Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy

Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy
Category:	research Institute
Legal form of the carrier:	profit company
Membership:	Johannes Rau Research Association; Ecological Research Network (Ecornet);
Facility location:	Wuppertal , Germany
Type of research:	Applied research
Areas of expertise:	Departments: Future energy and industrial systems; Energy, transport and climate policy; Sustainable production and consumption; Circular economy;
Basic funding:	State of North Rhine-Westphalia
Management:	Manfred Fischedick , scientific director; Brigitte Mutert-Breidbach , commercial director;
Employee:	approx. 240
Homepage:	www.wupperinst.org

The Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy is a private, non-profit research institution from Wuppertal . It acts as a leading international scientific think tank ( think tank ) in the field of impact and application-oriented sustainability research . The research of the Wuppertal Institute aims at the design of transformation processes towards a climate-friendly and resource-light world and develops the scientific basis for this. As an overarching goal, the Wuppertal Institute is striving for a "greenhouse gas-neutral 8-ton society" by the year 2050 and, according to its own statement, researches and develops models, strategies and instruments for transitions to sustainable development at local, regional, national and international level (see "Mission Statement of the Institute".). The focus is on resource, climate and energy challenges in their interactions with the economy and society .

A research focus of the institute is the analysis and promotion of innovations to decouple the consumption of nature and the development of prosperity. The framework for this is provided by a transdisciplinary understanding of science and the conceptual foundations of transition research. This includes problem analysis, vision development as well as the conception and design of real experiments and the diffusion of successful transformation approaches. The institute sees itself as a mediator between science , business and politics and works accordingly in an application-oriented manner. Building on the classic, discipline-oriented science, sustainability problems are dealt with in an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary manner .

history

The headquarters of the Wuppertal Institute is in the Dürer House in Wuppertal-Elberfeld.

The institute was founded in 1990. It started work in 1991 under the direction of Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker . First and foremost in his mandate laid down in the partnership agreement was "The promotion of measures and initiatives to safeguard the climate situation, improve the environment and save energy as an interface between the search for scientific knowledge and practical implementation". Von Weizsäcker's approach was a resource strategy that focused on reducing environmental consumption through an "efficiency revolution" and thereby pointed the way to "new models of prosperity". The cornerstone of efficiency plays the decisive role in the book “Factor Four. Twice the prosperity - halve the consumption of nature ” by Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, Amory and Hunter Lovins ( Rocky Mountain Institute , USA). They brought together fifty examples of comfortable products with halved natural consumption, such as hypercar, passive house , super windows, durable furniture or a summer holiday in the Austrian Alps. The book was accepted as a "Report to the Club of Rome " and remained on the bestseller lists for several months. It has now been translated into more than ten languages.

Peter Hennicke , who had previously worked on the utilization of efficiency potential in energy use, intensified his research work as director of the energy department. The concept of the then Vice President Friedrich Schmidt-Bleeks of the “ material intensity per service unit (MIPS)” and the definition of the “ ecological rucksacks ”, which goods and services carry with them when they reach the consumer, met with a great response . He recognized that the environmental policy of the time had paid too little attention to the large material flows, that in addition to the successful legal emission limits for pollutants, the material flows had to be reduced in order to conserve the finite material, energy and natural resources. With the concept of the “ecological rucksack” he brought this idea into the scientific and political discussion.

As a result of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, the question of implementing Agenda 21 was on the (environmental) political agenda in many nations . The first approaches were very timid and characterized by inexperience in the application of the new model of “sustainable development”. The report Sustainable Germany , published in 1995, was intended to remedy this: In this study commissioned by BUND and MISEREOR, the institute's team headed by Reinhard Loske and Raimund Bleischwitz broke new methodical territory. Based on an estimate of the carrying capacity of the earth or the environmental space, this study developed models, “according to which an overuse of the environmental space we Germans are entitled to can be avoided. These were based on efficiency and sufficiency ”.

The building from Döppersberg seen from

One of the most famous employees is Wolfgang Sachs , member of the Club of Rome and lead author at the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change . Ten years later the study “ Sustainable Germany in a globalized world ” was conducted under his leadership ; the book was published in October 2008. The editors BUND , EED and Bread for the World want to use the study to provide an impetus to advance the social debate on global sustainable development.

The global nature of the problems was taken into account in climate policy through the adoption of the Kyoto Protocol in 1997, at least in part, even if it was ratified many years later. In this international treaty, quantitative limits on greenhouse gas emissions were laid down for the first time . The international climate debate received intensive scientific support from the start.

Ten years after the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September 2002, the international agreements on sustainable development were updated with new time targets and priorities for action. In its “Plan of Implementation” the world summit also formulated an integrated understanding of science and politics. With the redesign of the Wuppertal research program in 2003, this was implemented methodically and in terms of content under the heading “Sustainability Research” in the institute's research agenda.

In September 2004, a Berlin office was set up under the direction of Hermann E. Ott . In 2009 Wolfgang Sachs took over the management, in 2013 Maja Göpel , from 2017 Daniel Vallentin and Timon Wehnert.

Since its inception, the Wuppertal Institute works on visions for a sustainable and CO ₂ low-carbon society. Based on this target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Germany by 80 percent by 2050, the Wuppertal Institute has developed various long-term scenarios for the German energy system. Among other things, they serve as the basis for the federal government's long-term energy study. But the climate protection policy of municipalities should also be strategically oriented towards the long-term goal of a low-carbon society. What this can look like is shown in a study commissioned by Siemens AG for Munich. Long-term energy scenarios, as developed by the Wuppertal Institute together with research partners for the Federal Environment Ministry, contributed to the German government's decision to phase out nuclear power generation after the reactor accident in Fukushima and initiate the energy transition. After Peter Hennicke, who succeeded Ernst U. von Weizsäcker from 2000 to 2008, Uwe Schneidewind became the third president of the institute on March 1, 2010. He took over the management as the successor to Peter Hennicke after his departure more than two years ago. Schneidewind holds a professorship at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal. At the Wuppertal Institute, Schneidewind places the transdisciplinary understanding of science in the conceptual framework of transition research. In 2011 the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) published its main report “World in Transition - Social Contract for a Great Transformation”, which calls for a fundamental change, a change from the fossil to the post-fossil society. The task of research is to examine these transition processes and to support the conversion through specific innovations in the relevant sectors. This approach shapes the scientific work at the institute. This also includes the question of securing prosperity, the “good life”, beyond unrestrained economic growth. Because in the sustainability discourse it is becoming increasingly clear: A more efficient use of resources is eminently important, but is not enough, because so-called rebound effects often reduce efficiency gains. How sufficiency strategies can take effect here, and how they can be used politically, is being researched more and more specifically by the Wuppertal Institute, in fields such as building, energy or local politics.

Organization and research

The institute sees itself as a mediator between science, business and politics and works accordingly in an application-oriented manner. Organized as a legally independent, non-profit GmbH with headquarters in Wuppertal, the Wuppertal Institute generates most of its budget externally through third-party- funded contract research. The clients include ministries at international, European, federal and state level, municipalities, commercial enterprises and associations, as well as social organizations. In addition, the institute receives basic funding from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia as the sole owner; it is part of the responsibility of the Ministry of Economics, Innovation, Digitization and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia .

Approx. 240 employees work at the institute. Two thirds of this is made up of scientific staff with different disciplinary backgrounds: natural and environmental sciences, geography , systems sciences, engineering sciences , planning sciences , political and economic sciences as well as social sciences . There are roughly as many women as men in the workforce. In the course of 2019, structural changes were implemented as the institute grew in size. Thirteen new research areas organized within the four institute departments began their work. With the new structure, the institute wants to take account of the higher management complexity and also position the research fields more clearly to the outside world.

Manfred Fischedick has been the scientific director of the institute since May 1, 2020 . Manfred Fischedick, a graduate engineer and professor of economics at the Schumpeter School of Business and Economics at the Bergische Universität Wuppertal , deals, among other things, with system analysis issues, aspects of innovation dynamics and the market introduction of new technologies.

The institute's scientific work is essentially carried out in four departments, which in turn are divided into research areas:

Future Energy and Industrial Systems Department

How can the transition to sustainable structures be achieved, how can the era shaped by fossil fuels be overcome? The department deals with this question from a primarily technical, structural and systems-analytical point of view. She sees key challenges in the decarbonization of energy systems, the climate-friendly restructuring of energy-intensive industries and the sustainable modernization of our cities.
The following research areas belong to the department:

Energy transition international
This research team develops solution paths for a sustainable energy system and industrial transformation in developing regions - especially in Southeast Asia, Latin America and the MENA region.
Sectors and technologies
This research team develops strategies for the climate neutrality of the energy, transport and industrial sectors while taking into account their impact on energy and resources.
Structural change and innovation
This area designs sustainable structural change, contributes to increasing the innovative capacity of industrial regions and sees climate change and resource conservation as an opportunity.
Systems and Infrastructures
This research area analyzes the interaction of technologies, infrastructures and energy sources for the transformation to a sustainable energy system.

Energy, Transport and Climate Policy Department

How must integrated policy strategies be designed and implemented in order to achieve the climate policy goals agreed in Paris in 2015 and an energy-efficient energy and transport system based entirely on renewable energies by 2050? The Energy, Transport and Climate Policy department considers the mutual interactions and synergy effects, the actor and power constellations as well as the different levels of action. You develop and analyze strategies for the local, regional, national and international level. Her work focuses on policy instruments in the field of energy end-use efficiency. The following research areas belong to the department:

Energy policy
This research area analyzes policy packages and instruments for the transition to a sustainable, largely carbon-free, energy-efficient and renewable energy- based energy system.
International Climate Policy
This area sees itself as a navigator of international governance processes and, as an architect of transformative solutions on a global level, develops integrated strategies and instruments for the transformation towards sustainability.
Mobility and international cooperation
This research area develops implementation-oriented global concepts that combine local demand, specialist knowledge and political advice with financing institutions.
Mobility and transport policy
This team is researching which policies and actors can shape the transformation of the transport system towards sustainable mobility in Germany.
Urban change
This group develops innovative concepts and instruments that enable sustainable transformations in cities and regions.

Sustainable production and consumption department

The focus of the Sustainable Production and Consumption department is the development of technological and social innovations for a resource-light and sustainable economy and life.
The following research areas belong to the department:

Innovation
laboratories This research area develops and accompanies open innovation processes for sustainable production and consumption patterns in companies or municipalities, politics and society.
Product and consumption systems
This research area analyzes and evaluates production and consumption structures from the point of view of resource efficiency and sustainability.

Circular Economy Department

The circular economy department examines how a circular economy should be designed with regard to optimized resource efficiency . To do this, the scientists look at raw materials that can be sensibly circulated, where product repairs make sense and help save resources. They also investigate which products and waste streams should be prioritized for waste prevention .
The following research areas belong to the department:

Digital Transformation
The research area examines the perspectives of digitization and how it can be used for sustainability transformation and designed for sustainable, digital transformation.
Material cycles
The focus of the research area is the closure of material cycles as a central requirement for a sustainable, globally viable level of resource consumption.

Cooperations and networks

The institute works with a large number of universities and institutes in Germany and abroad. There are collaborations with, among others, the Bergische Universität Wuppertal (including in the Master’s course in Sustainability Management and the joint research center TransZent), the FernUniversität Hagen (infernum cooperative course), the Folkwang University of the Arts , Essen, the Fraunhofer Institute for Environment, Safety und Energietechnik (UMSICHT), Oberhausen, the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam, the Leuphana University of Lüneburg , the University of Kassel and the University of Osnabrück . Abroad, the Wuppertal Institute cooperates with the environmental and engineering sciences department at Tsinghua University , the Institute for Global Environmental Strategies (IGES), Japan, and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), India. It is also active in numerous networks.

An international scientific advisory board stands for the independence of research and the scientific quality of the institute. The Berlin office promotes cooperation with scientific institutes and research partners in the capital.

communication

Since its founding, the institute has attached great importance to the target group-oriented preparation of research results and communicates them “actively”: In science through publications and at events as well as networking with partners at home and abroad; in education through projects and cooperation with sponsors of all kinds as well as courses and teaching materials; in politics, business and society through dialogue and project-oriented advice and contract research as well as innovation projects ( real-world laboratories , model projects, pilot projects) and user-oriented publications; in the general public through popular scientific literature (non-fiction books) and events as well as numerous contributions in the media. With the aim of social change processes, Wuppertal Institute makes many of its publications and research results available to the public digitally free of charge.