Documents Zielinska, Irina 2 results

"Both the UN SDGs and the Paris Agreement imply ambitious long-term targets which only can be met with a fundamental restructuring of economic and social systems. We propose a set of energy and climate policy indicators that allows informed policy making and goes beyond the approaches that mainly focus on progress based on the UN indicator set. The sustainable energy indicators cover the whole energy system as well as the three dimensions of sustainability. The approach combines an energy service centred perspective with research on energy and climate indicators and embeds the indicator framework in broader socio-ecologic context. For the four demand-side sectors a set of 118 high-level energy indicators has been assembled that can be further disaggregated to about 387 indicators. For electricity and heat supply a set of 25 energy indicators has been compiled that can be further disaggregated to about 130 indicators differentiating by energy source and plant type. Interactions (i.e., synergies and conflicts) between the different target dimensions and the corresponding indicators need to be carefully considered. Given the complexity of the issue and the lack of adequate indicators and gaps in data availability it is difficult to interpret certain observable trends. This needs to be kept in mind when using the indicator system for policy analysis."

"Two major international frameworks provide landmarks for future development paths: the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Climate Agreement. Monitoring the progress towards achieving the individual goals has to consider a multitude of synergies and trade-offs. In this paper we use composite indices to analyse climate and energy policy in Austria and other selected EU countries. The analysis delivers several results which are also supported by the assessment of climate and energy policies in the case study countries. In general, the improvements regarding energy efficiency, emissions and deployment of renewables have been moderate in the period under observation. This hints at the time needed for restructuring to take place. This underlines the importance of credible political commitment to climate targets, the implementation of ambitious instruments and the need for stability in the guiding frameworks in order to effectuate substantial changes. In addition, the description of the circumstances and policy frameworks in the selected countries shows, that each one is characterised by a very specific energy system (complemented by specific social structures) which determines the challenges that have to be overcome on the way to decarbonisation."