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Indicators of local transition to a low carbon economy:

the cross-border area of Alzette-Belval

Ariane König, Ph.D.

Head of Sustainability and Senior Researcher

All data on the area provided by PRO-SUD - Isabelle Renoir

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Outline of this presentation

Focus on area-specific strategies towards a low carbon economy:

1. Overcomming strong ties to the declining steel industry

2. Curbing local adverse impacts from Luxembourg’s growth

3. Cross border collaboration

Conclusions on indicators for local transition

(Shared context of overarching EU and national policies with Scheldemond case –

will not be addressed here – see report)

1. Overcomming ties to the steel industry

Key strategies:

• Regenerate local eco-systems (carbon sequestration)

• Promote eco-technologies

• Create a ‘Cité des Sciences’ - new standards for urban development

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Regeneration of ‘the Minette’

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• Development of woodland and Natura 2000 reserves on old mining land

• Attention to high recreational value for environmental health and well-being.

National plan for environmental technologies

• 1 of 4 priority sectors of

economic development

• Creation of ‘eco-dev’

innovation cluster in 2009

• Construction and energy

are key sub-sectors.

• The South and Esch-

Belval are target-areas

with inclubators

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40 eco-tech firms in the South

Just over 1/3 in Alzette-Belval

Esch-Belval with a Cité des Sciences DGNB Gold Pre-Certificate for mixed-use urban area

12.09.2011-AK 8

DGNB (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Nachhaltiges Bauen) GOLD pre-certificate

in the category “urban area of mixed use”among 13 intl. projects evaluated.

6 areas of evaluation – 49 criteria

2. Curbing local impacts of Luxembourg’s

successful economic development

• Highest demographic growth in the EU (12,8% between 2001 and

2009 – total 502 000 inhabitants)

• Daily over 160 000 cross-border commuters come to work in

Luxembourg

Emissions: 12 million tonnes CO2 equivalents in 2010

• Over 50% from vehicle fuel combustion (14% from residents)

• An estimated >20% from energy-use in the built-environment

CO2 emissions in Alzette-Belval – commuting traffic, built environment

Large single CO2 emmission sources :

• Arcelor Mittal’s steel production plant (over 3.6 M tons a year)

• The TwinErg Gas combustion electricity and district heating

generation plant in Schifflange

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Cross-border worker flows in the Greater Region

Source:

Becker and Hesse, 2010.

Over 50% of ‘transfrontaliers’

cross the Alzette-Belval area

Cross-border governance instruments

1986: The Benelux Convention on transfrontier cooperation based on

1944 Benelux Union, initially mainly a customs union.

1971: The Greater Region: Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg, Lorraine,

Rhineland-Palatinate, Saarland and Wallonia.

2011: The European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation Alzette-Belval

• Legal basis: Regulation EC No. 1082/2006 OJ L210/19 31.7.2006

• Scope: Sustainable development of the region

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EGTC –the advantage:

Collaboration across all governance levels

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State

Region: Lorraine

Departments: Moselle,

Meurthe et Moselle

Municipalities: CCPHVA*

State

Municipalities: Esch,

Sanem, Schifflange,

Mndercange

France Luxembourg

Recommendations on indicators I:

Two indicator sets for assessment at two levels

1. International benchmarking of low carbon transition:

OECD set for Environmental and resource productivity – workable.

Recommendations:

- replace ‘treatment of contaminated land’ with ‘green space’ as a measure

of local CO2 sequestration

- area-based mapping of carbon flows (and stocks) recommended to assess

reality of transition and impact of policy measures

2. Assessing progress on locally specific transition pathways:

Elaborated in a local process to direct attention of Local organisations, e.g.:

- Municipal funds supporting building retrofitting programmes

- Organisations implmenting a sustainable commuting policy for staff

- % staff completed training programmes on energy-efficiency measures

- ….

OECD set ‘Economic opportunities’ more adapted to national policy making

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Recommendations on indicators II:

Method and process

• This OECD project highlighted opportunities from developing a

set of local indicators and serious challenges of getting at data

• Multiple indicator processes are running at overlapping local

levels (e.g. Luxembourg climate pact, or EU2020 going local

/INTERREG initiatives) – attention to synergy is required

• Locally driven and –owned indicator processes with a range of

stakeholders will be most effective to direct transition

• Indicators for cross-border areas are a particular challenge –

trans-national harmonisation of sets of indicators and methods

required

- Organisations like the Benelux secretariat have a role to play

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Acknowledgements

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Name Organisation

Tom Becker University of Luxembourg, R.U. IPSE

Enrico Benetto CRP Henri Tudor, Resource Centre for Environmental Technologies

Emmanuel Cornelius City of Esch-sur-Alzette, Social Development

Kay Friedrichs Paul Wurth SA, Head Green Building & Urban Design

Estelle Evrard University of Luxembourg, R.U. IPSE

Marina-Anda Georgescu Professional participant in the UL SCCS course, 2012

Aniko Knopp University of Luxembourg, Cell for Sustainable Development

Florian Hoffmann University of Luxembourg, R.U. Engineering

Stefanie Klaedtke Institute for Organic Agriculture (IBLA), Researcher

Raquel Luna University of Luxembourg, MA EU Philosophy

Sebastian Manhart University of Trier, Dpt General Education II

Hans Mooren Benelux Union, Secretariat General

Marius Neagu Professional participant in the UL SCCS course, 2012

Isabel Page Professional participant in the UL SCCS course, 2012

John Park Professional participant in the UL SCCS course, 2012

Xavier Poos City of Esch-sur-Alzette, Economist,

Jerome R. Ravetz Environmental Consultant and academic, Oxford

Isabelle Renoir Pro-Sud, Observatory

Nicole Schlichtenhorst Pro-Sud, Regional manager

Paul Schosseler CRP Henri Tudor, Director

Christian Schulz University of Luxembourg, Head of R.U. IPSE

Sabine Stölb Ministry of Sustainable Development and Infrastructures

Olivier Thunus STATEC, National Accounts Employee