ECN: Newsletter February 2011

ECN

Extra - Newsletters

February 2011

ECN Policy Studies carries out energy studies in the field of energy and climate change. The objective is to enhance insights in energy consumption, energy markets, objectives of energy policy and policy instruments and to contribute in a significant and independent manner to better policy decisions in the field of energy.

The printable version of the newsletter can be downloaded here.

Selected projects

Local Energy and Climate Policy

In 2010 ECN Policy Studies conducted research on initiatives in the field of local energy and climate policy. More and more initiatives are undertaken at a local level, which is partly due to the climate agreements with the government. ECN has investigated several national and international initiatives in detail, such as energy saving in private homes, large-scale heat pump systems, heat production from waste and green gas delivery to the natural gas grid. Aspects such as financing, organisation, success factors and bottlenecks are addressed. Enthusiastic initiators are essential for succesful local initiatives. Moreover, it is vital to posess or obtain sufficient knowledge, and financing as well as guarantees are required. Another important requirement is a solid subcontractor and cooperation with businesses. The energetic effects of the selected projects turn out to be quite variable. Information on realised effects, especially economic effects, often proves difficult to obtain. Successful projects in other countries, despite their high educational value, are not always feasible in the Netherlands due to technical limitations or other circumstances. The existing support from local energy and climate policy by the government remains vital. Suggestions for improvement include providing extra information and financial support for initiators and front runners, offering financial guarantees for local initiatives, participating in costly but economically feasible projects, and where possible upscaling local authorities to encourage actions.

Client:        Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (EL&I)
Contact:     Paul Vethman and Pieter Kroon
Website:    www.ecn.nl/publicaties/default.aspx

Do not decide, do not exclude. On the outcomes of Cancun

The Cancun climate conference was hailed as a success. The relief was clearly audible in the voices of the delegates as they thanked the indeed competent Mexican president of the COP, Patricia Espinoza, and agreed to the outcome. We should however not confuse relief with success. The main success of Cancun was that it was not a failure.

In December last year, the 16th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) took place in Cancun, Mexico. COP16, in short, is supposed to make progress towards addressing climate change. This is important as the 1st commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol ends in 2012, this first period was not sufficiently effective, and no agreement has been reached about a follow-up as of yet. The earlier Copenhagen conference, one year ago, failed to deliver an agreement that does justice to the scope and urgency of the climate problem.

Apart from substance, it was important that the organisational failure of Copenhagen was not repeated. In Copenhagen, thousands were waiting for eight hours or more in the freezing cold, while the safety of the 120 heads of state turned out hard to guarantee in the relatively relaxed security environment at climate conferences. The organisational debacle and lack of result led to Copenhagen undermining the global trust in the international community to negotiate respectfully and solve global problems.

The desirable outcome of Cancun would have been a real agreement on substance that would be effective and lead to emission reductions and climate change adaptation. That did not happen in Cancun. No decisions were made that are likely to lead to results. What was decided, was that countries could reduce emissions – not that they must. It was decided that the international community as a whole keeps global mean temperature rise below 2 centigrade, but responsibilities are unclear. It was agreed that funding would have to be put on the table for addressing climate change and governance was agreed for such a fund, but it was ignored that the funding might be hard to raise and that resolving the climate problem needs a fund that is unprecedented in human international collaboration. A Technology Mechanism was agreed, but the desire to keep it "lean and mean" seemed to beat impact of such a mechanism. It was decided that countries would keep better track of their emissions, which is good news but in itself not enough to reduce those emissions.

But by not failing, the conference did make a decision. The most important, although unwritten, aim of the Cancun conference was to restore the lost trust in the UN process to address climate change, after the debacle in Copenhagen. By agreeing to the president’s proposal and not siding with Bolivia, which remained unhappy with the outcome, even renegade countries like Venezuela, Peru and Saudi Arabia opted for multilateral coordination over chaos.

Cancun did not result in decisions that seriously address climate change, comfort vulnerable countries and signal to the private sector that business should save energy and invest in lowering their emissions. But it also did not exclude the possibility that such decisions might emerge in the future.

Contact:    Heleen de Coninck
Website:   http://www.ecn.nl/news/opinion/archive/cancun-better-than-copenhagen-but-no-kyoto/

Beyond average. Reveal the variety in households

A successful energy policy aimed at households must take into account the large variety this group represents. Income, technical properties of the building, financing options, consumer behaviour, etc. are determining factors for the options and cost effectivity of energy reduction measures, however they vary per household. Therefore, for one family it may be more financially attractive to invest in a boiler than for another. Too often researchers and policy makers assume an average situation or base their choices on some standardised demonstration homes. As a result, specific opportunities and barriers are overlooked.

ECN Policy Studies has developed a tool that addresses the variability among households. Based on the ‘WoON research’ a virtual poll of roughly 4700 households was created. Each household can be assessed individually in terms of technical energy reduction feasibilities and financial costs and benefits. This assessment specifically takes into account elements such as mortgage deductions and rent surcharges, special interest rates and lower investment cost for e.g. corporations. It is also possible to include several policy instruments, financial stimuli, obligations or white certificates.

The tool was used to map the effects of different policy options on e.g. the affordability ratio of (groups of) households, for the Dutch Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation (EL&I). Considered aspects include the effects of label requirements, component requirements and white certificates, but also the impact of the renewable energy support scheme SDE+ on the living expenses. By means of weighing factors these data can also be translated into national data. This also makes it possible to map the potential market for energy reduction for (construction) companies.

The variation tool enables ECN Policy Studies to map opportunities for energy reduction as well as the potential and effects of practically any other support scheme. It is a useful tool to support European, national and regional governments, but also for e.g. large energy companies.

Client:      BZK/WWI and EL&I
Contact:   Casper Tigchelaar
Website:  http://www.ecn.nl/units/ps/themes/built-environment/ 

Changing behaviour? Make It Happen!

It is widely known that a great deal of energy can be saved by changing the behaviour patterns of consumers. However, we see that efforts to change the habits and purchasing decisions of consumers have not been particularly successful. Often, much less energy is saved than anticipated. In order to make campaigns and projects aimed at changing behaviour patterns more successful, the MECHanisms Toolkit (Make Energy Change Happen) was developed. This toolkit helps campaigners to avoid the most common pitfalls and make their projects more effective.

There have been many campaigns and projects to encourage people to take shorter showers, turn off the lights and do their washing at 30°C. Governments, social organizations and consultants also try to stimulate households to choose energy-saving products through, for example, subsidies on insulation and double glazing, energy labels for domestic appliances and contributions to home-specific energy counselling. The fact that the results of these efforts were often disappointing was the reason why the European research project Changing Behaviour was initiated. For two years, ECN and 12 European partners investigated which campaigns and projects had led to energy savings and which had not. Over the twelve months, the insights gained from this research were combined with previous research results and translated into a tool for managers of projects aimed at encouraging consumers to save energy and change their behaviour. This tool, known as the MECHanisms Toolkit (Make Energy Change Happen Toolkit) is now available through the website. In addition to a step-by-step plan for setting up, conducting and evaluating projects, the toolkit also offers practical checklists, illustrative examples and a wealth of background information regarding various target groups (homeowners, tenants, offices, schools, etcetera), do’s and don'ts for project managers and the experiences of previous projects that used the toolkit.

Client:       European Commission
Contact:    ecnchangingbehaviour@remove-this-part-ecn.nl
Website:   http://mechanisms.energychange.info

News

Publications

Publications ECN Policy Studies 2010

ECN, P.O. Box 1, 1755 ZG Petten, tel +31 224 56 4949  |  Disclaimer  |  Privacy Statement