Abstract Both the global and the German climate targets are ambitious given recent emission reduction rates. In addition to emission reduction measures, carbon dioxide removal has been increasingly discussed recently and initial measures have been developed to potentially scale-up carbon removals in order to meet net zero targets. In this article, we undertake a political economy-based analysis of the historical development and structural conditions of German climate policy measures and their enabling role for the emergence and strengthening of carbon dioxide removal policy options. We refer to regulation theory and the Modell Deutschland approach and argue that within this model the concept of ecological modernization has been established as the dominant approach to regulate society-nature relations. In light of the ambitious climate policy goals, such as net zero by 2045, ecological modernization reaches its current limits and must be recalibrated. Against this background, we conclude by discussing the risk of mitigation deterrence associated with carbon dioxide removals and considering alternative pathways, such as degrowth, to social ecological transformation.
The area law-like scaling of local quantum entropies is the central characteristic of the entanglement inherent in quantum fields, many-body systems, and spacetime. Whilst the area law is primarily associated with the entanglement structure of the underlying quantum state, we here show that it equally manifests in classical entropies over measurement distributions when vacuum contributions dictated by the uncertainty principle are subtracted. Using the examples of the Gaussian ground and thermal states, but also the non-Gaussian particle state of a relativistic scalar field, we present analytical and numerical area laws for the entropies of various distributions and unveil how quantities of widespread interest such as the central charge and the (local) temperature are encoded in classical observables. With our approach, quantum entropies are no longer necessary to probe quantum phenomena, thereby rendering area laws and other quantum features directly accessible to theoretical models of high complexity as well as state-of-the-art experiments.
Net zero targets have rapidly become the guiding principle of climate policy, implying the use of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) to compensate for residual emissions. At the same time, the extent of (future) residual emissions and their distribution between economic sectors and activities has so far received little attention from a social science perspective. This constitutes a research gap as the distribution of residual emissions and corresponding amounts of required CDR is likely to become highly contested in the political economy of low-carbon transformation. Here, we investigate what function CDR performs from the perspective of sectors considered to account for a large proportion of future residual emissions (cement, steel, chemicals, and aviation) as well as the oil and gas industry in the EU. We also explore whether they claim residual emissions to be compensated for outside of the sector, whether they quantify these claims and how they justify them. Relying on interpretative and qualitative analysis, we use decarbonization or net zero roadmaps published by the major sector-level European trade associations as well as their statements and public consultation submissions in reaction to policy initiatives by the EU to mobilize CDR. Our findings indicate that while CDR technologies perform an important abstract function for reaching net zero in the roadmaps, the extent of residual emissions and responsibilities for delivering corresponding levels of negative emissions remain largely unspecified. This risks eliding pending distributional conflicts over residual emissions which may intersect with conflicts over diverging technological transition pathways advocated by the associations.
A 2,2′-bipyridine-N,N′-dioxide-based cryptand has been found to exhibit exceptional apparent complex stability for Ca2+and unusually shows very high selectivity for Ca2+over trivalent lanthanoid cations.
The article argues that there has been a transformation of the German Energy Turn (Energiewende) within the last couple of years. This transformation happens due to an offense of social forces that aim to slow down and push the Energiewende into another, more centralized direction. This push to reconfigure the Energiewende is articulated and strengthened through the contested environmental and energy aid guidelines on the European scale. The multi-scalar shift of relations of forces are materialized in the Renewable Energy Act from 2014 (EEG 2.0).
Die Entwicklungsdynamiken und Reorganisationsprozesse im Verkehrsbereich sind vielfältig: Technologische Erneuerungen, neue Formen und Möglichkeiten der Bewegung, aber auch (klima-)politische Vorgaben und ein wachsender ökonomischer Druck fordern die Automobilbranche und das gegenwärtige Verkehrssystem heraus. In diesem einleitenden Beitrag werden die beobachtbaren Transformationen im Verkehrsbereich dargestellt und anhand von vier Megatrends - 1) Klimawandel, 2) Digitalisierung, 3) Urbanisierung und 4) Extraktivismus - expliziert. Davon ausgehend werden die Beiträge des Sammelbands vorgestellt, die sich den vielfältigen Veränderungen und Herausforderungen aus sozialwissenschaftlicher Perspektive annehmen und Ansatzpunkte benennen, an denen sich das automobilzentrierte Paradigma brechen lässt.
