On 6 July 2011, numerous guests from Greifswald and the surrounding area had the opportunity to see the research ship "Ludwig Prandtl" in the harbor of Greifswald/Wiek up close and to ask researchers questions about their work on the ship and about the RADOST project.
The Swedish embassy in Berlin hosted a Dinner on June 15, 2011 for the Participants of the international workshop "Regional availability of climate knowledge in the Baltic Sea" at the Nordic Embassies. In his opening address, the deputy head of the Swedish Embassy – Torbjörn Haak – confirmed the interest of his country in the topic and pointed out the work of the Baltic Sea Council, where Germany will succeed Norway in the presidency in July this year.
Scientists and practitioners have rarely had the opportunity to exchange their ideas on climate adaptation in such an up-to-date and direct way as at the second RADOST annual conference on 18 and 19 May in Travemünde. What are the expected impacts of climate change at the regional and local level at the German Baltic Sea coast? How can local stakeholders adapt to these? What kind of scientific information do they need as a basis for implementing such measures? These questions were discussed by 75 scientists in the fields of climate and natural science research, political science and sociology, together with representatives from politics, administration, economy and civil society in several science-practice dialogues. This offered stakeholders willing to promote climate adaptation in their region another opportunity to get involved in the design of this development process.
How can the EU and the US work together to improve management of coastal and ocean affairs, not only within their own territories, but across the North Atlantic? What are the obstacles to establishing integrated and science-based frameworks formaritime governance in the EU and US, and how can they be overcome? How can management be improved through the involvement of key players from science, industry, civil society and government? These questions and more were debated at the Cooperation Across the Atlantic for Marine Governance Integration (CALAMAR) final conference that took place in Lisbon (Portugal).
"Security" is a much wider concept today than it was just some decades ago. Today, the concept is applied not only to new and diffuse military threats such as global terrorism but has been broadened to include additional areas such as food, water, health and other issues, of which many are intimately related to the environment and to its protection. But is this shift helpful for the environment and/or for populations under duress? What are the implications for the world's most conflicted and environmentally fragile regions? These questions formed the basis of discussions during a recent meeting of the CLICO project hosted by Ecologic Institute from 16 to 18 February 2011 in Berlin.
What practical measures can already be taken and implemented now in order to adapt to climate change? The competition "forward-thinking change – act now: adaptation pioneers wanted!" is looking for answers to this question. It was launched by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment and KomPass – the German Federal Environment Agency’s Competence Centre on Climate Impacts and Adaptation – in cooperation with Ecologic Institute.
What role does agriculture play in climate protection and how can it adapt itself to climate change? What approaches in science and policy can address this problem, and how can the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) contribute in this area? Over 100 scientists, policy makers, and experts from pertinent government agencies and associations discussed these and other questions at the conference "Climate Change in Agriculture", which took place on 20 January 2011 at the headquarters of the Permanent Representation of the Federal State of the Saarland in Berlin and was moderated by Prof. Dr. Beate Jessel. Norbert Röttgen, the German federal minister of the environment, opened the conference, which was organised by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation with the help of Ecologic Institute. The conference was also made possible by funds from the German Federal Ministry for Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.
From 18-29 October 2010 the tenth meeting of the parties of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) was held in Nagoya (Japan). Although expectations were low after the disappointing outcome of the climate conference in Copenhagen, which led to a general skepticism about multilateral agreements among experts, the Nagoya meeting terminated with a bunch of substantial decisions.
A breakthrough in the UN climate negotiations was achieved in Cancun, Mexico, during the first two weeks of December 2010. After the collapse of negotiations in Copenhagen in 2009, the Cancun conference revived the process by reaching a set of operational decisions that both formalise essential elements of last year’s “Copenhagen Accord” and keep the prospect of a binding agreement open. The decisions address key elements of the climate negotiations such as the aim of limiting the temperature increase to 2 degrees Celsius, a formal anchoring of mitigation pledges by developed countries as well as mitigation actions by developing countries, transparency of actions and a new Global Climate Fund. The decisions have given a new impulse to building the future climate regime, but details still need to be worked out in the run-up to the next summit in South Africa in November/December 2011. More and more civil society observers are attending the COPs every year, and many observers essentially treat the COP as a central, global meeting place for all discussions, academic work and outreach related to climate change. A delegation from Ecologic Institute also attended the climate summit.
The Ecologic Institute will host an international dialogue on regional adaptation actions for coastal areas on 15 December 2009 as a complementary event to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen. The aim is to contribute to an intensified exchange of good practice between different coastal regions of the world.
