European Union Climate Research Articles

Household standards and socio-economic aspects as a factor determining energy consumption in the city

Political or economic attempts to mitigate climate change by increasing fossil fuel prices lead to and an increase in energy poverty, i.e., social effects. The ideal solution would be to combine modernisation activities in terms of energy use in cities with sustainable strategies and redevelopment policies. The article's purpose is to estimate the potential for reducing energy consumption depending on socioeconomic factors (household standard and its location in the city) based on built-in scenarios and searching for the optimal way of conducting development policy at the local level. This assumption enables the implementation of the European Union climate policy. To this aim, modelling based on real and estimated data on the diversity of energy consumption in the structure of a medium-sized city in Europe (Zielona Góra) carried out. While creating scenarios, there used a modelling method based on radial artificial neural networks, which map the input set into the output set by matching many individual approximating functions to setpoints. This approach works well for data whose geolocation is in the city quarters. As a result of the simulations, the minimum and maximum achievable energy saving potential for low-intensity buildings in the quarters was estimated, taking into account the possibilities of investing in renewable energy by individual households. The observations included in the article may be relevant to other regions that are interested in reducing the energy consumption of buildings and pollution emissions from the cities. This is particularly important for the regions of Europe that benefit from the financial support of the European Union (including local development programmes based on financing European priority axes for economic development).

Making Sense of the LULUCF Regulation: Much Ado About Nothing?

The 2030 European Union (EU) climate and energy policy framework includes for the first time a dedicated instrument concerning greenhouse gases (GHGs) emissions and removals from land use, land-use change and forestry (LULUCF). Regulation 2018/841 (LULUCF Regulation) marks a significant expansion of EU climate and energy acquis, with ramifications in other sensitive areas, such as agriculture, renewable energy from wood biomass and forestry. The Regulation has had a particularly troubled negotiation history and has already been at the centre of litigation before the Court of Justice of the EU. This article analyses the implications of the LULUCF Regulation for the EU’s climate ambition in the next decade, trying to make sense of its troubled history and of its projected impacts, with a view to ascertaining whether the scepticism with which it has been welcomed is justified.

The European Parliament as an Arena and Agent in the Politics of Climate Change: Comparing the External and Internal Dimension

Climate change policy is a key example for globalized multi-level governance, involving the European Parliament (EP) both as legislator of internal European Union (EU) regulation and discursive agent in global climate negotiations. Based on the comparison of decision-making in external and internal climate change policy, the article investigates the link between the role of the EP as a political actor and arena for the interaction of competing party groups: Does EP involvement in negotiations on legally binding legislation prompt or constrain partisan polarization in comparison to declaratory statements about future goals of climate action? Harnessing a discursive institutionalist theoretical framework, the article compares EP resolutions about annual Conferences of the Parties (COPs 20 to 24) with the revision of four legislative acts for Phase IV of EU Climate Action: namely, emissions trading, effort sharing between Member States, the promotion of renewable energies, and energy efficiency standards. Using roll-call voting data and the review of legislative documentation, the contribution tracks the emergence and negotiation of political conflict in these two sets of cases. Overall, the case studies indicate a low level of external politicization, as indicated by low party group polarization, internalization of political conflict at the committee level, and compromise-building between issue dimensions.

Economic and environmental performance analysis of Polish energy companies

The tightening of the European Union climate and energy policy, directed to raising the resilience and effectiveness of the European Union Emissions Trading System, may influence on companies' economic performance. Polish energy companies, which mainly use coal in the energy production process, are particularly worried about the potential negative consequences associated with the implementation of new CO2 emission reduction targets and their participation in the European Union Emissions Trading System. This paper analyzes the link between economic performance and environmental performance of Polish energy companies, covered by the European Union Emissions Trading System in the years 2013-2017. This analysis may focus the attention of the European Union’s and Polish institutions responsible for developing the climate and energy policies on positive and negative consequences concerning the low-carbon transformation of the Polish energy sector. Two indicators of environmental performance: carbon intensity and the ratio of carbon dioxide emissions over the allowances, as well as chosen financial ratios: return on assets, return on investment, return on sales, asset turnover ratio are calculated for these companies. A Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient is used in order to analyze the relationship between these environmental and financial variables. Presented empirical results highlight that the situation of Polish enterprises worsened in the 3rd trading period, as the number of allocated allowances in case of all energy companies was insufficient to cover their own CO2 emission. A negative direction of the correlation dependency can be observed in the years 2013-2017 only between asset turnover ratio and return on assets, and the CO2 emission intensity.

Capturing the problems

AbstractAn audit is not always something that an organisation looks forward to. Having procedures or expenditures critiqued by an independent body has the potential to be nerve‐wracking. But the scrutiny can often lead to better decisions for the future. In this article, GHGS&T's Muriel Cozier looks at the findings from the audit of the past 10 years of European Union's climate action. © 2019 Society of Chemical Industry and John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

European Union’s Rule of Law in Climate Governance and the Enlightenment to China

Climate change has developed into a global problem that threatens human existence. The European Union (EU) was the first to start climate governance, and has formed an effective, mature governance model and the rule of law system. The recognition of climate and social rules has led to the formation of a multi-party governance network. The analysis of the gains and losses of EU climate control aims at deepening our understanding of climate governance laws and providing new ideas for climate governance in different countries. The rapid and extensive development in China has also brought a series of climatic problems, but the “fragmentation” governance scheme has suffered “bottleneck” in the governance effect. This paper introduces the practice and legal experience of European Union climate control to give some enlightenment and promotion to China’s climate control.

Higher Price, Lower Costs? Minimum Prices in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme

AbstractIn this paper, we examine the introduction of a price floor in an emissions trading system (ETS) when some emissions are regulated outside the ETS. We theoretically characterize the conditions under which a price floor enhances welfare. Using a numerical simulation model of the European Union (EU), we find that moderate minimum prices in the EU ETS can reduce the costs of EU climate policy by up to 30 percent. We also find that, because of tax‐interaction effects, the optimal minimum price in the EU ETS should be about four times higher than the average marginal abatement cost in non‐ETS sectors.

Voluntary instruments for ambitious objectives? The experience of the EU Covenant of Mayors

ABSTRACTOver the last decade, innovative governance architectures have been progressively promoted across European Union (EU) environmental and climate policies with the purpose of improving the effectiveness of intervention through better cross-sectoral policy integration and increased involvement of sub-state and non-governmental actors in the policy process. By combining the theoretical insights of polycentric governance and the concept of usage, the case of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) is analysed to uncover the extent to which this voluntary programme has empowered local authorities within the EU strategy for sustainable energy by encouraging coordination and learning. This illustrates how a range of policy variables determined the dynamics of the programme’s implementation in Italy and the United Kingdom.

Accomplishing the Sustainable Development Goal 13 - Climate Action and the Role of the European Union

One of the key aspects of Sustainable Development Goals is the difference in awareness of various societies regarding the need to protect the environment and transform economies and societies, so they rely more on renewable energy sources. As an initiative, it should represent a commitment that should be in focus of the international agreements, especially the Paris Climate Treaty. Whilst the Sustainable Development Goals as a totality comprise serious implementation limits, the Paris Climate Treaty should be considered necessary to implement the Sustainable Development Goal 13: Climate Action. Implementing the Sustainable Development Goals would perhaps allow a holistic framework in combating climate change. Nevertheless, for the immediate future, there should be no delays in implementing a certain form of international effort to combat climate change. Therefore, the role of the European Union's climate policy was studied in this article, mainly its effectiveness in the reduction of emissions, as a crucial aspect of implementing one of the crucial Sustainable Development Goals, Goal 13, especially in the context of the Paris Climate Treaty and carbon taxes. The EU sees its vital interest in the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goal 13, and in successful action that would enable it to comply with the Paris Climate Treaty. The quantitative analysis in this article, based on an Autoregressive Distributed Lags approach, finds that the most effective way of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the European Union would be to continue the shift towards more dependency on renewable sources of energy sources while maintaining current or slightly higher levels of taxation on energy consumption. The revenue should be directed towards subsidizing research and development of renewable energy sources.

Building energy modelling for the energy performance analysis of a hospital building in various locations

The building sector has been identified as having the greatest energy reduction potential and therefore represents a key factor for the European Union climate change combat objectives of achieving an 80-95% greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2050. Hospitals buildings represent 7% of the nonresidential building stock in the European Union and are responsible for approximately 10% of the total energy consumption in this sector. The design and construction of hospital buildings is a complex and challenging activity for all the involved specialists, especially when energy performance is one of the objectives. This paper discusses the energy performance simulation on an hourly basis of a new hospital building that was constructed in the city of Mioveni, Romania. At this stage of the study, the building energy model solely investigates the performance of the building envelope, without modelling the HVAC system. The complexity of the building model derives from the multitude of thermal zones depending on interior temperature and ventilation air changes conditions. Several simulations are performed investigating the heating and cooling energy need depending on the building location.

EU Delegations in European Union climate diplomacy: the role of links to Brussels, individuals and country contexts

ABSTRACTThe European Union’s (EU) Delegations and Offices that represent the Union in 144 countries have evolved into important satellites, implementing EU external relations. Their activities are manifold and are implemented in various ways. Building on substantive interview data, this article provides the first expansive mapping of EU climate diplomacy practices of EU Delegations and explains the surprising variance therein. It shows that the intensity and quality of contacts between individual Delegations and individual (parts of the) Brussels-based institutions – most importantly DG Climate Action – in combination with individual Delegation staff members’ expertise and host country characteristics can explain the observed variation among EU Delegation activities. These factors can contribute to better understanding the nature of the EU as an international actor.

Technical, Financial, and Social Barriers and Challenges in Deep Building Renovation: Integration of Lessons Learned from the H2020 Cluster Projects

With a low rate of new building construction and an insufficient rate of existing building renovation, there is the need to step up the pace of building renovation with ambitious performance targets to achieve European Union (EU) climate change policies for 2050. However, innovative technologies, including, but not limiting to, plug and play (PnP) prefabricated facades, information and communications technology (ICT)-support for building management systems (BMS), the integration of renewable energy systems (RES), building information model (BIM) and building performance simulation models (BPSM), advanced heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC), advanced geomatics, 3D-printing, and smart connectors, cannot alone solve the problem of low renovation rates of existing buildings in Europe that is hindering reaching of EU-wide targets. A workshop was held at the Sustainable Place Conference 2018 to present, with an integrative approach, the experiences from four H2020 innovation actions, i.e., 4RinEU, P2ENDURE, Pro-GET-OnE, and MORE-CONNECT, which were united by their central aims of improving building energy performance through deep renovation practices. This article presents the outcomes of the joint workshop and interactive discussion, by focusing on technical, financial, and social added values, barriers and challenges, in the context of the building renovation processes tackled by the four projects. Conclusive remarks converge on the identification of open questions to address future innovation opportunities, as well as some recommendations to be used at a policy level and/or in future implementation projects.

Leadership and lesson-drawing in the European Union’s multilevel climate governance system

ABSTRACTThe important role that climate leaders and leadership play at different levels of the European Union (EU) multilevel governance system is exemplified. Initially, climate leader states set the pace with ambitious policy measures that were adopted largely on an ad hoc basis. Since the mid-1980s, the EU has developed a multilevel climate governance system that has facilitated leadership and lesson-drawing at all governance levels including the local level. The EU has become a global climate policy leader by example although it had been set up as a ‘leaderless Europe’. The resulting ‘leadership without leader’ paradox cannot be sufficiently explained merely by reference to top-level EU climate policies. Local-level climate innovations and lesson-drawing have increasingly been encouraged by the EU’s multilevel climate governance system which has become more polycentric. The recognition of economic co-benefits of climate policy measures has helped to further the EU’s climate leadership role.

Urban climate change mitigation and adaptation planning: Are Italian cities ready?

Climate Action Planning is one of the top priorities of cities in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and strengthening climate-resilience, as pointed out by the New Urban Agenda and the Paris Agreement.This study aims at assessing the development of climate change mitigation and adaptation planning in Italian cities. To this end, we analysed the availability of Local Climate Plans (LCPs) in 76 cities, which are included in the Eurostat Urban Audit (UA-2015) database. In a further step, we analysed the content of the urban climate change mitigation and adaptation plans available in a smaller sample of 32 Italian cities of 2007 Eurostat Urban Audit database (UA-3), looking at the single actions undertaken for addressing mitigation and adaptation to climate change. Results show the almost total absence of comprehensive and stand-alone urban climate change adaptation plans in Italy (except for two cities, Ancona and Bologna), whereas we found that in 61 out of 76 cities municipal civil protection plans are the instruments that deal with local emergencies associated to extreme weather events. On the other hand, 56 out of 76 urban climate change mitigation plans (i.e. Sustainable Energy Action Plans) are being developed in the framework of the Covenant of Mayors, which is a transnational network of local governments created by the European Union (EU) in 2012. The results obtained on the mitigation side point out that, in absence of a national law that imposes Italian cities to develop LCPs, transnational networks are an effective boost to voluntary commitment to reach EU climate and energy objectives.

Health co-benefits and the development of climate change mitigation policies in the European Union

ABSTRACTThe 2015 Paris Agreement requires increasingly ambitious emissions reduction efforts from its member countries. Accounting for ancillary positive health outcomes (health co-benefits) that result from implementing climate change mitigation policies can provide Parties to the Paris Agreement with a sound rationale for introducing stronger mitigation strategies. Despite this recognition, a knowledge gap exists on the role of health co-benefits in the development of climate change mitigation policies. To address this gap, the case study presented here investigates the role of health co-benefits in the development of European Union (EU) climate change mitigation policies through analysis and consideration of semi-structured interview data, government documents, journal articles and media releases. We find that while health co-benefits are an explicit consideration in the development of EU climate change mitigation policies, their influence on final policy outcomes has been limited. Our analysis suggests that whilst health co-benefits are a key driver of air pollution mitigation policies, climate mitigation policies are primarily driven by other factors, including economic costs and energy implications.Key policy insightsHealth co-benefits are quantified and monetized as part of the development of EU climate change mitigation policies but their influence on the final policies agreed upon is limited.Barriers, such as the immediate economic costs associated with climate action, inhibit the influence of health co-benefits on the development of mitigation policies.Health co-benefits primarily drive the development of EU air pollution mitigation policies.The separation of responsibility for GHG and non-GHG emissions across Directorate Generals has decoupled climate change and air pollution mitigation policies, with consequences for the integration of health co-benefits in climate policy.

Targeting carbon dioxide removal in the European Union

ABSTRACTIn principle, many climate policymakers have accepted that large-scale carbon dioxide removal (CDR) is necessary to meet the Paris Agreement’s mitigation targets, but they have avoided proposing by whom CDR might be delivered. Given its role in international climate policy, the European Union (EU) might be expected to lead the way. But among EU climate policymakers so far there is little talk on CDR, let alone action. Here we assess how best to ‘target’ CDR to motivate EU policymakers exploring which CDR target strategy may work best to start dealing with CDR on a meaningful scale. A comprehensive CDR approach would focus on delivering the CDR volumes required from the EU by 2100, approximately at least 50 Gigatonnes (Gt) CO2, according to global model simulations aiming to keep warming below 2°C. A limited CDR approach would focus on an intermediate target to deliver the CDR needed to reach ‘net zero emissions’ (i.e. the gross negative emissions needed to offset residual positive emissions that are too expensive or even impossible to mitigate). We argue that a comprehensive CDR approach may be too intimidating for EU policymakers. A limited CDR approach that only addresses the necessary steps to reach the (intermediate) target of ‘net zero emissions’ is arguably more achievable, since it is a better match to the existing policy paradigm and would allow for a pragmatic phase-in of CDR while avoiding outright resistance by environmental NGOs and the broader public.Key policy insightsMaking CDR an integral part of EU climate policy has the potential to significantly reshape the policy landscape.Burden sharing considerations would probably play a major role, with comprehensive CDR prolonging the disparity and tensions between progressives and laggards.Introducing limited CDR in the context of ‘net zero’ pathways would retain a visible primary focus on decarbonization but acknowledge the need for a significant enhancement of removals via ‘natural’ and/or ‘engineered’ sinks.A decarbonization approach that intends to lead to a low level of ‘residual emissions’ (to be tackled by a pragmatic phase-in of CDR) should be the priority of EU climate policy.

Power through Collaboration: Stakeholder Influence in EU Climate and Energy Negotiations

Abstract Who gets what in high-level European Union (EU) negotiations and how? This study draws on data concerning stakeholder preferences during heated negotiations leading to the EU’s 2030 Climate and Energy Policy Framework. It tests the explanatory values of Liberal Intergovernmentalism (LI), the Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), and Historical Institutionalism (HI). Large member states were key (LI). However, coordinated groups of member states, bound by specific common interests, also played crucial roles. ACF explains the 2030 Framework only if: a) the decisive coalitions consisted of the EU’s supranational institutions, the coordinated groups of member states and long-term advocacy coalitions in the interest group community; b) coalition members held comparatively similar views; and c) coalition members adjusted their strategies mutually and/or shared information. The European Commission set the agenda (HI). The analysis demonstrates that LI, HI and ACF may be used as complementary analytical tools, filling several of each other’s gaps.

Measuring and explaining the EU’s effect on national climate performance

ABSTRACTTo what extent has the European Union (EU) had a benign or retarding effect on what its member states would have undertaken in the absence of EU climate policies during 2008–2012? A measurement tool for the EU policy’s effect is developed and shows a benign average EU effect with considerable variation across countries. The EU’s policy effectiveness vis-à-vis its member states is explained by the EU’s non-compliance mechanism, the degree of usage of the Kyoto flexible mechanisms, and national pre-Kyoto emission reduction goals. Time-series cross-sectional analyses show that the EU’s non-compliance mechanism has no effect, while the ex-ante plans for using Kyoto flexible mechanisms and/or the ambitious pre-Kyoto emission reduction targets allow member states to escape constraints imposed by EU climate policy.

Integrating carbon dioxide removal into EU climate policy: Prospects for a paradigm shift

Scenarios meeting the Paris Agreement's temperature targets envisage a major and imminent deployment of technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, of which there has been almost no practical implementation to date. Here we explore the political dimensions and policy implications of expectations for “negative emissions” in the European Union (EU), considering its largely successful leadership role in mitigation action and corresponding low‐carbon technology development and deployment. Carbon dioxide removal and especially Bio‐Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage present significant challenges to the EU's dominant climate policy paradigm and low‐carbon policy experience. Considering this challenge, we assess expectations for widespread implementation of carbon dioxide removal in the EU to be unrealistic, and explore possible pathways for its more limited introduction.This article is categorized under: Policy and Governance > Multilevel and Transnational Climate Change Governance The Carbon Economy and Climate Mitigation > Policies, Instruments, Lifestyles, Behavior

Identification of climate policy knowledge needs: a stakeholders consultation approach

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify knowledge gaps on insinuations of possible directions of European Union (EU) and international climate policies.Design/methodology/approachThis study has used participatory approach of highly experienced stakeholders’ engagement, involved directly or indirectly in the process of policymaking. A range of priority issues has been initially identified through desk analysis and key stakeholders have been selected and invited to partake in the process. Preliminary results have been validated through interaction with stakeholders during a series of workshops.FindingsThe results show the identification of a series of sectors, where climate policy is expected to focus in the future and the definition of 11 specific topics upon which knowledge gaps are expected to appear. Results on the identified knowledge needs are analysed and categorized by each prioritized main topic and compared with literature findings. Emphasis is identified to be placed on the topics of renewable energy, EU climate policy and international climate negotiations, which are the most popular ones, followed by energy policy and energy efficiency.Originality/valueA key element of the approach is the consideration of key experts’ feedback on their specific area of expertise, instead of general public engagement, therefore leading to accurate results. Despite the fact that our approach was applied to a specific problem, the overall analysis could provide a framework for supporting applications in various problems in the field of priorities’ identification and even expanding to decision-making problems.