end. To investigate this question, for the first time a trade-off analysis has been performed. For this, a bottom-up impact analysis model was developed, whose core forms an emissions- and energy model for the household sector which is coupled with a life cycle assessment tool. Both models provide the framework for energy scenarios to 2050, claiming for each decade refurbishment rates and energy mixes. Thus, ??pure?? energy scenarios can be extended by resource policy analyses and the effects of various insulation strategies might be determined. The central result of modeling is that additional costs are compensated for insulating (extruded polystyrene foam XPS and cellulose were examined) both resource- and emission-side in almost all environmental impact categories with significant savings in building heating. Essentially, there are no trade-offs identified, and the percentage contribution of the insulating materials on the environmental impact indicators is low. In contrast, the choice of foaming agent in the foamed XPS insulation is relevant: Compared with the XPS used in Germany, which is largely CO₂ foamed insulation, one which has a high proportion of HFCs, leads to a high trade-off regarding the impact category ??stratospheric ozone depletion?? and leads to a noticeable, but not significant effect on the global warming potential. A sensitivity analysis with the alternative cellulose insulation material shows that the already low shares of the insulation continue to decrease with regard to the environmental impact indicators. However, with regard to the material intensity, XPS and cellulose insulation are associated with similar effects. In summary, it can be stated that for both insulation materials ambitious strategies??with regard to all factors analysed in the study??can significantly contribute to material efficiency as well as to emissions reduction targets.