Abstract
In response to climate change, the limited availability of fossil fuels and the risks associated with nuclear energy, Germany’s energy transition aims to achieve a sustainable, environmentally sound supply of energy services. A monitoring process was established by the Federal Government to ensure that the targets defined for the transformation will be reached. The indicator system developed for that purpose mainly focuses on “classical” environmental, economic and technological indicators for which statistical time series data and political targets are available. Important socio-technical aspects of the energy system and its transition, such as affordability, participation and acceptance, remain largely neglected. This paper aims to contribute to the discussion on indicators needed for political decision-making to appropriately address sustainability aspects of the energy system and its transition, as well as to contribute to improving existing indicator systems. Therefore, the sustainability rules of the Integrative Concept of Sustainable Development were translated into indicators based on an in-depth literature review. The resulting abundance of possible indicators was then reduced using selection criteria such as comprehensiveness, possibility to determine targets and availability of data. Finally, the indicator system was adjusted based on feedback of experts from different disciplines and stakeholder interviews in the particular investigation area of southwest Thuringia. Besides classical indicators related to techno-economic and environmental aspects, the finally developed indicator system includes new sustainability indicators related to the socio-technical interface of the energy system. Thus, it is considered suitable for assessing the sustainability of the Germany energy system and its transition in an integrative and comprehensive way. The indicator system is helpful to systematically identify strengths and weaknesses of the energy system and interdependencies and conflicts of goals between different sustainability aspects. All in all, we believe that applying the indicator system appropriately can support the development of resilient political strategies for a successful energy transition.
Highlights
The energy system plays a key role in realizing a more sustainable development at the global and national level
The elaborated system of sustainability indicators provides a theoretical link between normative orientation and empirical needs and a holistic and differentiated picture of the complex German energy system and its dynamic transition
It is the first comprehensive and integrated indicator system based on normative values
Summary
The energy system plays a key role in realizing a more sustainable development at the global and national level. The monitoring process ‘Energy of the future’ was established to ensure that the energy transition develops in the desired direction. In this process, indicators are used to take annual stock of progress made in achieving the quantitative targets of the German Energy Concept [2]. The core indicators relate to well-known characteristics of the energy system, like the share of renewable energies and greenhouse gas emissions. Social aspects such as the fair allocation of benefits and burdens of the energy transition among social groups or the participation of citizens in the transformation process are to a large extent missing. The scientific expert commission accompanying the monitoring process has drawn attention to this deficiency
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