• Energy Research

Drought is a natural hazard that has hit Europe hard over the last decades. The DROUGHT-R&SPI project (2011-2015) advances on drought research and associated science-policy interfacing. This FP7 project works at various scales, ranging from local to the pan-EU level. In addition to the European level, the project works in six Case Studies, in Greece (local), Spain & Italy (river basin), Portugal, Switzerland, and The Netherlands (national). In the paper, the various drought science-policy interfacing approaches are described. An overall finding is that Science-Policy interfacing at detailed scales (i.e. specific to sector, context and territory) is easier than at pan-European scale. Another important conclusion is that successful science-policy interfaces develop over time, based on their specific (socio-economic, historic and institutional) circumstances and specific drought characteristics. As well, stakeholders appreciate to be engaged in science-policy activities, they express a benefit from being involved. The functioning of the science-policy interfaces has been observed to refine and improve in the case of prolonged or successive droughts.

Das vorliegende Kapitel rückt die Governance-Perspektive auf kommunaler und regionaler Ebene in den Mittelpunkt und bezieht sich dabei auf die in den vorausgegangenen Kapiteln analysierten fünf Handlungsfelder (vgl. Kap. 5.2 bis 5.6). Dabei wird auf die übergreifenden Fragen eingegangen, welche Rolle Planungsakteure sowie andere staatliche und nicht-staatliche Akteure für die Transformation spielen, wie besonders staatliche Akteure im Sinne eines gestaltenden Staates zur Transformation beitragen können, welcher Beitrag durch Strategien und Instrumente der Stadt- und Raumentwicklung sowie -planung geleistet wird und welche förderlichen und hinderlichen Faktoren Transformationsprozesse bzw. das diesbezügliche Wirken von Akteuren beeinflussen. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich, dass Politik und Verwaltung eine maßgebliche Rolle zukommt, Strukturen und Bedingungen zu schaffen, die es ermöglichen, dass staatliche Akteure Veränderungen der räumlichen Entwicklung realisieren können und nicht-staatliche Akteure in öffentlichen und insbesondere Planungsstrukturen Resonanz finden, um wirksam Schritte zu einer großen Transformation zu gehen. Gleichzeitig wird aber auch deutlich, dass für die große Transformation nicht-staatliche Akteure eine besondere Rolle einnehmen, wenn sie als "Pioniere des Wandels" auftreten und Impulse einbringen. Daneben kommt einem konstruktiven Zusammenwirken der unterschiedlichen Akteure eine hohe Bedeutung zu, damit die räumliche Planung und Entwicklung mit ihren Kompetenzen, Kapazitäten und Ressourcen einen Beitrag zur großen Transformation leisten kann. Weiterführende Forschungsfragen in Bezug auf eine transformative Governance beziehen sich auf das Wechselspiel der verschiedenen Akteure, auf die spezifischen Handlungslogiken der Akteursgruppen sowie auf eine vertiefte Betrachtung der Hemmnisse und Restriktionen. Aus Akteursperspektive ist es für die große Transformation von Städten und Regionen insbesondere förderlich, Synergien zwischen möglichen Akteuren zu identifizieren, Schnittstellen für gemeinsames Handeln auszubauen und daraus Anforderungen an Institutionen, Prozesse und Instrumente einer transformativen Governance abzuleiten. This chapter focuses on the governance perspective on the municipal and regional level and draws here on the five fields of action analysed in the previous chapters (cf. Chapter 5.2-5.6). Discussion addresses a number of overarching issues: the role played by planning actors and other state and non-state actors in the transformation; how state actors in particular can contribute towards transformation in the sense of a formative state; what contribution is made by the strategies and instruments of urban and spatial development and planning; and what factors promote or hinder the transformation processes or the relevant activities of actors. The findings demonstrate that policy and administration play a significant role in creating structures and conditions that allow state actors to implement changes in spatial development and non-state actors to find support from public and particularly planning structures to enable them to take effective steps towards a great transformation. At the same time, it has become clear that non-state actors have a special role in the great transformation when they introduce stimuli as "pioneers of change". Of similarly great importance is constructive cooperation between the various stakeholders so that spatial planning and development with all its competences, capacities and resources can contribute towards the great transformation. Further research questions connected to transformative governance are related to the interaction of different actors, the specific logics of action of groups of actors, and an in-depth observation of hindrances and restrictions. Turning to the stakeholder field, for the great transformation of urban areas it is particularly advantageous to identify synergies between actors, to develop interfaces for joint action and thus to derive requirements for institutions, processes and instruments of transformative governance.

The DROUGHT-R&SPI project adopted a transdisciplinary approach that combined drought analyses for six selected Case Studies across Europe with drought analyses at the pan-European scale both for past and future climates. Achievements on drought as natural hazard, drought impacts, responses and science-policy interfacing are reported. These include the European Drought Reference (EDR) database that consolidates information about historical large-scale drought events and the first pan-European Drought Impact report Inventory (EDII) database that was populated with reports of thousands of impacts that occurred in Europe. More detailed outcome on historic and future droughts were obtained both for Europe and the six Case Studies, including both economic and environmental impacts, evaluation of past and future possible practices to cope with drought, vulnerability and drought risk. The results from the Case Studies show that there is no "one size fits all" solution for drought policy, risk reduction as well as management. This confirms the follow-up proposed in the "Blueprint to safeguard Europe's waters". The Case Study Dialogue Fora and the pan-European Dialogue Forum showed that drought management strategies have to be context-specific, cost-effective, and at the same time should protect ecosystem services. Successful science-policy interfaces only can develop over time, if based on specific circumstances and drought characteristics.

The paper presents a research framework for supporting drought management on the basis of drought risk identification, assessment and management. While risk identification involves the analysis of past and future drought on the basis of climate projections, the assessment of risk follows a probabilistic approach and refers to the assessment of potential drought impacts. Finally, risk management concerns the selection and evaluation of measures for minimizing risk to an acceptable level. The analysis is performed in six Case Studies (The Netherlands; Portugal; Switzerland; Po River Basin, Italy; Jucar River Basin, Spain; and Syros Island, Greece), representing a wide range of climate and socio-economic conditions. All these activities are supported by stakeholder input through the organisation of theme-specific workshops. As the Case Studies are spread over Europe, the results show that risk reduction cannot follow a “one size fits all” approach, as it was pointed out also by the EC “Blueprint”.

Energy co-operatives have played an important role in the development of decentralized renewable electricity production in Germany in the new millennium. They collect capital from individuals and thus open up another source of funding to promote the ”Energiewende“ in Germany. Their regional orientation and the co-operative participation model are regarded as success factors which help to increase local acceptance. With the amendment of the German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) in 2014, the so far very favorable funding conditions gradually fall away, which were central to the business models of many, especially regional energy co-operatives. The boom phase of energy co-operatives has thus come to an end and the increasing market orientation of support policies requires adaptations and innovations. Against this background the paper explores energy cooperatives and their development from an innovation perspective. It specifically asks how they need to position, if they are to make a significant contribution to a decentralized energy transition in the future. In the empirical part of this paper, we examine the structures and developments in the German energy co-operative sector based on existing data and an online survey, with a focus on energy cooperatives of different sizes and geographical orientation, complemented by an analysis of two case studies. We conclude that economies of scale and geographical diversification can offer benefits, but that there are also promising development opportunities for regional energy co-operatives. Diversification of business fields, which can include not only energy-related services, but also other local general interest services, as well as cooperation at the regional level and with other energy co-operatives and their umbrella associations, could be starting points for successful regional strategies. In general, direct marketing can become a potentially important element of innovative development of business models, because – in accordance with the co-operative core principles of member orientation and the principle of identity – it links the focus on specific target groups with a regional or ideological surplus value.

AbstractCompared to the prevailing sustainability strategies of efficiency and consistency, sufficiency is poorly represented both in scientific literature and in political debate but has increasingly gained attention in recent years. However, the discussion lacks a uniform understanding on sufficiency policy and how to conceptualize it. Furthermore, the sufficiency scholarship neglects the role of municipalities in realizing sufficiency policies. This article, thus, examines three questions: how is sufficiency policy understood in the literature? How can sufficiency policy be conceptualized? And what does sufficiency policy mean at the municipal level? In the course of a systematic literature review, we determine a sample of 111 publications on sufficiency policy and identify an ecological, social, and action-oriented dimension of sufficiency understanding. After discussing sufficiency as policy, we synthesize our findings with a definition and conceptual framework of sufficiency policy. Last, we apply the framework at the municipal level and compile a total of 198 municipal sufficiency policy measures. We find that municipalities have numerous levers to pursue sufficiency policy, both in terms of instruments and sectors. The article presents—to our knowledge—the first systematic literature review on sufficiency policy. It advances our understanding of sufficiency as policy in general and at municipal level in particular. The conceptual framework offers a departure point for further empirical research on (municipal) sufficiency policy.

AbstractBackgroundEnergy cooperatives are a prominent and common form of community energy. Community energy has the potential to increase actor diversity and local acceptance of renewable energies and has therefore been highlighted to be conducive to energy transitions. While research has recognized the importance of both the national and the local governance levels for community energy, it remains unclear how these two levels are related. Against this backdrop, this paper investigates how municipalities support energy cooperatives at the local level and how this support is related to national context conditions.MethodsThe study takes a quantitative approach using own survey data from Germany and Switzerland. Based on a typology of municipal support, we compare limiting factors and municipal support for energy cooperatives between the two countries as well as between energy cooperatives with and without municipal membership. By means of this two-tiered comparison, we analyze how municipal support is related to national contexts, specifically regarding national energy policies, and to municipal involvement in the cooperatives.ResultsOur analysis shows that municipal support can benefit energy cooperatives as it addresses some of the major limiting factors for energy cooperatives in Germany and Switzerland. However, our data suggest that municipalities only specifically address cooperatives’ limitations with support measures if they are a member in the cooperative. This indicates that organizational involvement of a municipality in energy cooperatives leads to a more targeted support compared to non-members and thus is beneficial to meet the specific cooperatives’ challenges due to national energy policy.ConclusionsCooperatives can benefit from municipal support, especially if the municipality is a cooperative member. Municipal support is likely to become even more important for energy cooperatives in the future, due to reduced national support for renewable energies in Germany and Switzerland. On their part, municipalities can benefit from collaborating with energy cooperatives, as they gain an additional instrument to implement municipal energy policy. Hence, supporting and seeking membership in energy cooperatives appear to be adequate strategies for municipalities to foster a decentralized energy transition.