Dr. Carina Zell-Ziegler

Efficiency only? An analysis of avoid, shift and improve strategies in EU member states’ long-term mitigation policy

January 2026

Despite ambitious EU targets, national emission trajectories reported by member states continue to fall short of achieving the necessary reductions. This implementation gap raises the question of what mitigation strategies and instruments member states rely on to meet internationally binding climate

Doctoral Thesis, Technische Universität Berlin

Energy sufficiency potentials and policy instruments

January 2026

Sufficiency aims to achieve a state in which overconsumption and overproduction are reduced to ensure that ecological limits are not exceeded, while underconsumption is also reduced to provide an adequate social foundation for everyone. Due to its potential to enable the achievement of several ecolo

Preprint

Energy and GHG saving potentials of sufficiency measures - a synthesis for Germany

December 2025

The sixth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) emphasises the potential of demand-side measures, such as sufficiency, for mitigating climate change. Although quantified potentials of various sufficiency measures exist, policy advisors and energy modellers critici

Crisis-proof, socially and environmentally compatible - Impulses for the development of a sufficiency strategy for Germany

December 2025

In this paper we outline key problematic trends and indicators for the building and transport sector in Germany and discuss potential sufficiency-oriented futures. We provide insights into potential policy instruments and conclude with thoughts on the implementation of an integrated sufficiency stra

Beyond technology and energy supply. Conceptualising a toolbox for including sufficiency measures in scenario projections

December 2025

This work gives an overview on findings from a five-years’ sufficiency research project regarding the tools in the box for modelling sufficiency in the German energy system context. We conceptualize sufficiency quantification by distinguishing between demand-side and supply modelling, external qua

In: Energy Research & Social Science, Volume 120

Embracing sufficiency to accelerate the energy transition

February 2025

In a rapidly warming world, the transition to renewable energy faces challenges on many fronts. Sufficiency measures, which focus on reducing overall energy demand, hold great potential to accelerate the energy transition and create truly sustainable societies, yet remain underexplored in policy cir