Open Access

Biofuels have recently come under severe criticism regarding their social and environmental impacts. One potential solution for these problems that is increasingly discussed now is the certification of bioenergy. In the wake of this discussion, a broad range of certification initiatives emerged during the last years. However, this issue is predominantly debated in terms of the environmental implications. Accordingly, governmental approaches to this issue often neglect the need for including social aspects into sustainability principles and criteria, most prominently here the EU Renewable Energies Directive (RED). Non-state voluntary certification initiatives, by accounting for the social implications of increased bioenergy production, could therefore be seen as complementary governance instruments that are able to fill the void left by state regulations in this respect. After briefly addressing the reasons why state regulations tend to neglect social aspects concerning this matter, this presentation seeks to explore whether voluntary bioenergy certification schemes could really be able to fulfill these hopes and provide the solution for the missing consideration of social criteria for sustainable bioenergy. And how could these private non-state initiatives do so in a politically and democratically legitimate way? So as to deal with these issues from a scientific perspective, a distinct analytical framework to evaluate the legitimacy of private governance is presented. Based on this framework, five voluntary bioenergy certification schemes are selected and their consideration given to its social dimension is examined. In order to address the characteristics of our conception of non-state legitimacy, the actor constellations behind these certification initiatives are analyzed with a view to determine the structural representation of social interests. Furthermore, we also give attention to the control and accountability mechanisms incorporated into the certification schemes that are supposed to safeguard the common welfare-orientation of the initiatives. The results of this analysis shed some light on the particular challenges and bottlenecks of ensuring social sustainability via non-state voluntary certification systems in the bioenergy sector. In the concluding chapter, these results are put into perspective and a more general discussion on the potential of non-state voluntary governance approaches regarding the social dimension of environmental governance are presented.

The promotion of renewable energies (RE) is a worldwide crucial challenge. RE contribute to the security of the energy supply as they reduce the use of fossil resources and nuclear energy, thus alleviating dependence on energy imports. They are also a very important future strategy to reduce greenhouse gases, therefore essential to meet the Kyoto-goals, to reduce climate change and to build up a sustainable energy system. The description of the future role and importance show that the policy field “RE” is deeply embedded in energy and climate policies in general – but it is not that prominent represented in the international arena, especially compared to the institutional settings of the conventional energy industries. RE are not represented by one “concentrated” organisation or an influential global network. In fact, a distinct lack of coordination and cooperation of activities can be observed, which leads to a lot of inefficiencies. There have been different suggestions on how to improve this situation. The discussion about the right path to gain such a global structure for the successful promotion has begun at the world summit in Johannesburg und especially around the international conference of the “Renewables 2004” in Bonn. While for example a global agency as part of the UN system presently seems to be far out of reach, solutions like a voluntary “frontrunner” network of interested states and private actors is discussed more concrete – and yet “under construction”. But what seems to be a realistic, useful and necessary design that meets the needs of the (international) RE industry – and what kind of experiences can give consultancy to this process? The paper wants to analyse the current situation of the emerging global RE regime, discuss the various forms of global governance mechanism and will compare the situation with former experiences (success, failures, structures) of other (comparable) global (environmental) regimes.

Der Eigenverbrauch von selbst erzeugtem Photovoltaik-Strom (PV) erfährt in Deutschland eine stark wachsende Bedeutung. Grund ist der sehr dynamische PV-Ausbau der letzten Jahre sowie die im Jahr 2012 erreichte Netzparität auf Haushaltsebene bei der Photovoltaik. Seitdem wächst die Schere zwischen dem Arbeitspreis für Haushalte und der Einspeisevergütung für PV-Strom, welche in Deutschland derzeit noch die Stromgestehungskosten zzgl. einer in erster Linie vom Standort abhängigen Rendite kostendeckend vergütet. Da die Kostenersparnis durch die Vermeidung von Strombezug mittlerweile die Erlöse durch die Einspeisung von PVStrom um mehr als 11 ct/kWh übersteigt, wird es immer attraktiver, möglichst viel des selbst erzeugten Stroms auch selbst zu verbrauchen. Weil die Strompreise im Haushaltsbereich derzeit weiterhin einen steigenden Trend aufweisen während gleichzeitig die Stromgestehungskosten der PV weiter sinken, wird dieser Anreiz zur Maximierung des Eigenverbrauchs immer grösser und könnte künftig auch Massnahmen zur Speicherung des PV-Stroms wirtschaftlich darstellen. Vor diesem Hintergrund hat das IÖW bereits im Jahr 2010/2011 im Auftrag von Greenpeace Energy erste Untersuchungen zur PV-Netzparität und zum Eigenverbrauch durchgeführt, welche in den derzeit laufenden Forschungsprojekten «PV-Nutzen» und «Prosumer-Haushalte» weiter vertieft werden.