Energy | Ecologic Institute: Science and Policy for a Sustainable World

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Towards More Fish-friendly Hydropower Production

In the Europe-wide FIThydro project, Ecologic Institute worked with research and industry partners to study existing hydroelectric power plants. Together the project partners developed new assessment methods and technologies such as a fish population hazard index, simulations for fish migration and an open-access decision support tool for hydropower planning. The goal: making hydropower more fish-friendly and environmentally sustainable. All project results are made available online.

Publication

Scoping the Market for Fish-friendly Hydropower Technologies: Recent developments, future expectations

FIThydro Market Conditions Brief

Hydropower remains essential to achieve Europe's climate commitments. At the same time, the sector must innovate to decrease its negative impacts on Europe's rivers and freshwater fish. This FIThydro Brief, written by Ecologic Institute's Hugh McDonald and Gerardo Anzaldúa, assesses the current and future demand for fish-friendly hydropower in Europe. It concludes that EU and national policy and economic developments offer a chance to innovate and address rising social and environmental concerns about hydropower's negative impacts.Read more

Publication

Resource Conservation + Circular Economy

Analysing the Impact Assessment on Raising the EU 2030 Climate Target

How does the European Commission's approach compare with other existing studies?

On 17 September 2020, the European Commission proposed to raise the EU climate target for 2030, so as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% compared to 1990. In this policy brief, CLIMACT and Ecologic Institute unpack the Commission's impact assessment for the new target. The brief analyses key policy options and analytical results and compares them to recent studies, in particular CLIMACT's 2030 modelling results. Within the framework of the tightened target, the EU Commission proposes to extend the EU Emissions Trading Scheme to buildings and road transport – a major change to the EU's current climate policy architecture. The team discusses potential implications and provides context to the sectoral developments and policies. The briefing highlights key points where the Commission diverges from other studies, identifying climate mitigation potentials that merit more attention in future analysis.Read more

Project

Resource Conservation + Circular Economy

Assessing the Impact Assessment for Raising the EU's 2030 Climate Target

September 2020 to October 2020

In this project, Climact and Ecologic Institute analysed the impact assessment for the new EU climate target proposed by the Commission in September 2020.Read more

Publication

Europe's Economic Recovery – How can the Recovery and Resilience Facility support achieving climate neutrality?

In July 2020, the European Council agreed on an unprecedented EU recovery package – dubbed Next Generation EU. This agreement contains elements that will advance EU climate policies. However, if it is to pave the way to climate neutrality by 2050, it needs to improve.Read more

Publication

Energy-intensive Industries

Challenges and opportunities in energy transition

For energy-intensive industries, the transformation towards a climate-neutral form of production is a particular challenge, not only because of their large carbon footprints, but also because they are embedded in value chains that are still predominantly fossil-based. However, they too are part of the effort to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and at the same time accelerate the transition by providing competitive clean technology solutions. This study explores how European energy-instensive industries can transition to a climate-neutral economy while maintaining, and ideally improving, its global competitiveness. It investigates different technology options, policy designs and financial instruments. Read more

Project

Cities

Climate

Energy

ElectricityNeighbours – Can tenants in Berlin's apartment buildings become prosumers through solar power projects and sector coupling?

July 2020 to December 2021

Photovoltaic technology is a key lever for decarbonising Berlin's power consumption and for social participation in the transformation process, especially for tenants. Therefore, solar energy and projects on rental apartment blocks are key elements of the Berlin Senate's Energy and Climate Protection Program. In the research project "ElectricityNeighbours", Ecologic Institute and IÖW evaluate the experience gained so far in implementing such prosumer projects in Berlin, outline innovation potentials for the field and develop ideas on how the regulatory framework can be further developed. In doing so, the team looks beyond pure tenant electricity projects to the potentials of sector coupling.Read more

Publication

International Development

Sustainability

Water

Sustainable Development in the European Union – 2020 Overview

Overview of Progress Towards the SDGs in an EU Context

This brochure is a 'light' version of Eurostat's publication 'Sustainable development in the European Union – 2020 monitoring report on progress towards the SDGs in an EU context', conveying its main messages in a visual and concise way. The brochure provides an updated snapshot of the current situation concerning 100 indicators related to the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). It thus provides a snapshot of the key trends related to sustainable development in the European Union. Ecologic Institute's authors covered the chapters on SDG 2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 15 (Life on Land) SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). The publication is available for download.Read more

Publication

International Development

Sustainability

Water

Sustainable Development in the European Union – 2020

Monitoring Report on Progress Towards the SDGS in an EU Context

This publication is the fourth of Eurostat’s regular reports monitoring progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in an EU context. The monitoring report provides a statistical presentation of trends relating to the SDGs in the EU over the past five years ('short-term') and, when sufficient data is available, over the past 15 years ('long-term'). Ecologic Institute's authors covered the chapters on SDG2 (Zero Hunger), SDG 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 13 (Climate Action), SDG 14 (Life Below Water), SDG 15 (Life on Land) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). The publication is available for download.Read more

Publication

Thesis

Energy

Policy Assessment

The Failed Europeanisation of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS)

A Comparative Analysis of the Impact of Domestic Factors on Six CCS Demonstration Projects

This paper aims to explain to the failure of six carbon capture and storage (CCS) demonstration projects installed at coal power plants within the European Union. The projects were funded across six different members with varying suitability to coal-based CCS, which raises the question of whether common domestic factors can be identified that explain the failure of all projects. The perspective of Europeanisation is adopted to examine this question.

While coal is decreasingly relevant in the European context, it continues to be used as a fuel source in the Global South. Analysing...Read more