Tilman Santarius » Klimapolitik

Climate justice and digitalization. A plea to consider broader socio-economic implications of digitalization and climate change

Tilman Santarius — Tue, 16 May 2023 16:57:31 +0000

This article by Tilman Santarius in the Journal GAIA Justice and Digitalization – GAIA 2022 considers the broader socio-economic implications of digitalization on various dimensions of climate justice. Indeed, digitalization will affect the way the impacts of global warming and the co-benefits of climate protection are distributed. To advance a fair benefit sharing of digital climate technologies, the decentralization of technological development must be initiated, and rules for fair competition must be established.

Exploring energy sufficiency: New challenges and options in times of crisis.

Tilman Santarius — Tue, 16 May 2023 16:40:24 +0000

The war in Ukraine has made the fatal dependence of many countries on energy sources from non-democratic countries extremely clear. How should politics and society react to high energy prices and the necessary ban on imports of fossil fuels from Russia? Can modern societies get along with much less energy? This Op-Ed article by Benjamin Best, Michaela Christ, Tilman Santarius and Frauke Wiese Energy in the Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice argues that the concept of energy sufficiency can play an important role in answering these questions. The article explores sufficiency as a interdisciplinary research topic for energy modelling, scenarios and policy.

Digitalization and Energy Consumption. Does ICT Reduce Energy Demand?

Tilman Santarius — Sat, 27 Jun 2020 10:08:52 +0000

Digitalization is said to bear large potentials to reduce energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions. At the same time, criticism has been raised that digitalization may increase energy demand. Which effect will overall digitalization of the economy and society bring about? This article by Steffen Lange, Johanna Pohl and Tilman Santarius in the journal Ecological Economics combines empirical and theoretical findings from debates on decoupling energy consumption from economic growth and from debates on green IT and ICT for sustainability and finds four distinctive effects. The overall conclusion is: Digitalization will not automatically bring about reductions in energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions, but needs to be actively shaped by policies and measures in order to deliver those.

Rethinking Climate and Energy Policies.

Tilman Santarius — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 10:32:21 +0000

This volume, edited by Tilman Santarius, Hans Jakob Walnum and Carlo Aall, suggests rethinking current climate, energy and sustainability policy-making by presenting new insights into the rebound phenomenon. It offers new aspects in rebound economics, but then explores multidisciplinary perspectives on the phenomenon. The volume puts rebounds into praxis and presents several policy cases and sector-specific approaches, including labour markets, urban planning, tourism, information and communication technologies, and transport. It finally embeds the issue into the larger debate on decoupling, green growth and degrowth, and sketches out lessons learned for sustainable development strategies and policies at large.

See here the link to Rethinking Climate and Energy Policy to view the table of content and download the book or singular chapters of the book.

Energy efficiency, human behavior, and economic growth

Tilman Santarius — Tue, 10 Jun 2014 20:18:33 +0000

Increasing energy efficiency in households, transportation, industries, and services is an important strategy to reduce energy service demand to levels that allow the steep reduction of greenhouse gases, and a full fledged switch of energy systems to a renewable basis. Yet, technological efficiency improvements may generate so-called rebound effects, which may ‘eat up’ parts of the technical savings potential. This chapter in the “Physics for Sustainable Energy II conference proceedings” provides a comprehensive review of existing research on these effects, raises critiques, and points out open questions. As a rough “rule of thumb”, about half the savings potential of energy efficiency improvements may be ‚eaten up’ by rebound effects.

One Step Forward and Two Sideward.

Tilman Santarius — Fri, 04 Feb 2011 11:15:42 +0000

After the “failure of Copenhagen”, the UN climate conference in the following year, COP16 in Cancun 2010, has raised new hopes: the international climate diplomacy does not collapse. But the results of the conference show a mixed picture. In some areas, progress has been made, however, in other dubious compromises were found. In this climate policy analysis “One Step Forward and Two Sideward“, Tilman Santarius together with colleagues from seven other countries show what has been achieved in 2010 in the national climate policy of important key countries, and what key outcomes have been realized at the UN climate conference in Cancun.

Failure or Opportunity?

Tilman Santarius — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 13:40:48 +0000

Throughout Europe, the International Climate Conference in Copenhagen (COP 15) has widely been considered a failure. However, it is unclear how this summit has been perceived in other countries: as a failure, or maybe even as an opportunity? This, it seems, heavily depends on the national perspective. For some countries, such as those of the European Union, the expectations were missed completely. In the U.S. and in Brazil, however, the outcome of the summit had been used as internal political opportunity. Click here for the paper “Failure or Opportunity”, in which Tilman Santarius together with colleagues from several other countries analyzed the results of COP15 from the perspective of central negotiating parties.

Climate and Trade – Why Climate Change Calls for Fundamental Reforms in World Trade Policy

Tilman Santarius — Sat, 30 May 2009 13:51:18 +0000

Foreign economic and trade policy are mostly designed along by the principles of free trade and export maximization. As a result, the world economy has become interconnected and more dense, and production chains span from one hemisphere to the other. Is this globalized world trade compatible with the aim to keep global warming below the dangerous threshold of 2 or even 1.5 degrees Celsius? Here is the study “Climate and Trade“, which highlights reform options for trade as well as for climate policy. In particular, it raises the issues of displacement of emissions (leakage), border adjustment measures, and technology transfer.

From a Marathon to a Sprint.

Tilman Santarius — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 20:49:45 +0000

Only small progress in some areas had been achieved at the UN climate conference in Poznan (COP 14). Solutions to the major conflicts remain to be developed, and answers to most crucial questions persist, such as how to define specific national reduction targets, financial sums, technological cooperation agreements, the regulations of emissions from forests, and others. If this load of decisions is not to be deferred entirely up to the ministerial conference in Copenhagen, negotiations have to move from jogging to the mode of a sprint. Here is the analysis “From a marathon to a sprint” in Environmental Finance magazine.

Pit Stop Poznan.

Tilman Santarius — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 20:23:07 +0000

One year after the climate conference in Bali (2007), the UN climate conference in Poznan in December 2008 marked only a stopover on the way to the next major conference in Copenhagen, 2009. a new climate agreement. Politically, the conference in Poznan was overshadowed by negotiations in Brussels on a new climate and energy package of the European Union. On many points of detail, however, the climate negotiations in Poznan did move on. Therefore it is worth looking into negotiating texts and individual agreements. Click here for the analysis “Pit Stop Poznan” by Santarius Tilman and his colleagues, a shorter version of which was published in the Journal for European Environmental & Planning Law (JEEPL).

Picture from the UN Climate Talks-Logo: from Flickr.com with Creative Commons License, http://www.flickr.com/photos/unfccc/3045713498/