Katja Hünecke

Heating the Future: Overcoming Challenges and Gaining Stakeholder Support for District Heating Transformation

District heating plays an important role in many studies and scenarios for reaching greenhouse gas neutrality in Germany’s heating sector. In some scenarios, the share increases to up to 30 % of the final energy demand for heat supply in buildings. Expanding and transforming district heating will

The Social Climate Fund – Opportunities and Challenges for the buildings sector

The objective of this study is to analyse the Social Climate Fund (SCF) proposal with respect to the following questions Is the SCF designed to fulfill this promise? Is the budget allocated in a solidary way across Member States reflecting the needs of Members States? And: will the SCF actually help

Successfully shaping structual change

Towards a Green Economy

This publication presents key messages and recommendations for successfully shaping structural change towards a Green Economy. The publication results from the REFOPLAN-project „Ökologischer Strukturwandel“ (Ecological structural change, research funding code 3716 14 101 0). The target group in

An assessment of existing indicators and gaps at the socio-environmental nexus, with suggestions for the way forward

Measuring a Just Transition in the EU in the context of the 8th Environment Action Programme

This paper discusses how to measure whether and to what degree EU environmental policy is socially just by using easily interpretable indicators. Its main task is to assess existing (or officially discussed) European-level indicators at the socio-environmental nexus on their suitability to serve as

Attempting to Integrate Transaction Costs and Energy Efficiency Services

Towards a More Realistic Cost–Benefit Analysis

In order to calculate the financial return of energy efficiency measures, a cost–benefit analysis (CBA) is a proven tool for investors. Generally, however, most CBAs for investors have a narrow focus, which is — simply speaking — on investment costs compared with energy cost savings over the l

In the Spotlight

The energy transition – socially just … and the polluter pays

The energy transition is an ambitious project for the whole of society. Its goal is to restructure the entire energy supply, no less. For the power generation sector, this means moving away from fossil fuels to clean, green and mostly locally sourced renewable energies. For electricity users, energy