Climate | Energy

Climate-ADAPT, an online knowledge platform provided by the European Environment Agency (EEA) and the European Commission since 2012, has grown into the most important place for information when it comes to adaptation to climate change in Europe. A report of the EEA informs about the experiences and effectiveness of the platform and points to ways of further improving it.

Electricity production in Germany from renewable sources of energy picked up speed in the first half of 2018. About 117 billion kilowatt hours was produced in this half-year – nearly 10 per cent more than for the same time period 2017.

This year's winners of the Blauer Kompass contest: an innovative urban sewage system in Solingen, an educational programme on climate change for trainees in Heidelberg, a project to green a city neighbourhood in Cologne, and a shade provider operated with photovoltaic modules by the Kunsthochschule Kassel.

From 2015 to 2017, the Advisory Assistance Programme funded a project of Housing Initiative for Eastern Europe (IWO), which provided advice to the Lithuanian Ministry of Environment on development and implementation of approaches for energy-efficient redevelopment of urban areas. The documentation is now online. A brochure and a leaflet facilitate the transfer of knowledge also beyond Lithuania.

Wanted: Innovative ideas for environmental protection and climate action in cities

The stationary installations in Germany that take part in the emissions trading system emitted around 438 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents.

Energy sector emissions lower, transport sector higher

A research report commissioned by the UBA has analysed a range of options for designing the EU Innovation Fund (IF), a financing instrument created under the EU Emissions Trading System to support demonstration projects for low-carbon innovation in the power sector and industry. From 2019 onwards, this fund will use revenues from auctioning emissions trading allowances for this purpose.

Capital investments which target the energy, transport and building sectors can help to limit the rise in Earth’s temperatures to less than 2 degrees. A new UBA study proposes the criteria by which public financial institutions like development banks should proceed and identifies which projects should no longer be funded.

In an initial step to reduce climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions from maritime transport, shipping companies must monitor and report their emissions starting 01.01.2018. The German Emissions Trading Authority at UBA (DEHSt) is the competent authority for emissions monitoring in Germany.

Two years after two historic global agreements – the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on Climate Change – the World Resources Forum Association invites leaders from government, business, research and NGOs to Geneva to talk about how to accelerate the Resource Revolution. How should we manage, coordinate, finance, track progress, and communicate about it?

Emission reduction credits (ERCs) from high-quality international climate change mitigation projects will continue to compensate the official travel by German federal employees. The Federal Government plans to purchase more than 235,000 ERCs which will then be cancelled. ERCs for emissions in 2015 were purchased earlier this year. The next compensation procedure for 2016 emissions will now follow.