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Introduction
° To what extent can a circular economy (CE) support society towards a sustainable post-fossil fuel society? What kind of CE and herein stock-flow relations does sustainability require? °° What kind of methodologies & indicators does this imply? How can societies start engaging in a sustainable transition? How can health and climate co-benefits foster such a transition? °°° What does this mean for the self-conception of science? What kind of inter- & transdisciplinarity does this require?
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November 1998 - present
Publications
Publications (187)
Demand-side options are increasingly recognized for their potential to mitigate climate change while reducing reliance on novel carbon dioxide removal. However, systematic analyses of implemented demand-side mitigation policy mixes remain scarce, compromising assessment and exploration of effective and feasible demand-side policies. Here, we provid...
The widely heralded decarbonization of economies is a significant intervention in countries' societal metabolism, which eliminates the use of fossil fuels but also requires renewing societal stocks such as buildings, vehicles, and power plants, which in turn requires materials and energy. The circular economy (CE) shifts a country's metabolism towa...
This is the habilitation dossier of Willi Haas with the title: "The Circular Economy:
Analytical approaches to tackling misleading illusions, identifying barriers and setting transformative priorities". It contains a foreword (6 pages), an introduction (21 pages), 12 articles and book chapters as well as an overview of publications, teaching, super...
This article uses scenarios to explore the extent to which decarbonisation strategies combined with different ambi- tious strategies for reducing and slowing down resource use, can achieve the goals of the Austrian circular econ- omy strategy. Taking into account two different rebound effects, a goods-oriented and a service-oriented use of the free...
Zusammenfassung
Die Technische Zusammenfassung des APCC-Sonderberichts ″Landnutzung und Klimawandel in Österreich″ umfasst die Kernbotschaften der Kapitel 1–9. In ihr sind die Hauptaussagen zu den sozioökonomischen und klimatischen Treibern der Landnutzungsänderungen, zu den Auswirkungen von Landnutzung und -bewirtschaftung auf den Klimawandel, zu...
Zusammenfassung
Die Zusammenfassung für Entscheidungstragende fasst die Inhalte des APCC Special Report „Landnutzung und Klimawandel in Österreich“ in komprimierter Form zusammen. Im Lichte des Zusammenhanges von Landnutzung, Klimawandel und gesellschaftlichem Wohlergehen werden die gegenwärtige Situation und zukünftige Entwicklungen in Österreich...
Zusammenfassung
Das Thema Landnutzung und Klima berührt Akteur_innen mit unterschiedlichen Zielsetzungen, die sowohl Synergien erzeugen, als auch miteinander in Konkurrenz stehen. Die Land- und Forstwirtschaft, das produzierende Gewerbe, die Freizeitwirtschaft, der Verkehr, Siedlungen, Infrastrukturausbau und der Naturschutz sind aktive Gestalter....
Superblocks are traffic-calmed neighborhoods that contribute to climate change mitigation and improve living and health conditions of inhabitants without requiring extensive reconstructions. This article investigates experiments with superblocks in Vienna (Austria) from initial discussion to the first experimental implementation. We use an integrat...
Können wir erfüllt leben und dabei gleichzeitig unseren Planeten schützen? Wie können wir unseren Energie- und Ressourcenverbrauch so reduzieren und (um-)verteilen, dass alle die Chance auf ein gutes Leben haben? Welche Rahmenbedingungen sind dazu nötig und wen braucht es, um diese umzusetzen?
Diese und weitere Fragen untersuchen ÖKOBÜRO – Allianz...
The spatial arrangement of settlements constitutes a long-lasting legacy and shapes the prospects for transformations toward sustainability. Thus, understanding the drivers of changes in settlement patterns is essential. In this article, we present a spatially explicit, geostatistical analysis of settlement dynamics, and a qualitative investigation...
Nachhaltigkeit ist ein vielseitig verwendbarer Begriff. Die Breite des Begriffs kann dazu führen, dass der Begriff für spezifische Zwecke instrumentalisiert wird und an Aussagekraft verliert. Dennoch besitzt „Nachhaltigkeit“ eine wichtige „Kompassfunktion“ für modernes Leben. Der Beitrag geht daher einigen Aspekten des Nachhaltigkeitsbegriffes nach...
The circular economy is a major topic in import-dependant nations like Japan, China or the European Union, where supply security, strengthening domestic value chains and greening economic growth are key concerns. In contrast, extractive economies, mostly in the Global South, provide resources to the world market and thus exhibit inherently linear r...
Die Klimakrise wird immer mehr zur Gesundheitskrise. In letztere unvor- bereitet hineinzustolpern, führt die Pflege von der bereits bestehenden enormen Herausforderung in die Überforderung, oder, wenn man so will, von der Überforderung in eine noch größere Überforderung. Ich weiß, das klingt bedrohlich. Aber ich möchte dazu einladen, die möglichen...
Background
The climate crisis constitutes the largest threat to public health in the 21st century, from which severe health risks emerge that hit older age groups disproportionately. In addition, the health sector itself contributes to the climate crisis (up to 10% of national carbon emissions) and health inequity. We use the Health for all Policie...
Background
By 2050, about 70% of the global population will be living in cities. At the same time the health burden due to climate change is increasing in urban areas e.g. as heat waves become more frequent and prolonged and the socio-economic inequalities increase. Also, health systems are faced with multiple stress tests due to multimorbidity, la...
It is difficult to find discrete, probative and wide-ranging data about circular economy projects (funded and implemented) as there is no unified database at EU level. To date, available data are limited, incomplete, fragmented and spread across multiple sources in the EU and member states. We urge the creation of a unified database of all funded a...
It is difficult to find discrete, probative and wide-ranging data about circular economy projects (funded and implemented) as there is no unified database at EU level. To date, available data are limited, incomplete, fragmented and spread across multiple sources in the EU and member states. We urge the creation of a unified database of all funded a...
It is difficult to find discrete, probative and wide-ranging data about circular economy projects (funded and implemented) as there is no unified database at EU level. To date, available data are limited, incomplete, fragmented and spread across multiple sources in the EU and member states. We urge the creation of a unified database of all funded a...
Zusammenfassung
The technical summary is aimed at a professional audience and summarizes the most important findings of the report, but without going into all the details. Each chapter is summarized on approximately two pages. For the relevant statements, an evaluation with regard to agreement and literature basis is given. In contrast to the summa...
Zusammenfassung
The Summary for Policy Makers presents the main results in condensed form. The summary is the result of an internal coordination process and is therefore supported by all coordinating lead authors. For each statement, the relevant chapters and the correspondence and scope of the literature are indicated. Details on the statements ca...
Zusammenfassung
Die Zusammenfassung für Entscheidungstragende gibt die wesentlichen Ergebnisse in verdichteter Form wieder. Die Zusammenfassung ist das Ergebnis eines internen Abstimmungsprozess und wird daher von allen koordinierenden Leitautor_innen mitgetragen. Bei jeder Aussage sind die relevanten Kapiteln und die Übereinstimmung und der Umfang...
Zusammenfassung
Die technische Zusammenfassung richtet sich an das Fachpublikum und fasst die wichtigsten Ergebnisse des Berichtes zusammen, ohne aber alle Details auszuführen. Jedes Kapitel wird auf ungefähr zwei Seiten zusammengefasst. Hierbei wird bei den relevanten Aussagen eine Bewertung mit Hinblick auf Übereinstimmung und Literaturbasis ange...
This policy brief outlines challenges and opportunities when harnessing the intersections of climate, equity, and public health. An integration of these three sectors offers large potential for successful policy-making, political strength, and public acceptance.
National assessment reports provide a broadly accepted scientific base, for instance for climate policy-making. In this Design Report , we reflect on the 18-month process of managing the Austrian Special Report Health, Demography and Climate Change involving more than 60 authors. We discuss the efficacy of management tools and the extent to which t...
The climate crisis constitutes the largest threat to public health in the 21st century, from which several climate-sensitive direct or indirect health risks emerge. It is noteworthy that the health impact of the climate crisis disproportionately falls on groups with lower socio-economic status, which generally have lower adaptation capacities. Ther...
Widerstreitende Vorstellungen über die Bewältigungs- strategien der Klimakrise führen immer wieder zu Kontroversen. Fridays For Future verweist hörbar auf
die Defizite klimapolitischen Handelns angesichts der gesetzten Klimaziele. Hinzu kommt eine das Zusammenleben strapazie- rende und polarisierende Pandemie, die aber gleichzeitig den vorstellbare...
Die Zusammenfassung für Entscheidungstragende gibt die wesentlichen Ergebnisse in verdichteter Form wieder. Die Zusammenfassung ist das Ergebnis eines internen Abstimmungsprozess und wird daher von allen koordinierenden Leitautor_innen mitgetragen. Bei jeder Aussage sind die relevanten Kapiteln und die Übereinstimmung und der Umfang der Literatur a...
In der vorliegenden technischen Zusammenfassung werden die wesentlichen Aussagen der Kapitel des APCC SR Strukturen für ein klimafreundliches Leben zusammengefasst. Der Bericht bewertet auf Basis wissenschaftlicher Literatur unterschiedliche Ansätze zur Transformation von Strukturen, damit klimafreundliches Leben in Österreich dauerhaft möglich und...
Thus far, living in a climate-friendly way in Austria is difficult. In most areas of life, from work and housing to nutrition, mobility and leisure activities, existing structures promote climate-harmful behaviour and make climate-friendly living difficult (high agreement, strong literature base). {chap 3-9} The present report confirms the relevanc...
Aus einer umfangreichen Literaturanalyse und mit Bezug auf die in Kapitel 2 präsentierten Per-spektiven wurden vier für Österreich relevante Transformationspfade abgeleitet:
1. Leitplanken für eine klimafreundliche Marktwirtschaft (Bepreisung von Emissionen und Ressourcenverbrauch, Abschaffung klimaschädlicher Subventionen, Technologieoffen-heit)
2...
This technical summary provides an overview of the main statements of the APCC SR Structures for Climate-Friendly Living chapters. Based on scientific literature, the report assesses different approaches for transforming structures in order to make climate-friendly living in Austria possible and make it permanently and quickly the new status quo.
While proponents of the circular economy promise to solve multiple problems at once, it remains a niche discussion amongst a small group of experts. Initiatives start with rosy visions, but in daily practice they are mainly restricted to recycling. CE promoters react with ever bigger promises. Instead, hindrances need to be taken seriously. Firstly...
1 ABSTRACT Sustainable urban development is the focus of many research initiatives, especially due to increasing urbanization and climate change. Buildings and their renovation are central to the European "Green Deal". In the new Austrian climate and energy program, the topic of buildings comes first with a target renovation rate of 3%. Current cli...
Es ist ein zunehmendes Paradox moderner industrialisierter Gesellschaften, dass die Reproduktion von Gesundheit ihrer Bevölkerungen die Gesundheit der Weltbevölkerung gefährdet. Aber langsam. Welche evidenz-basierten Zusammenhänge können so eine Aussage untermauern? Erstens: In den Industriegesellschaften werden ungesunde Lebensstile stark begünsti...
The need for rapid decarbonization of the energy system calls for an improved understanding how policy action may accelerate the market diffusion of low-carbon technologies. Turning points, in other words, i.e. points in time when market growth curves change direction, occur when politics, policy, and technology streams converge. Investigating phot...
Material stocks in infrastructure, buildings and machinery shape current and future resource use and emissions. Analyses of specific countries and selected materials suggest that material stocks might saturate, which would be important for a more sustainable social metabolism. However, it is unclear to what extent the evidence holds for a wider ran...
Their geomorphological characteristics make island systems special focal points for sustainability challenges. The Circular Economy (CE) Action Plan of the European Union foresees tailored solution sets for Europe's outermost regions and islands to tackle region‐specific sustainability challenges. We address the question of how islands can achieve...
Electricity infrastructures are key for the provision of crucial energy services and economic prosperity. We investigate the current state and historical development of the global power sector from a “stock-flow-service nexus” (SFS-nexus) perspective. The SFS-nexus emphasizes the interrelations and dependencies between social metabolism (i.e. stock...
Das Schließen von materiellen Kreisläufen wird als Schlüsselstrategie angesehen, um den Ressourcen- verbrauch sowie Abfälle und Emissionen so zu reduzieren, dass diese wieder umweltverträglich werden. Dabei wird der Kreislaufwirtschaft das Potenzial zur Erreichung der Nachhaltigkeitsziele zugeschrieben.
Eine Diskussion am Beispiel Südafrikas.
Hrsg: Armutskonferenz, Attac und Beigwum
Gesundheit für Alle
In einem sehr heißen Sommer, wie er wohl in Zukunft häufiger vorkommen wird, übersiedelt eine vermögende Familie ganz einfach ins Wochenendhaus, inklusive Homeoffice. Einer alleinerziehenden Mutter mit einem Job im Verkauf bleibt diese Alternative verwehrt. Für sie ist Wohnraum in Städte...
Sustainable resource use calls for substantial changes to existing infrastructures, which lock societies into current resource use patterns. Urban mobility is a case in point: existing material stocks of infrastructure and vehicles require large amounts of materials and energy for maintenance and operation in order to provide mobility services, the...
Climate policy integration (CPI) is regarded in the literature as key to combatting climate change. It has been critically discussed to what extent climate policy is integrated in different policy fields at the European and the national level. In this paper, we analyze the expectations toward CPI from the perspective of stakeholders focusing on two...
Societies use material and energy resources to build up, maintain and utilize long-lasting structures such as buildings, infrastructures or machinery, i.e. entertain a 'social metabolism'. Nexus approaches provide useful heuristics for interdisciplinary analyses of (un)sustainable society-nature interactions, for example by highlighting relations b...
Zusammenfassung
Kap. 11 hat gezeigt, dass es derzeit noch große Unsicherheiten darüber gibt, wie hoch tatsächlich der Beitrag des Tourismus zu den nationalen und internationalen Treibhausgasemissionen ist. Es ist jedoch gewiss, dass der Anteil bedeutend ist und, in Zusammenhang mit dem prognostizierten Wachstum des weltweiten Tourismus, wahrscheinl...
Zusammenfassung
Der österreichische Tourismus ist in hohem Maß von Auslandsmärkten abhängig. Dies gilt umso mehr, als rund die Hälfte der Reisen der Österreicherinnen und Österreicher ins Ausland erfolgt (Statistik Austria 2018a). In dieser Hinsicht ist eine umfassende Abschätzung der zukünftigen Entwicklung des Sektors nur unter Berücksichtigung v...
The circular economy (CE) is increasingly positioned as key strategy for a sustainability transformation, by shifting focus on keeping materials in high value applications as long as possible, thereby reducing resource use, waste and emissions. A robust monitoring across levels and actors is needed to guide implementation, assess progress beyond sp...
The circular economy is a rapidly emerging concept promoted as transformative approach towards sustainable resource use within Planetary Boundaries. It is gaining traction with policymakers, industry and academia worldwide. It promises to slow, narrow and close socioeconomic material cycles by retaining value as long as possible, thereby minimizing...
To achieve the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement, transformative actions are needed. The circular economy (CE) is one concept that gained popularity in recent years, with its proclaimed selling point to combine economic development with benefits to businesses, society, and the environment. However, definitions of CE diverge, applications appe...
Health care is one of the largest and fastest growing service sectors in OECD countries and a significant contributor to climate change. Health care is also indispensable for human well-being. It is therefore crucial to understand how the health care sector can reduce its emissions without undermining its service quality. We break down the carbon e...
This is a 40 seconds long teaser video showing sankey diagrams of the global metabolism including circular flows for 115 years in 5 year steps.
This is the uncertainty assessment for the article "Spaceship earth’s odyssey to a circular economy: A century long perspective" in Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2020
These are the data for the article "Spaceship earth’s odyssey to a circular economy: A century long perspective" in Resources, Conservation & Recycling, 2020. It covers DE for the main material categories (fossil materials, biomass, metals, non-metallic minerals), the circular and non-circular flows and the data for the uncertainty analysis.
Video on the content of the article "Spaceship earth's odyssey to a circular economy - a century long perspective" showing with Sankey-diagrams how global material and energy flows increase since 1900
Soziale Ökologie und die 17 Ziele für Nachhaltige Entwicklung
Vom Verhandeln und Handeln zwischen Wissenschaftsdiziplinen und darüber hinaus
Dieser Policy Brief wurde vom Forschungsprojekt „Reflexive Governance in a Changing
Climate: How to Address Uncertainties in Transformation Strategies?“ (RefGovCC.AT)
erstellt. Gefördert vom Österreichischen Klima- und Energiefonds.
Landslides are recorded especially when economic damage has been caused, which is mostly the case in settled areas, along transportation infrastructure, or on agricultural land. However, recent LiDAR-derived inventories often show a surprisingly high landslide density particularly in forested areas. This apparent contradiction underlines the need t...
This is the first study to examine the existence of environmental inequality related to industrial facilities in Austria. Using distance-based methods, socioeconomic characteristics of inhabitants living in 1.0 km buffer zones around the 247 polluters registered in the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Registry are compared with those of inha...
From a frontrunner in recycling, to the circular economy.
Austria ranks as one of the global frontrunners in recycling. Four decades of dedicated policy and action have led to a situation where 58% of all municipal waste is recycled. The real opportunity now is to leverage this strong position and light the way towards a circular economy that radi...
Die Folgen des Klimawandels für die Gesundheit sind bereits heute spürbar und als zunehmende Bedrohung für die Gesundheit in Österreich einzustufen. Die stärksten Gesundheitsfolgen mit breiter Wirkung sind durch Hitze zu erwarten. Veränderungen in Ökosystemen begünstigen zudem das Auftreten von Pollenallergien und durch Vektoren übertragene Infekti...
Die Folgen des Klimawandels für die Gesundheit sind bereits heute spürbar und als zunehmende Bedrohung für die Gesundheit in Österreich einzustufen. Die stärksten Gesundheitsfolgen mit breiter Wirkung sind durch Hitze zu erwarten. Veränderungen in Ökosystemen begünstigen zudem das Auftreten von Pollenallergien und durch Vektoren übertragene Infekti...
- Biophysical growth as modus operandi of our societies
- Resource use is overshooting the limits for a safe operating space of humanity
- Counteracting increasing resource flows: circular economy
- Critically assessing the circular economy requires a system perspective
- How to measure circularity?
- How circular is Europe?
- Obstacles to making a...
Research in the ongoing ILLAS project (Integrating Land use Legacies in Landslide Risk Assessment to support Spatial Planning), funded by the Austrian Climate Research Program (ACRP), focuses on the possible effect of land-use legacies on landslide occurrences. Landslides are recorded especially when economic damage has been caused, which is mostly...
Supporting Information S1: This supporting information provides details of all assumptions, primary and secondary data sources, and various calculation factors referred to in the article.
Supplementary Data S2: This supporting information provides details of all data referred to in the article, along with a complete system description. Color coding in this SI file is as follows: green = data as used in figures; yellow = final circular economy system description; blue = calculation steps; red = raw data files as downloaded.
As a purposive sustainability transition requires environmental innovation and innovation policy, we discuss potentials and limitations of three dominant strands of literature in this field, namely the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions (MLP), the innovation systems approach (IS), and the long-wave theory of techno-economic para...
The effects of climate change on health are already being felt today and can be classified as an increasing threat to health in Austria. The most severe and far- reaching effects to be expected are health impacts due to heat. Also changes in ecosystems which influence the distribution, frequency, types and severity of pollen allergies and vector-bo...
Assessing progress towards environmental sustainability requires a robust and systematic knowledge base. Economy-wide material flow accounting (ew-MFA) is an established method to monitor resource use across scales and its headline indicators are widely used in policy. However, ew-MFA is currently limited by its empirical focus on annual flows of m...
The concept of a circular economy (CE) is gaining increasing attention from policy makers,
industry, and academia. There is a rapidly evolving debate on definitions, limitations, the
contribution to a wider sustainability agenda, and a need for indicators to assess the
effectiveness of circular economy measures at larger scales. Herein, we present...
This is the pre-print of the Austrian Assessment Report on health, demography and climate change (ASR18) - summary for decision makers and synthesis; language German. English version is in preparation.
Transportstrukturen decken in einer Gesellschaft nicht nur den Transportbedarf ab, sie strukturieren auch ganze Gesellschaften bis in ihre kleinsten Verästelungen. Tagesabläufe, Bildungs- und Arbeitsmöglichkeiten wie auch die Versorgungsfunktion stellen sich darauf ein. Selbst die Wahrscheinlichkeit von transkulturellen Partnerschaften hängt daran....
The size and structure of the socioeconomic metabolism are key for the planet’s sustainability. In this article, we provide a consistent assessment of the development of material flows through the global economy in the period 1900–2015 using material flow accounting in combination with results from dynamic stock-flow modelling. Based on this approa...
By virtue of being close to the epicentre, the Nicobar Islands located in the Bay of Bengal were severely affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Overwhelming aid followed, transforming an indigenous community of hunters-and-gatherers and coconut growers into a consumer society in a matter of months. Based on several years of fieldwork, this cha...
The circular economy (CE) concept is gaining momentum among industry, politics and academia, putting forward a number of claims about environmental and climate-related benefits. Recently, the European Union has enacted a policy package calling for a transition from linear-towards circular production cycles across its Member States by 2050. The majo...
Nur wenig Weggeworfenes findet wieder seinen Weg zurück an den Anfang des Produktionsprozesses. Aber selbst inten- siviertes Recycling macht noch keine Kreislaufwirtschaft und verspricht keineswegs eine Entschärfung der sich zuspitzen- den Umweltkrisen. Statt des Ausbaus von Beständen wie Straßen oder Gebäuden sowie der Zunahme wirtschafts- und tec...
The local level has gained prominence in climate policy and governance in recent years as it is increasingly perceived as a privileged arena for policy experimentation and social and institutional innovation. However, the success of local climate governance in industrialized countries has been limited. One reason may be that local communities focus...
