Publikationen der Abteilung Klimapolitik

EU Taxonomy Increasing Transparency of Sustainable Investments

By developing a taxonomy for sustainable investments, the EU Commission has created the first standardized criteria for climate-friendly economic activities.To achieve the goal of climate neutrality by 2050, firms and investors must be well informed of which investments avoid greenhouse gas emis- sions and can thus be categorized as sustainable. The present report investigates to what extent the EU ...

Green Public Procurement: Climate Provisions in Public Tenders Can Help Reduce German Carbon Emissions

This report estimates that government consumption and investment are responsible for at least 12 percent of German greenhouse gas emissions, mostly arising from the provision of public services and construction. Climate-friendly Green Public Procurement (GPP), which takes into account the carbon footprint of products and services in public tenders, can help reduce these emissions. Construction, and ...

Heat Monitor 2018: Rising Heating Energy Demand, Thermal Retrofit Rate Must Increase

Residential heating accounts for almost one-fifth of Germany’s final energy consumption. This report evaluates an extensive database of heating bills for buildings with two or more apartments, representing more than two-thirds of the total housing stock in Germany. Despite commitments to pressing climate targets, the rate of thermal upgrades of the existing housing stock has remained low since the ...

Global Responsibilities: Renewable Energies, Climate Policy, Migratory Pressure: Reports

Affordable Electricity Supply via Contracts for Difference for Renewable Energy

The cost of renewable energy technology has plunged in recent years. But the extent to which electricity consumers can benefit from the reduced costs depends on the design of renewable remuneration mechanisms. Calculations of a financing model show that the current sliding premium is leading to increasingly higher risks for investments and in turn, increasing equity requirements. As a result, financing ...

Natural Gas Supply: No Need for Another Baltic Sea Pipeline

The construction of a second Baltic Sea natural gas pipeline from Russia to Germany (Nord Stream 2) is very controversial for political, energy economic, and ecological reasons. The project owner and some European energy companies argue that it is a profitable, private-sector investment project that is necessary to secure natural gas supplies for Germany and Europe. However, DIW Berlin analyses show ...

Crude Oil: Market Trends and Simulations Point toward Stable Equilibrium

In this study, we report on the current state of the international market for crude oil. The market data we analyzed indicate that competition has intensified as a result of the now firmly-established shale oil extraction industry in the U.S. Model-based simulations also show that supply-side shifts should only have moderate price effects. This applies to both an expansion in U.S. shale oil production ...

Children from Migrant Backgrounds: Who Are Their Kita Peers?

In Germany, attendance in early childhood education and care (ECEC) centers has soared in the last twenty years, making them a key context in which children learn. For children from migrant backgrounds who speak a foreign language at home, participation in ECEC has the potential of providing them with early German language exposure. One important but often overlooked factor in this respect is the composition ...

Using Public Procurement as a Decarbonisation Policy: A Look at Germany

Public authorities spend large proportions of their GDP on goods and services and are therefore responsible for a significant share of embedded emissions. Given this large impact, governments have the responsibility of decarbonizing their purchases, as well as the potential to influence markets towards sustainability. So-called ‘Green Public Procurement’ (GPP) consists in the use of environmental criteria ...

Incentives for the Long-Term Integration of Renewable Energies: A Plea for a Market Value Model

Due to increasing shares of renewable energies in electricity production, the cost-effective system integration of these installations is becoming more and more important. Technologies and locations are viewed as system-friendly when they are more cost-efficient and easier to integrate because they, unlike other installations, produce at times when electricity is more valuable. This report shows that ...