New WBGU Special Report "Climate Protection as a World Citizen Movement"
Today, the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) presented its latest Special Report "Climate Protection as a World Citizen Movement" to the Federal Government. Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks and State Secretary at the Federal Research Ministry, Georg Schütte, welcomed the paper as a "valuable and highly topical contribution to national and international debates".
The WBGU has put forward an interesting concept for an ambitious climate agreement: the zero emissions target. According to the report, CO2 emissions from fossil fuels need to be reduced to zero by 2070 at the latest.
Federal Environment Minister Barbara Hendricks commented: "The WGBU is opening up an important debate by making such a demand. Even though this challenge may seem colossal today, a long-term outlook is crucial to successful climate policy. During UN climate negotiations, it is not enough to just focus on the next commitment period. We must come together and each find our own way to become climate neutral - the sooner we do this, the better. Germany has already agreed to prepare a national long-term climate action plan. We will strongly advocate a long-term outlook in the upcoming UN climate negotiations".
State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Education and Research, Georg Schütte, added: "We are facing decisions that require us to leave the beaten track. New knowledge and innovations from research are the only tools that can give us options for action against dangerous climate change. This is why climate knowledge needs to be actively integrated into social practice. We need research that is useful and helps us make concrete decisions on how to tackle change." For these reasons, climate change research will remain an important focus of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research's funding policy. In addition to cutting-edge research, the new edition and continuation of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research framework programme "FONA - Research for Sustainable Development" calls for stronger links between consumers and decision makers in municipalities and districts and also between public administration and industry so as to allow research to have a direct impact. Cooperation is also to be further intensified with countries throughout the world where there is a pressing need for action and where fresh momentum is urgently needed to support forward-looking climate policy.
The German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU) was set up in 1992 by the Federal Government as an independent, scientific advisory body in the run-up to the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (Rio Earth Summit). The WBGU is jointly overseen and financed by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Environment Ministry (BMUB).