The economies and populations that are the main contributors to the climate crisis are least affected by the consequences. People in the Global South are already exposed to drought, forest fires, flooding and water shortages. According to the UN, there were some 270 million migrants worldwide in 2020. Recent forecasts predict that the climate crisis will force up to 1.2 billion people to leave their home countries by 2050. On 1 December 2021; the issue of "Migration and Climate Crisis: Challenges and Perspectives" was discussed. The discussion based on inputs by Writer Parag Khanna and human rights and environmental activist Kumi Naidoo from South Africa. The full recording of the event is available online.
Berlin has set ambitious standards for the prevention of CO2 emissions, with significantly stricter targets in the new Climate Protection Act (EWG Bln). What are the targets and opportunities, and what are still the major challenges and barriers? In order to become climate-neutral, it is imperative that the building sector be given greater consideration. The Climate Protection Act and the Berlin Energy and Climate Protection Program (BEK) 2030 emphasize the exemplary role of the public sector in this area. This means that public buildings such as school buildings are a key factor. In the districts' renovation roadmaps, schools sometimes account for more than 80 percent of the buildings that need to be renovated for energy efficiency in the next few years.
This study examines current proposals for the further expansion of photovoltaics and analyses the solutions used in Spain, the Netherlands and Austria. It shows that the two central goals – accelerating the PV expansion and involving residents – are in tension with each other, at least in the short term.
As part of the STErn project led by Ecologic Institute, an online-workshop on the socio-ecological transformation of the food system in Germany with a focus on the protein transition took place on 30 November 2021 together with 35 experts in that field. The aim of the event was to discuss possible indicators that can help to politically anchor and monitor the necessary change in dietary patterns towards more plant-based and less animal-based proteins.
From sector coupling to hydrogen, from the implementation of the Climate Protection Legislation to the European Green Deal: Achieving climate neutrality requires coordinated and effective policy management across individual departments. Climate policy is a cross-cutting task, because all sectors, from power generation to industry, buildings, transport and agriculture, must become greenhouse gas neutral without delay. Experts from the Ariadne Copernicus project, which is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), have examined central problems of government control of German climate policy and presented options for solutions. The paper was also sent to negotiators of the coalition talks in the run-up to publication.
Building on the kick-off event of the "Private Households" dialog forum held in June 2021, another dialog forum was held on 25 November 2021, focusing on the topic of impact. In addition to the goal of networking relevant practitioners and facilitating an exchange of experiences, this dialog forum focused on the effective and successful planning and implementation of measures against food waste. In this result documentation, you will find a summary of the reflection as well as figures of the survey results.
On the 25 November 2021, more than 70 actors dealing with food waste reduction in Germany met for an exchange on how to plan and implement measures that create an impact. The event was part of the so-called "Dialogue Forum Private Households" that is part of the German Strategy for Food Waste Reduction.
In the coming years, the course must be set for the necessary transformation toward a society and economy that is in keeping with the needs for future generations. Science, and sustainability research in particular, has a responsibility to support this change with its resources. But what must science resemble in order to find practicable answers to the most urgent questions of the future? And what demands does this place on the research policy agenda?
This event is part of the "Knowledge for Change" series of events celebrating Ecornet's 10th anniversary.
Ten years ago, leading independent institutes of environmental and sustainability research in Germany joined forces to form the Ecological Research Network (Ecornet) in order to bring their combined knowledge to bear on the scientific landscape and society. With their practice-oriented, transdisciplinary research, the Ecornet institutes have been accompanying - and actively shaping - socio-ecological change for decades.
This paper discusses which indicator is suitable to concretize the change of dietary styles towards less animal and more plant-based products – here called "protein transition" – for political and scientific discourse. The results presented are part of the work of the research project "Socio-ecological Transformation of the Food System" (acronym STErn) carried out on behalf of UBA/BMU.
The economies and populations that are the main contributors to the climate crisis are least affected by the consequences. With the European Green Deal, the EU claims for itself a pioneering role in climate protection, but does it have solutions ready that do justice to the structural inequality and unfair distribution of social, economic and political opportunities between the communities that populate the earth? In the online event on 24 November 2021 the discussion drew on Concepts for Climate Justice, featuring Maria Fernanda Espinosa, Ecuadorian diplomat, politician, academic and former president of the 73rd UN-General Assembly. We are looking forward to your registration. The full recording of the event is available online.
The aim of this manual is to increase the effectiveness of measures to reduce food waste. It focuses on the reduction of waste in private households, although the approach is in principle also suitable for planning measures in other sectors. The manual is available for download.
Climate change with the resulting global warming is the largest and most all-encompassing global crisis of our time. As an ecological crisis, it stands for the misuse of fossil fuels and the exploitation of natural life-support systems, which includes the destruction of biodiversity and also irreversible damaging impact on the geological sphere. Furthermore, climate change is a geopolitical problem. It is already stoking sociopolitical instability, creating migratory pressure, exacerbating global inequality, endangering human rights and putting peace in the world at risk.
The more stringent climate targets of the state of Berlin require that both the heat supply is converted to renewable energies in the next few years and that the building envelopes are ambitiously renovated to make them more energy efficient. This poses great challenges for the state and districts as well as the real estate industry. At the same time, due to the tense situation on the Berlin housing market, there is a need for regulations to protect tenants, which is why the number of milieu protection areas in Berlin's districts has risen sharply. In these areas, which already contain a relevant proportion of old buildings which are in need of refurbishment, there are additional obstacles to climate protection measures that are in line with the objectives.
Europa its on its way towards a circular economy and has set itself an extremely ambitious plan to this end in the form of the Circular Economy Action Plan; among other things, non-recyclable residual waste is to be halved by 2030. But how is it being put into practice? And what does it take to gain more speed here – for example in the textile sector, which is virtually exemplary for the linear thinking of a throwaway culture.
Citizens' councils are booming. Now, EU citizen panels have started. A first step has been taken, but it is still a long way to go for the EU Panels to be successful, write Nils Meyer-Ohlendorf from the Ecologic Institute and Felix Nasser from the German Bürgerrat Klima in the Tagesspiegel Background. They make three proposals how to turn the EU Citizens Panels into a success.