Umweltökonomen empfehlen seit einiger Zeit den Einsatz von Abgaben und Steuern als marktwirtschaftliches Instrument der Umweltpolitik. Ziel der Steuer ist es, Marktversagen aufgrund negativer externer Effekte zu vermeiden bzw. zu reduzieren. In der Regel sollen die Steuern dem Staat Einnahmen beschaffen, sie dienen dabei primär fiskalischen Zwecken. Umweltabgaben stellen dagegen die Lenkungsfunktion in den Mittelpunkt. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit soll an Hand einer Simulationsanalyse untersucht werden, wie Umweltabgaben in Form einer ökologischen Steuerreform im Verkehrsbereich wirken und wie sie die Wohlfahrt eines ausgewählten Haushaltes beeinflussen. Es wird dabei analysiert, welche Variablen die Verkehrsnachfrage bestimmen und inwieweit sich diese durch Preissteigerungen aufgrund höherer Steuern beeinflussen lassen. In diesem Zusammenhang gilt es zu klären, welche Bedeutung die Zeit als Bestimmungsgröße der Verkehrsnachfrage hat und ob sich die Wohlfahrtswirkung von Zeitveränderungen erfassen läßt.
The United Nations has defined the food-energy-water nexus as a key issue in the green economy process towards sustainable development. The integrated assessment model is used here to frame and study the heterogeneity of the food-energy-water nexus and to manage the food-energy-water nexus in Germany in a social learning and decision-making process. For the integrated assessment of the German food-energy-water nexus sector, a four-phase approach based on the de Ridder method is used to analyse the food-energy-water nexus against the background of the completely revised German sustainability strategy of 2017. In the first step, the integrated assessment problem analysis, the interconnections of the food-energy-water nexus between the natural resources and the socio-economic system are formulated. The new political values and options needed for the management of the food-energy-water nexus sector are revealed in the second research step and it is stressed that justice is the defining ethical norm of the revised German sustainability strategy of 2017, which is the sustainability framework for the German food-energy-water nexus. Thus, inter- and intragenerational justice is also a central issue of the food-energy-water nexus and is integrated with the social discount rate in the food-energy-water measuring concept (Fisher nexus quantity index) presented in the third step. In the final research step of the integrated assessment approach, it is found that the new food-energy-water nexus policy process also needs a 'culture of reflected numbers', as Voßkuhle calls it, to ensure a social discourse as a permanent learning process for both the German government and society.
The United Nations has defined the food-energy-water nexus as a key issue in the green economy process towards sustainable development. The integrated assessment model is used here to frame and study the heterogeneity of the food-energy-water nexus and to manage the food-energy-water nexus in Germany in a social learning and decision-making process. For the integrated assessment of the German food-energy-water nexus sector, a four-phase approach based on the de Ridder method is used to analyse the food-energy-water nexus against the background of the completely revised German sustainability strategy of 2017. In the first step, the integrated assessment problem analysis, the interconnections of the food-energy-water nexus between the natural resources and the socio-economic system are formulated. The new political values and options needed for the management of the food-energy-water nexus sector are revealed in the second research step and it is stressed that justice is the defining ethical norm of the revised German sustainability strategy of 2017, which is the sustainability framework for the German food-energy-water nexus. Thus, inter- and intragenerational justice is also a central issue of the food-energy-water nexus and is integrated with the social discount rate in the food-energy-water measuring concept (Fisher nexus quantity index) presented in the third step. In the final research step of the integrated assessment approach, it is found that the new food-energy-water nexus policy process also needs a 'culture of reflected numbers', as Voßkuhle calls it, to ensure a social discourse as a permanent learning process for both the German government and society.
The United Nations declared at the Rio+20 Conference in 2012 that a "green economy in the context of sustainable development" is a chance for poverty eradication and economic development in the institutional framework of sustainable development (United Nations, 2012). The German Government supports the UN approach for a green economy (BMBF and BMU, 2012) and declared that on the basis of a comprehensive understanding of the connection between the economy, finance and politics, and recognizing ecological boundaries and limits, environment-friendly qualitative and therefore sustainable growth should be achieved (BMBF and BMU, 2012). A green economy is now regarded as a solution for present and future social problems, and alluding to Dennis Meadows (Meadows, 2008), we can define it accordingly: A green economy is not the place you are going to. It is how you make the journey to sustainable development. We are now looking for a measuring framework for this journey. The question of the measurability of sustainability is the key to the implementation of sustainable development because as Hamilton and Atkinson clearly put it: "If current systems of economic indicators do not clearly signal that the economy is on an unsustainable path, the policy errors will be made and perpetuated (Hamilton and Atkinson, 2006)." The Sustainability Gap Index (SGI), developed by the authors, calculates the degree to which sustainability is achieved in Germany. The index shows whether Germany is on a sustainable path according to the goals set by the German Government in its sustainability strategy (German Federal Government, 2012a, German Federal Government, 2012b). The index enables us to compare the normatively (politically) defined sustainability order of the German Government (goals) with the actual "behaviour" of German society and with the interpretation of science and policy. The index enables us to answer the question of whether Germany is "better off" in sustainable categories of the green economy. The calculations of the sustainable indicators help us to understand where political action is needed in the transition process of the green economy towards sustainable development of German society
The current transition towards low-carbon energy systems does not only involve changes in technologies but is also shaped by changes in the rules and regulations (i.e., the institutions) that govern energy systems. Institutional change can be influenced by changes in core values—normative principles such as affordability, security of supply, and sustainability. Analyzing this influence, however, has been hindered by the absence of a structured framework that highlights the role of values in institutional change processes. This paper presents an interdisciplinary framework explicating how values influence institutional change in the case of the energy transition. We build on a dynamic framework for institutional change that combines the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework with the concept of social learning. This basic analytical framework is expanded by conceptualizations of values in moral philosophy, institutional economics, and social psychology. Our framework offers researchers and policy makers an analytical tool to identify how values are embedded in infrastructure and existing regulation and how values shape communities and behavior. It explains how value controversies can trigger social learning processes that eventually can result in structural change. Thus, this framework allows analyzing institutional change over time as well as comparing change patterns across spatial and temporal contexts.
Life Cycle Sustainability Assessment (LCSA) emerged as a methodology allowing a detailed representation of technologies in their processes from a life cycle perspective. To conduct a profound LCSA a plausible indicator selection is needed. From a Sustainability perspective, the currently dominant political framework is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations. In this paper, LCSA indicators are selected based on the SDGs, comparing in a first approach the implication due to the selection based on overall goals and SDG indicators level. The applicability of this selection is tested by a case study of electrolytic hydrogen production. The analysis shows meaningful differences between the goal-based and the indicator-based assessment. Only the goal-based indicator set comprises all dimensions of sustainability.
