Life cycle-based environmental impacts of energy system transformation strategies for Germany: Are climate and environmental protection conflicting goals?

Kurzfassung

In the development of climate-friendly energy system transformation trategies it is often ignored that environmental protection encompasses more than climate protection alone. Consequently, an assessment of nvironmental impacts of energy system transformation strategies is required if undesired environmental side effects of the energy system transformation are to be avoided and transformation strategies are to be developed that are both climate and environmentally friendly. For this presentation, ten structurally different transformation strategies for the German energy system were re-modelled (in a harmonized manner). Life cycle-based environmental impacts of the scenarios were assessed by coupling the scenario results with data from a life cycle inventory database focusing on energy and transport technologies. The results show that the transformation to a climate-friendly energy system reduces environmental impacts in many impact categories. However, exceptions occur with respect to the consumption of mineral resources, land use and certain human health indicators. The comparison of environmental impacts of moderately ambitious strategies (80% CO2 reduction) with very ambitious strategies (95% CO2 reduction) shows that there is a risk of increasing environmental impacts with increasing climate protection, although very ambitious strategies do not necessarily come along with higher environmental impacts than moderately ambitious strategies. A reduction of environmental impacts could be achieved by a moderate and - as far as possible - direct electrification of heat and transport, a balanced technology mix for electricity generation, by reducing the number and size of passenger cars and by reducing the environmental impacts from vehicle construction.