FAIReconomics Newsletter week 18/2020 german version
Petersberger Klimadialog: Dozens of companies are demanding a roadmap to climate neutrality from politicians. In the end, the sustainability of the economy is at stake. Up to now, the dialogue has been regarded as preparation for the World Climate Conference, but this year’s conference, which was originally scheduled to take place in Glasgow, has been postponed. The fact that the Petersberg Climate Dialogue is nevertheless taking place, even though the almost 40 ministers from around the world are only meeting virtually, should be taken as a message: Climate protection should continue despite the Corona crisis. Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) will also take part in the two-day summit. Merkel will speak on Tuesday. tagesspiegel.de , handelsblatt.com, zeit.de, n-tv.de
Renewable energies are becoming victims of the virus: experts fear that the year 2020 could weaken the global success of renewable energies. Plants have had to close due to the pandemic because of a lack of material supplies, construction work is delayed and last but not least investments are held back. Worldwide, 9,000 fewer wind turbines could be built than planned in 2020, which would mean an increase of nine percent instead of the originally forecast 24 percent taz.de
13,433 tons of harvested plastics were collected in Germany in 2018. (More recent figures are not yet available) I2017, according to the initiative, the figure was 7,062 tonnes, as the federal government states in an answer (19/18450) to a minor question from the Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group (19/17904). As it is further stated therein, according to the initiative, the collected materials would be completely recycled. Harvested plastics include silage flat and stretch film, bale nets, asparagus film, baler twine and mulch film. The initiative estimates the total market volume of these films at 65,800 tonnes. The Federal Government is unable to provide any information on the quantity of plastic films for horticulture and landscaping. There are „no statistics available on the quantities of plastic films for horticulture and landscaping that are marketed per year“, the answer states.
The next drought will certainly come in Germany: The past year 2019 was much too warm and dry, and the year 2020 will start in a similar way, so the months January to March were the warmest first quarter in Europe in 100 years. So far, only about five percent of the usual amount of rain has fallen in April. In addition, the strong wind made it difficult, especially for light, sandy soils. The top 20 centimetres of the subsoil have dried up. If there is no rain, a serious drought threatens. The winters have also been dry. A meteorologist: „You can imagine the ground like an empty swimming pool. We need unusually much rain to fill it up.“ spiegel.de
Greens against nuclear waste law: The Greens want to force changes to the new draft of the nuclear waste law through the Bundesrat. Sylvia Kotting-Uhl, the chairwoman of the environmental committee, said that the Geology Data Act endangers the open search for a final repository. The black-red coalition wants to „protect the data of the industry to the detriment of the citizens“. In Germany, a place is to be found by 2031 where highly radioactive nuclear waste can be stored underground as safely as possible for a million years. „People want and need to know why a nuclear waste repository is being built in their region and not elsewhere.“ All the facts and figures would have to be on the table. n-tv.de
Why the oil price is going crazy: On Monday evening, the price of American crude oil on the stock exchanges slipped far into negative territory. Buyers of crude oil could take there thus the raw material in receipt and collect in addition a premium. Oil supply and oil demand are currently diverging strongly. While the demand sank by the COVID 19 Pandemie strongly, the crude oil supply continues to grow. faz.net, general-anzeiger-bonn.de
Grid stability and small-scale electricity production: Tennet, Swissgrid and Terna, transmission system providers from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland, want to jointly explore new ways of ensuring system stability. In future, the companies will collect small amounts of electricity from private households via a new platform. The electricity is intended to help compensate for fluctuations in the grid. handelsblatt.com
BOOKTIP OF THE WEEK:
Führung und Macht – Aspekte moderner Führungsrollen – gesehen in Figuren von Grimms Märchen
In the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm, the aspects of leadership and power come to light with an unadorned hardness and clarity. The new title „Leadership and Power“ uses constructive and destructive examples of selected fairy tales to show an interdisciplinary approach, far removed from mechanistic management models. Leadership and power are inseparably linked. Those who really lead profess their own power. It is of no use to either the employees or the organization if the leader denies his or her own positional power. Effective leadership also means dealing with the dark sides of power that are associated with every leadership position. In times of organisational change, uncertainty and complexity that the organisation has to cope with, leadership is particularly important: leaders are expected to be fair and clear, and to support and encourage employees. At the same time, leadership work sometimes requires toughness and enforcement.
„Leadership and power“ offers an unusual approach to the leadership role and tasks of leadership. Opportunities for reflection and team development address various aspects of leadership. schaeffer-poeschel.de
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Glass batteries: Soon going into mass production. energyload.eu
Home Storage Market: Increasing Growth. eupd-research.com
Depressed mood: 52 gigawatt lid hits industry on the tummy. pv-magazine.de
The death of the blue tits: Causes found. faz.net
Global strike: Friday for Future goes online. euractiv.de
Heil: Will introduce right to home office. afp.com
SUSTAINABLE MOBILITY:
Ride pooling services are a good tool in mobility: Ride-pooling services, which offer rides for several guests on a digital platform in some German cities, are used to a large extent by young people as a „door-to-door“ supplement to bus and train. Just under half of those who have a car in their households could imagine doing without their own car in future. These are the results of a study which researchers were able to determine for the first time on the basis of data from a provider. Andreas Knie and Lisa Ruhrort of the WZB are calling for the strict legal requirements for these services to be relaxed so that they can make a greater contribution to the turnaround in transport. wzb.de (original document)
Digital transport services: „Innovative seamless mobility – networked and digital on the move throughout Germany“ is the title of a motion by the FDP parliamentary group (19/18674), which was on the Bundestag agenda on Thursday. As the Liberals write in it, all areas of professional and private life benefited from the advancing digitalisation. „Whether in the health sector, in administration or in tourism – digital applications are now an integral part of it,“ the bill says. Digital offers are also essential in the transport sector. Increasingly, people are planning their routes by smartphone, taking into account the current weather, the traffic situation or the current availability of various means of transport. The concept of SeamlessMobility, i.e. the flexible, simple use of different mobility offers across transport providers and their frictionless combination, is an important component of future mobility and an opportunity for every individual, the MEPs believe. Against this background, the motion calls on the Federal Government to oblige local and long-distance public transport operators to make their current timetable data available to the public in a standardised, machine-readable form – as open data – for free use. In addition, the government at European level must work towards the standardisation of open platforms with uniform interfaces, which are necessary for the successful implementation of the SeamlessMobility concept, so that the data can be used jointly, securely and competitively on the open platforms for one-stop shops – for example with the help of block chain technology.
Production stop at StreetScooter: The FDP faction discusses the production stop at the electric vehicle manufacturer StreetScooter in a minor question (19/18502). The members of parliament would like to know how much the federal government has supported the company and its customers – including Deutsche Post and the city of Aachen. They also ask about the consequences of the end of production
Smart logistics: reduces supply chain costs. automobil-produktion.de
Cheaper fuel: Less traffic in the Kiel Canal verkehrsrundschau.de
Schulze: Against a lump-sum subsidy, Federal Environment Minister wants „innovation premium“ for car industry. schwarzwaelder-bote.de
E-bike promotion: If the federal government wants more people to leave their cars behind, it should introduce a nationwide purchase premium for e-bikes – and for normal bikes, of course. zeit.de
LAST WEEK IN THE BUNDESTAG
Help for charitable organizations: The Greens advocate the creation of a „civil society rescue umbrella“ for small non-profit organisations that are not covered by any of the rescue umbrellas provided by the German government for the Corona pandemic. In the corresponding motion (19/18709), it calls on the federal government to use this rescue package to provide emergency aid quickly and unbureaucratically to organisations threatened by the Corona pandemic. In addition, it is to be examined whether the funds from the budget of the „German Foundation for Commitment and Volunteering“, which is currently being set up, can be used for this purpose. The Greens point out that charitable organisations are legally required to pursue only a moderate accumulation of assets in the sense of the purpose of the statutes. For this reason, they have only small reserves with which they cannot cope with the challenges of the Corona crisis. Added to this were the loss of income due to the pandemic.
Greens want a green hydrogen strategy: The Bündnis 90/Die Grünen parliamentary group advocates a „green hydrogen strategy“. In a motion (19/18733), MEPs call for the production and use of so-called green hydrogen from renewable energies to be given an economic perspective in terms of climate protection in Germany. Electricity from renewable energies, which has not yet been produced in the event of grid bottlenecks, should be made available to the operators of hydrogen plants and other spontaneous users at low cost. In addition, in the course of the expansion of renewable energies, investors should receive security for renewable energy plants for the entire period until at least 2030. The solar cap and barriers to the expansion of wind power plants would have to be removed. „Green hydrogen2 and the intelligent linking of sectors would play an important role in tomorrow’s energy world,“ say MEPs in explaining their proposal. The consequences of the corona crisis in particular call for a far-sighted investment and economic stimulus programme that combines acute crisis management with a clever reorientation of domestic industry.
Strengthen literacy with AI: asks the FDP about literacy through artificial intelligence. According to the Leo – LevelOne study of the University of Hamburg, sponsored by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research, 7.5 million people in Germany live with low literacy. The MEPs call on the Federal Government, together with the Länder and responsible institutions such as the Standing Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs (KMK), to present a strategy in which it sets out how it intends to make greater use of digital innovations in connection with reading and writing difficulties in schools and further education institutions of lifelong learning for the basic education of pupils and the further training of teaching staff. In addition, the Liberals want a study to be presented explaining why only 0.7 percent of people with low literacy levels participate in further education measures. In addition, a basic education portal is to be developed as part of the publicity measures, where all people with low literacy levels can take courses to learn how to read and write. In addition, together with the Länder and the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder, it is to be ensured that teaching staff receive sufficient training in artificial intelligence methods already during their training.
Waste retrieval from Asse II: The retrieval of radioactive waste from the Asse II mine near Wolfenbüttel in Lower Saxony is a problem that will accompany society for many decades to come. This became clear at the public expert discussion of the Committee for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety on Wednesday morning. For the Asse near Remlingen, which contains about 126,000 barrels with low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste in 13 chambers, there is the legal requirement of immediate decommissioning. The retrieval plan of the Federal Agency for Final Disposal (BGE) submitted in mid-April was assessed and discussed online by the experts. Only a few members of parliament gathered in the committee room – at a safe distance. Most of the experts expressed their opinions via video conference. „We are dealing with a former mine that is leaning together and has a constant inflow of water“, said Chairwoman Sylvia Kotting-Uhl (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen) describing the complex problem. bundestag.de
Reform partnerships with Africa: As part of the „Marshall Plan with Africa“, Germany has so far concluded bilateral reform partnerships with Ethiopia, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia. Partnerships for other countries willing to reform could be considered in principle if they met the necessary criteria, writes the German government in a reply (19/18486) to a minor question (19/17490) from the FDP parliamentary group. It was not planned to involve companies in these projects of intergovernmental cooperation. However, cooperation with the private sector is a central component of the Marshall Plan with Africa, the Federal Government stresses. In order to promote the close involvement of companies, additional initiatives and instruments had therefore been created to supplement the reform partnerships. In addition, the Federal Government had in recent years „to a considerable extent“ improved and expanded the instruments of foreign trade promotion with regard to Africa in order to increase the involvement of German enterprises in Africa.
What happens with sewage sludge in Germany: The recycling of sewage sludge is declining. In 2018, 402,900 tonnes of dry matter were recycled, both in terms of soil and landscape. This corresponds to 23.1 percent of the total sewage sludge volume. In 2017, the proportion was 28.2 percent, compared with 57.4 percent in 1998. This is the result of an answer of the Federal Government (19/18446) to a minor question of the parliamentary group Bündnis 90/Die Grünen (19/17920). The Federal Government is unable to provide any information on the development of the amount of polyacrylates introduced into the soil each year by the recycling of sewage sludge near the ground. The synthetic polymers are used for flocculation and dewatering of sewage sludge. She said that „so far she has no reliable knowledge of the quantities and types of polyacrylates introduced into and on soils by sewage sludge“. Due to the decreasing soil-related sewage sludge utilization, the application of polymers applied with the sewage sludge will further decrease, the answer states. The Federal Government also points out that there is currently no corresponding measuring method available „to reliably check synthetic polymers in soils and in sewage sludge“. Results of a research project on this subject at the Federal Environment Agency are expected at the end of the year, according to the information provided.
TAKEN LITERALLY
„If the Corona crisis is over as a crisis, then the virus is not gone. I suspect we’ll have a slightly more open mind and ears to the real issues at hand.“
Prof. Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker is a natural scientist, climate policy pioneer and honorary president of the Club of Rome think tank, he says, that is the climate crisis. Imagine if we were to carry on as before and suddenly the Greenland ice would slide into the water. Then practically all the port cities in the world would be ruined. The damage would be unbelievable. In comparison, the Corona crisis is a sandbox game. This means that we have to react much more seriously and take these major crises seriously. We have always suppressed this. The fact that around one million animal and plant species have either been exterminated or are threatened with extinction is also an incredible intervention. He fears that this intervention is worse than the meteorite impact 65 million years ago. This led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. This time man is destroying everything and embarrassingly especially agriculture. dw.com
MORE KNOWLEDGE
Exclusive:
Corona positive: Seize opportunities through qualification for new growth – From lockdown to new jobs and growth: „Even if the federal government’s digitalization offensive has not yet arrived in many schools, parents, teachers and students have long since been networked with each other via digital media – usually on their private devices,“ says Dieter Dohmen, who is the founder of the Research Institute for Economics of Education (FIBS). Now they are calling for the corona crisis and short-time work to be used for professional qualifications. And to increase the short-time work allowance as an incentive for those willing to learn. fair-economics.de
Development NGOs without money: declining donations, curfews – organisations in developing countries are struggling with very different problems in the pandemic. Help is particularly necessary right now. Especially in the global south, COVID-19 builds on already existing crises, such as the locust plague in East Africa or droughts. Venro, the Association for Development Policy and Humanitarian Aid, is now calling for state support for its member organisations. Many NGOs are organised as associations or foundations and are often not reached by the aid measures decided upon so far. Certain tax breaks, for example, are of little use to charitable NGOs, as they do not have to pay the taxes anyway. Subsidies for personnel and administrative costs could help, however. taz.de
Climate change and the environment the greatest concerns of mankind: People are most worried about climate and the environment because they believe that they are most affected by them. The result revealed a United Nations survey in which more than 41,000 people from 186 countries took part. But people are also concerned about the violence in many countries. In third place among the most important global issues is the threat posed by health risks. The corona crisis has given it new topicality. In addition, the number of people who believe that states must work together more closely is increasing. un.org , zeit.de
Australia: With Cloud Bleeching against coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Ree spiegel.de
North Pole Ice: No longer salvageable. faz.net
Turkey: Dolphins in the Bosporus again n-tv.de
Africa: The continent has a lot of experience with infectious diseases. Industrialized countries can also learn from this. even if the number of infected people is increasing. dw.com
Hunger, plague of locusts and now Corona. Here is a picture to think about. In the Masai Mara, a nature reserve in Kenya, people line up to receive food.
LAST WORDS:
USA Disinfectant poisoning is on the rise: While Donald Trump’s statements about injecting disinfectants have no immediate trigger for a development that concerns the authorities in the United States. In the USA, more people have been poisoned with disinfectants and cleaning agents since the beginning of the corona crisis. Children in particular have been affected time and again. The US CDC is not yet able to provide exact proof of the increasing number of poisonings and the COVID-19 crisis, but the corona crisis and the increase in poisonings are related in time. It increased by 20 percent compared to the same period last year. spiegel.de
All pictures. Source by pixabay.com, Massai/Kenia: privat
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