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An optimistic narrative has gained momentum during the first year of the pandemic: the COVID-19 crisis may have opened a window of opportunity to "rebuild better", to spur societal transitions towards environmental sustainability. In this comment, we review first evidence of individual and political changes made so far. Findings suggest that economies worldwide are not yet building back better. Against this background, we argue that a naïve opportunity narrative may even impair the progress of transitions towards environmental sustainability because it may render green recovery measures ineffective, costly, or infeasible. Based on these observations, we derive conditions for green recovery policies to succeed. They should consist of a policy mix combining well-targeted green subsidies with initiatives to price emissions and scrap environmentally harmful subsidies. Moreover, green recovery policies must be embedded into a narrative that avoids trading off environmental sustainability with other domains of sustainability—and rather highlights respective synergies that can be realized when recovering from the COVID-19 crisis.

The energy system transformation in Germany is a challenge for society, economy and politics and has several impacts on multiple scales. This paper investigates the effects of the trajectories towards net zero emissions by 2050 through focusing on the spatial dimension of impacts, benefits, and losses for different stakeholders and technologies. Spatial heterogeneity in the energy transition means that regions enjoying benefits from decarbonization might diverge from regions experiencing losses, and that there are different geographical potentials and challenges. The question arising is one of the need for redistribution between benefits and losses, whilst ensuring that all stakeholders remain willing to act as frontrunners in the transformation of the energy system. Inclusion and participation in the process, together with a carefully targeted mixed set of regional energy policy, combining tax solutions and incentives for acceptance of required measures could facilitate a successful, efficient policy-supported energy transition.

In den energie- und umweltpolitischen Diskussionen in Deutschland gewinnt die Energiebereitstellung aus regenerativen Energien im Allgemeinen und aus Biomasse im Besonderen zunehmend an Bedeutung. Erneuerbare Energien decken heute bereits etwa 12,2 % des Endenergieverbrauchs in Deutschland. Etwa 70 % davon entfällt auf Biomasse (AGEE-STAT, 2012). Bis 2020 soll der Anteil erneuerbarer Energien am Endenergieverbrauch in Deutschland auf 18 % steigen. Dieses nationale Ziel ist sowohl im Integrierten Energie- und Klimaprogramm der Bundesregierung als auch im nationalen Aktionsplan für erneuerbare Energien (nREAP), der auf der verbindlichen Zielsetzung im Rahmen der EU-Richtlinie Erneuerbare Energien (2009/28/EG) beruht, verankert. Die Erreichung dieses Ziels ist der deutsche Beitrag zur Steigerung des Endenergieverbrauchs aus erneuerbaren Energien in der Europäischen Union bis 2020 auf indestens 20 %. Zur Erfüllung dieser Zielsetzung wird Biomasse als erneuerbarer Energieträger eine tragende Rolle spielen, da aufgrund bestehender Technologien und Nutzungspfade im Bereich der Bioenergie eine Erhöhung der Energiebereitstellung kurz- und mittelfristig realisierbar ist. Daher ist es zunehmend wichtig, Einsatzmöglichkeiten der Biomassenutzung zu prüfen und den effizienten Einsatz von Biomasse als Energieressource bei der Strom-, Wärme- und Kraftstoffbereitstellung weiter zu untersuchen und zu entwickeln.

The deployment of onshore wind power involves spatial sustainability trade-offs, e.g., between the minimization of energy system costs, the mitigation of impacts on humans and biodiversity, and equity concerns. We analyze challenges arising for decision-making if wind power generation capacity has to be allocated spatially in the presence of such trade-offs. The analysis is based on a game developed for and played by stakeholders in Germany. The results of the game illustrate that there is no unanimously agreed ranking of sustainability criteria among the participating stakeholders. They disagreed not only on the weights of different criteria but also their definition and measurement. Group discussions further revealed that equity concerns mattered for spatial allocation. Yet, stakeholders used quite different concepts of equity. The results support the importance of transparent, multi-level and participatory approaches to take decisions on the spatial allocation of wind power generation capacity.

The German Government's Integrated Energy and Climate Programme (IEKP) and the National Biomass Action Plan set ambitious targets for the further development of bioenergy until 2020. The share of energy from biomass is supposed to reach 8 % and 9.7 % of the total power consumption and of the total heat usage, respectively. The share of biofuels on the total consumption of fuels for transportation should rise up to 12 % (energetic) by 2020. This project aims to assess the possibilities of achieving the IEKP targets for bioenergy in a regional and global context. On a regional as well as global level, the potentials of different biomasses were determined in different development scenarios until 2020. Furthermore, the extent to which remote sensing could contribute in improving the spatial specification of biomass resources and whether it could be used as a monitoring system for the early detection of land use changes was investigated. On the regional level, the spatial implications of energetic biomass use was analysed with regard to environmental impacts and land use conflicts. Depending on their significance of spatial impacts, instruments of spatial planning were assessed in order to steer the supply of bioenergy. [. from Executive Summary]