European Sufficiency Policy Database

Energy Sufficiency Policy Database

In our Energy Sufficiency Policy Database we compile and categorise numerous sufficiency policy instruments for all sectors that were collected from various sources. With the policy database we aim at providing decision makers from politics, administrations and the civil society with a tool to plan and implement sufficiency policy measures. We also address the energy system and climate modelling community.

As the Sufficiency Policy Database is expected to grow further, we welcome comments and additions as well as implementation examples for the instruments listed here to info[at]energysufficiency[dot]de.

Directions for use of the Policy Database

Sorting: The database can be sorted by most of the columns by clicking on the title of the respective column. Clicking a second time leads to reversed order.

Filtering: Below the title of the column there is an option to filter the database by this column. Depending on the content of the column, the filtering is based on a checkbox window that opens when clicking on the “filter” button (multiple options can be checked) or an a search text field (“filter / search”).

  • For an overview of the structure of the database, please visit this subpage.
  • Different filters can be combined. However, this can lead to no entries being shown when there is no policy that matches all criteria
  • On the right side above the table there is a search bar which enables searching and filtering all columns.
  • With the button “Filter löschen” (above the search bar) all filter settings can be reset.

Sector abbreviations: Abbreviations for each sector, that can also be found in the column Target / Policy strategy, are: Buildings – B, Cross-sectoral – C, Industry / Production – I, Land-use & food – F, Transport – T, Transport: freight – T-fr. The targets can thus be assigned to the sectors at a glance.

Policy instrument descriptions / References: By hovering over the Policy Instrument column, a mouse-over window with a description of the respective policy instrument and the references as clickable links is displayed. The references refer only to the Policy Instrument and the respective description.

There is additional information for all cells that have a blue font. If you move the mouse pointer over the blue font, a mouse-over window appears. If you click on it, you will be redirected to a subpage with additional information such as examples of implementation or quantification of the measures.

Time -> Impact: The Time -> Impact column gives a general estimate of the time span from implementation to impact of the instrument. In the download version of the database, there is also another column (Time -> Implementation) that gives a general estimate of the time horizon until an instrument is implemented. For this purpose, it was assumed that political agreement does not represent a significant time delay, as the urgency of the measure has been recognised. The information approximately corresponds to the following time scales:

short: less than 1 year

medium: less than 5 years

longterm: more than 5 years

Downloading the database: A version of the database optimised for export as an Excel or CSV file can be found here or by clicking the corresponding button above the table.

If you have any questions or problems regarding the database, please write to info [at] energysufficiency [Punkt] de

Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
Citation: Zell-Ziegler, C., Best, B., Thema, J., Wiese, F., Vogel, B., Cordroch, L., Lage, J., Schöpf, D. (2024). European Sufficiency Policy Database [Data set]. Energy Sufficiency Research Group. https://energysufficiency.de/policy-database/

Visualisation of database entries


Number of policy instruments by sector


Number of policy instruments by instrument type


Number of policy instruments by sector and sufficiency type


Number of policy instruments by sector and instrument type

 

Suggestions and feedback

We regard the Sufficiency Policy Database as a collection of instruments which is supposed to be extended and built upon. We therefore appreciate suggestions and contributions regarding concrete policy instruments, with respect to the information provided by the database or concerning the functionality of the database as provided here.

Please get in touch: info [at] energysufficiency [Punkt] de.

Paper on the Policy Database

Best, B., Thema, J., Zell-Ziegler, C., Wiese, F., Barth, J., Breidenbach, S., Nascimento, L., & Wilke, H. (2022). Building a database for energy sufficiency policies [version 2; peer review: 2 approved]. F1000Research, 11(229).

https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.108822.2

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(Preliminary) overview of the references

* Information about the Download version

The download version of the database contains the following additional columns compared to this browser-optimised version:

  • Policy Instrument Description: The text in this column corresbond to the text displayed here as hover tooltip above the Policy Instrument column.
  • Time -> Implementation: In addition to the time horizon until the effect occurs (Time -> Impact), an estimate of the time horizon until the implementation of a measure is given here.
  • Intro by und Intro date: These two columns refer to who added this policy measure to the database and when.
  • Additional information sector / measure / policy instrument: If applicable, these columns refer to further information on the respective sector, measure or policy instrument.