Summary of Discussions

The scientific basis is clear: GHG emissions need to be drastically reduced across all economic sec-tors to keep global warming below 2°C. Delaying the necessary steps will only increase the costs. To bring about the necessary transformation of the economy, all levels of governance need to take ambitious action in all economic sectors and design long-term visions of their mitigation path-ways.
Across the globe, countries are starting to take climate action more seriously and are developing strategies to limit or reduce emissions – but these still lack ambition and rarely provide a long-term vision for 2050 and beyond. In the framework of the emissions reduction which the IPPC considers necessary for developed countries as a group, the EU has set itself the target to reduce emissions by 80-95% by 2050 compared to 1990, but it does not yet have a common strategy of how to achieve that target.

Many EU Member States have already developed or are currently developing climate mitigation strategies leading up to 2050. At sub-national level, many regions or cities are designing or already implementing decarbonisation strategies. These are often more ambitious than those at the national level.

The Workshop “Decarbonisation – 100% Renewables and more” provided a forum for dialogue among European and international actors on the challenges of designing and implementing decarbonisation strategies, and possible solutions.

This summary brings together insights from all the levels of governance touched upon in the course of the workshop’s presentations and discussions.

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Presentations

Key note

“Global Decarbonisation – What role should Europe play?“
Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK),  Director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), Former Co-Chair of IPCC's WG III

Session I: “Long-term decarbonisation scenarios in EU Member States”

“The UK’s low carbon strategy: the Carbon Plan”
Dan Roberts, Director, Frontier Economics

“100% Renewables – a scenario for France”
Dr. Christopher Andrey, Project Manager, Energy Division, Artelys France

“Greenhouse gas neutral Germany – Main parameters and findings”
Dr. Benno Hain, UBA

Session 2: “National implementation of strategies towards decarbonisation”

Denmark
Jacob Møller, Head of Division, Centre for Climate and Energy Economics, Danish Energy Agency

Poland
Janusz Michalski, Head of the Energy Policy Unit, Economic Ministry of Poland

Germany
Ursula Fuentes Hutfilter, Head of the National Climate Policy Division, German Environment Ministry (BMUB)

Netherlands
Jan Jaap van Halem, Policy coordinator National Climate Strategy, Ministry of Infrastructure and The Environment, Netherlands

Session 3: “Decarbonisation strategies at the local level”

“The necessity of local decarbonisation strategies”
Stefan Schurig, Director Climate, Energy and Cities, World Future Council"

“Low carbon Vitoria Gasteiz”
Jose Ignacio Arriba, Head of Energy Agency, City of Vitoria-Gasteiz

“100% renewable energy for the City of Rheine“
Barbara Fricke, Researcher, Solar Institute Jülich