Master Thesis - Comparative Analysis of Emissions and Energy Demand Goals in Local vs. National Climate Action Frameworks in the EU

Your Job:

The thesis work can be broken down into the following work packages:
WP1 – Investigation of the climate goals of local governments. The focus is on the local governments that have joined the Covenant of Mayors (https://eu-mayors.ec.europa.eu/en/home), thereby submitting a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP). In this WP, the submitted SECAPs will be reviewed. Outcome:

• An assessment of the number of regions that have not developed a SECAP, lack a detailed SECAP and have submitted SECAP with sufficient details, in each of the 27 EU countries
  
• Documentation of key goals, namely emissions and energy demand in different sectors, from the SECAPs for the year 2030
  

WP2 – Improve the existing spatial disaggregation methodology – mainly through collection and processing of new datasets. Outcome:

• Spatially disaggregated key goals from national plans to the municipal level for the year 2030. The national plans are an outcome of the work carried out in the LOCALISED project (https://www.localised-project.eu/)
  

WP3 – Comparison of the keys goals of spatially disaggregated national plans with the local ones to answer the following research questions:

• In which sectors do the plans align or misalign?
  
• How do the misalignments differ in different countries?
  
• Any other interesting question that might arise during the work
  

Your Profile:

• Very good academic record and currently enrolled in a Master’s program in engineering, computer science, data science or a related field of study
  
• High interest in data processing and analysis and producing interesting plots using Python
  
• Very good Python (or other) programming skills
  
• Motivation to work on the topic and ability to work independently and analytically
  
• High degree of self-organization and time management skills
  
• Good written and spoken English skills

Our Offer:

You will be contributing to an ongoing EU project - LOCALISED, in a team of experts with different scientific backgrounds. Upon completing this Master`s thesis, you will have achieved proficiency in Python programming and significantly enhanced your presentation skills. We offer you a high degree of flexibility, insights into the processes of a leading scientific institute and the opportunity to work on highly relevant environmental and energy topics. Further we offer our students:

• Collaboration in a diverse, highly motivated, and international working group in one of the largest research institutions in Europe
  
• An excellent scientific infrastructure and intensive supervision
  
• Professional technical equipment for remote work and the opportunity to work 100% from home
  
• Flexible working hours as well as a reasonable remuneration
  
• Ideal conditions for balancing work and private life, as well as a family-friendly corporate policy
  

In addition to exciting tasks and a collaborative working atmosphere at Jülich, we have a lot more to offer: https://go.fzj.de/benefits

The position is initially for a fixed term of 6 months.

We welcome applications from people with diverse backgrounds, e.g. in terms of age, gender, disability, sexual orientation / identity, and social, ethnic and religious origin. A diverse and inclusive working environment with equal opportunities in which everyone can realize their potential is important to us.