sdp philosophy
The sdp adressess the current lack of transparency and open, evidence-based procedures as the basis for a successful energy transition. It supports evidence-based frontrunners (“coalition of the willing”) and a strong European building energy policy in the interests of consumers (SDG7).
sdp supports successful climate protection and a factual heat transition with open and evidence-based methods (Start methodology) and tools (Protoytpes). The aim is to provide the population and decision-makers with “clear and neutral guidance” for taking effective measures. The permanent, neutral and interdisciplinary further development of dynamic CO2 target values, methods, (AI) tools and the use of data is of great importance.
As an initiative from science, companies and civil society, the sdp identifies problems and causes of performance gaps, excessive heating costs and missed climate protection targets. It criticizes solely theoretical targets in laws and subsidies, inconsistent CO2 factors and a lack of standards and points out that it does not believe that the values of transparency and openness necessary for a successful heating transition are sufficiently represented in politics.
The sdp has a democratic understanding of data ownership, AI and data protection in the European context. The ownership of data must be regulated in such a way that data monopolies do not further de-democratize society and politics. To prevent misuse, the sdp focuses on data economy for central building indicators and the best possible protection for “mass data”, especially for AI-supported optimization.
The commissioner of the sdp is the non-profit Energy Efficiency Foundation. Its purpose is to promote environmental protection, education and consumer protection. With its independent, data-based approach from civil society, the foundation regularly finds itself at odds with the majority opinion in committees and political consultations, for example. The reason given to the foundation by ministries and political groups is that “there is no solution in this system” and that “politicians cannot prevail against associations even in small matters”. The aim of the sdp is to support stable and efficient democratic governments in the EU with data-driven approaches.
Since 2019, the foundation has been pointing out that the lack of consideration of (bottom-up) practical and citizens’ interests is attracting undemocratic parties, especially if the housing cost burden caused by a failed energy transition over many years is ignored. In order to provide robust data structures in the face of a loss of trust in politics and fascist tendencies, the sdp takes decentralized server structures into account as a preventive measure.
The sdp sees the often overwhelming complexity of the energy transition as a stumbling block, it separates “simple” tools from complex solutions in interdisciplinary cooperation between different research fields, including questions of monopoly formation, power and information asymmetry (transformation and policy research). In research projects, preliminary work can be made available for a consistent overall methodology. The sdp encourages the disclosure of data quality classes and transparent AI labeling.
Status 2024-11-28 according to the resolution of the sdp annual meeting 2024