Das Projekt "European Investment Bank - Water Management" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Jena-Optronik GmbH durchgeführt. BACKGROUND: The Kingdom of Jordan belongs to the ten water scarcest countries in the world, and climate change is likely to increase the frequency of future droughts. Jordan is considered among the 10 most water impoverished countries in the world, with per capita water availability estimated at 170 m per annum, compared to an average of 1,000 m per annum in other countries. Jordan Government has taken the strategic decision to develop a conveyor system including a 325 km pipe to pump 100 million cubic meters per year of potable water from Disi-Mudawwara close to the Saudi Border in the south, to the Greater Amman area in the north. The construction of the water pipeline has started end of 2009 and shall be finished in 2013. Later on, the pipeline could serve as a major part of a national water carrier in order to convey desalinated water from the Red Sea to the economically most important central region of the country. The conveyor project will not only significantly increase water supplies to the capital, but also provide for the re-allocation of current supplies to other governorates, and for the conservation of aquifers. In the context of the Disi project that is co-funded by EIB two Environmental and Social Management Plans have been prepared: one for the private project partners and one for the Jordan Government. The latter includes the Governments obligation to re-balance water allocations to irrigation and to gradually restore the protected wetlands of Azraq (Ramsar site) east of Amman that has been depleted due to over-abstraction by re-directing discharge of highland aquifers after the Disi pipeline becomes operational. The Water Strategy recognizes that groundwater extraction for irrigation is beyond acceptable limits. Since the source is finite and priority should be given to human consumption it proposes to tackle the demand for irrigation through tariff adjustments, improved irrigation technology and disincentive to water intensive crops. The Disi aquifer is currently used for irrigation by farms producing all kinds of fruits and vegetables on a large scale and exporting most of their products to the Saudi and European markets and it is almost a third of Jordan's total consumption. The licenses for that commercial irrigation were finished by 2011/12. Whilst the licenses will be not renewed the difficulty will be the enforcement and satellite based information become an important supporting tool for monitoring. OUTLOOK: The ESA funded project Water management had the objective to support the South-North conveyor project and the activities of EIB together with the MWI in Jordan to ensure the supply of water for the increasing demand. EO Information provides a baseline for land cover and elevation and support the monitoring of further stages. usw.
Das Projekt "REALISE FORUM - Renewable Energy and Liberalisation in Selected Electricity markets Forum" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Berlin, Otto-Suhr-Institut für Politikwissenschaft, Bereich Innenpolitik und Systemvergleich, Forschungsstelle für Umweltpolitik durchgeführt. In energy policy, one of the biggest challenges for decision makers is to give life to energy market frameworks which allow free market forces to operate in such a way that supplies of reliable and affordable energy are ensured whilst at the same time all other social objectives are met in a sustainable manner. In the case of renewable energy sources, a crucial question remains whether to meet this challenge the European Union would necessarily have to move from a technology-based approach (fixed tariffs) to a more market-based one (TGC), promoting international certificate trade, certification and labelling as well as internalising external costs for the prices of conventional power. Against this background, REALISE FORUM (Renewable Energy and Liberalisation in Selected Electricity markets-Forum) attempted to establish a basis for coherence for national renewables policies in the view of a possible harmonisation or coordination of financing mechanisms and support scheme for RES-E. This has been done by investigating the experience gained with feed in tariffs (FIT) and tradable green certificates (TGCs) in countries that are in an advanced phase of liberalisation of their electricity markets. Building on and complementing running national and EU activities, REALISE-Forum has: identified existing barriers for a possibly harmonised/coordinated European RES support scheme; initiated an organised dialogue of various stakeholders to discuss steps on the way to future incentive schemes compatible with market criteria, sustainability and social acceptability; created a platform for various stakeholders to discuss in a balanced way specific support policy issues and promote the exchange of information and experience; drawn recommendations for future policymaking. The project has been managed by a joint contact point based in Berlin and by 5 national desks in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, Slovenia and Norway. These were responsible to initiate a dialogue with national key actors on the adopted RES support system and to estimate costs and benefits of a TGC system in comparison to other support measures. Valuable input and advice has come from a steering group whose members included decision makers and experts from the key actors and target groups also from countries such as the UK and Belgium that have already adopted green certificates, but are not present in the consortium. This group has been joined by co-ordinators of related EU-projects. Major results: A coherent analysis and an assessment of the interplay between RES-E support measures and liberalisation of the electricity markets in selected new/old Member States of the EU, where the liberalisation of the electricity market has already been completed or almost accomplished; Identification of barriers to converging support systems; Development of basic principles as a guidance for a possible coordinated RES-E support system; Lessons for policy from ongoing experiences from FIT and TGC schemes etc.
Das Projekt "Das Gesetz des Wachstums - Streifzuege durch die oesterreichische Elektrizitaetswirtschaft" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Österreichisches Ökologie-Institut für angewandte Umweltforschung durchgeführt. Die Regulierungssbedingungen erzwingen eine staendige Ausnutzung des Stromabsatzes. Die Interessenunterschiede zwischen EVU-Gruppen (Verband, Landesgesellschaften etc) wurden bisher zuwenig beruecksichtigt. Es wird konkret beschrieben, mittels welcher Instrumente die E-Wirtschaft zur Steigung des Stromverbrauchs beitraegt (Preise und Tarife, Informationspolitik, Subventionen etc ). Das Wachstum des Stromverbrauchs in Abhaengigkeit von verschiedenen Einflussgroessen wird einer umfangreichen empirischen Analyse unterzogen und zwar auf Ebene der Landesversorgungsgebiete. Die wachsende Bedeutung der E-Heizung wird empirisch belegt.
