Invitation: Virtual Science Policy Talk

The European Green Deal aims to transform the EU into a modern, resource-efficient economy that reduces net emissions to zero by 2050 while at the same time ensuring economic growth and improving people`s health. Research and innovation are key prerequisites for tackling the challenges that come with these goals. 

In this context, it is crucial to think about climate change in a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary way. Likewise, a successful climate policy requires that climate and environmental protection be approached as a central cross-sectional task of government. It is imperative that ecology, economics, and social justice be looked at together. Rigorous research must provide the evidence to back new policy approaches.

The Mercator Science-Policy Fellowship Programme of the Rhine-Main Universities (RMU) and the Representation of the State of Rhineland-Palatinate to the European Union cordially invite you to discuss the various perspectives and approaches to the topic with researchers in small online working groups.

Welcome address

Dr. Deniz Alkan,
Director for European and International Affairs; State Chancellery Rhineland-Palatinate

Professor Stefan Müller-Stach,
Vice-President for Research and Research Careers, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz

Small online working groups

Participating professors

from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz:
Petra Ahrweiler (Sociology of Technology and Innovation),
Eva Maria Griebeler (Ecology and Evolution),
Volkmar Wirth (Theoretical Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics); 

from the Goethe University Frankfurt:
Joachim Curtius (Experimental Atmospheric Research), and

from the Technical University Darmstadt:
Markus Lederer (Political Science)

An overview on the participating experts and their key messages is available below.

We look forward to seeing you and ask that you register by 21 October 2021 via email to europe@stk.rlp.de. 

Registered participants will receive a link prior to the event.

(1) Addressing climate change requires the development of new technologies. Technological innovation should always be understood as a social transformation process.

(2) Finding sustainability strategies and preventing uncontrollable climate change are not only European but global challenges. Above all, taking into account the different underlying societal value systems is crucial to finding solutions.

(3) Every political decision changes society in ways that cannot be foreseen. For example, a measure to reduce CO2 emissions in a complex societal context may produce a fundamentally different outcome than anticipated. Simulation methods allow different measures to be tested and possible scenarios in a sandbox society to be analysed.

(1) To limit climate change to the targets of the Paris agreement most of the known fossil resources have to remain underground. This means that all oil, gas, and coal companies will have to abandon their business models within the next 2-3 decades and forego a large share of their already calculated profits. European politics and legislation will be largely preoccupied with making this happen in the EU and worldwide. 

(2) By significantly reducing meat production, huge agricultural areas that are currently used for growing animal feed will become available for rewetting marschlands, reforestation, and solar farming. This means less methane from cows, less CO2 from drained marshlands, more biodiversity, more carbon uptake, and more renewable energy production. 

(3) The non-CO2 climate effects of aviation are greater than its CO2 effects from burning kerosine. These non-CO2 effects from persistent contrails and ozone production have to be included in the ETS system. Most of these effects will remain even if aviation changes to hydrogen or sustainable aviation fuels. This means that it is highly questionable as to whether sustainable aviation can be reached at all.   

(1) We are currently facing a serious biodiversity crisis caused by the increase in the human population and economic growth. The first Global Assessment on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES report 2019) reports that about one eighth of animal and plant species living on earth are already endangered. This is mainly due to the overexploitation of nature, accompanying habitat loss and fragmentation, pollution, climate change, the commercial depletion of species, and the expansion of exotic species.

(2) Biodiversity and functional ecosystems are essential for humans. Ecosystems with their species provide many important services to humans. For example, they provide the air we breathe, drinking water, food, medical plants, and building materials.

(3) Although we are far from understanding how the loss of species affects the functioning and long-term stability of our ecosystems, we are already experiencing its consequences and we must respond. The establishment of protected and restored areas, stopping habitat destruction as well as reducing contaminants from industry, agriculture, and settlements will counteract the ongoing species decline. A sustainable use of nature at the societal and individual level and a shrinking world population will decrease the overexploitation of nature and mitigate climate change and other threats to biodiversity to maintain functional and stable ecosystems for future generations. 

(1) Dealing with climate change is a highly complex task and there are no silver bullets. On the contrary, economic and technical interventions often have negative social or political consequences that have to be taken into account. The earlier and more openly this is done, the more legitimate and eventually effective policies will evolve. The EU's Green Deal is a first, very first, step in this direction.

(2) There is no solution to the climate problem or to many environmental crises without including the most important emerging economies and eventually the global South as a whole. This has changed the structure of world politics and requires the active engagement of the EU and its member states in global climate politics on all levels and with various governmental and non-governmental actors. But the EU and its members cannot just lead by example; they will have to invest heavily in mitigation and adaptation programs in the global South. Climate policy must therefore become part of the EU's foreign policy and foreign economic policy.

(3) Within many countries of the global South, climate and environmental policies will be successful only if a new and more responsive institutional setup is put into place. This requires state- and institution-building and very often entails a strengthening of national administrative systems. For example, if the EU really wants to stop deforestation in Indonesia, not only will its citizens have to change their consumption patterns, but Indonesia will also have to change the way its bureaucracy works.