Publications

Electricity generation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in many countries. Most emissions trading systems (ETS) therefore capture emissions from electricity generation. The design of an ETS and the structure and regulation of the electricity sector have a major impact on the environmental effectiveness and quality of the carbon price signal.

This document presents central messages and recommendations for successfully shaping structural change towards a Green Economy. The document is a result oft he RFEOPLAN-project „Ökologischer Strukturwandel“ (FKZ 3716 14 101 0). Its intended audience are experts and interested laypersons.

In the project, it was determined that approximately 1000 plants for chromium plating and pickling of plastics are operated in Germany, in which PFOS has been mainly substituted by 6:2 FTS. Many process alternatives already exist for the use of wetting agents or Cr(VI).

With this paper the state of research on the joint implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement is analysed. Factors that negatively influence the development of effective solutions are included.

The paper analyses the integrated implementation of the three major transformative policy agendas (2030 Agenda, Paris Agreement and Sendai Framework) and their interaction. How can integration to be understood and measured? How do different countries deal with overlaps, inconsistencies, and synergies between different international agendas?

The final report describes the execution and outcomes of a series of three thematic conferences which aimed to pave the way for an international exchange on challenges of advanced materials for chemical safety and sustainability.

The European Non-Financial Reporting Directive requires certain large undertakings to disclose sustainability-related information. The Directive is currently being revised and renamed to Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD). One of the main innovations of the European Commission’s proposal for the CSRD is the development of uniform European Sustainability Reporting Standards.

Based on a methodological approach developed by Branger und Quirion (2015), the authors analyse the drivers governing the development of CO2 emissions from cement production from 2005 to 2018 for the EU28 as a whole and selected EU countries using the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) decomposition method.

Effective policies to mitigate climate change need to be accompanied by a socially just transition.

This study examines the role of nature-based solutions (NbS) for global climate protection and in international climate policy. It provides a critical assessment of global mitigation potentials of NbS in forests, croplands, grasslands, terrestrial and coastal wetlands, and settlements and provides recommendations for international climate policy such as under UNFCCC.

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.

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.