Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler, August 2004: The objective of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change is to avoid harmful climate change caused by humans. However, so far, there has been no specification of the international obligations of the framework convention. Against this background, the study of the Europäische Akademie GmbH, commissioned by the Federal Environmental Agency of Germany (Umweltbundesamt, UBA), has set out to deal with the problems involved in concretizing and justifying the objective of the framework convention to protect the climate and has submitted concrete proposals for their precise, internationally binding specification.

The study was performed by an interdisciplinary working group which was constituted in Berlin on May 6, 2002, on the occasion of the final presentation of the academy’s project “Climate Prediction and Climate Precautions”. The working group comprised the following members: Professor Gernot Klepper, Ph.D. (Kiel Institute of World Economics), Professor Dr. Konrad Ott (University of Greifswald), Achim Schäfer (DUENE e.V., Greifswald), Dr. Jürgen Scheffran (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research/PIK), Detlef Sprinz, Ph.D. (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research/PIK) and was headed by Dr. Stephan Lingner (Europäische Akademie Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH).

With the ratification of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the international community set itself the binding, albeit generally formulated, objective to avert the dangers posed by anthropogenic climate change. With regard to the forthcoming commitment periods contained in the Kyoto Protocol and the measures to be taken, however, further specification of the objective to protect the climate is required with a view to determining tolerable concentrations and emissions of greenhouse gases. Thus, the study presented is aimed at working out a justified basis, in line with political practice, for specifying the ultimate goal of the Framework Convention on Climate Change and further, relevant decisions at international level.

 

To this end, the working group has developed an ethical evaluation matrix for the assessment of possible paths of development in regard to future emissions of greenhouse gases. On the basis of the Framework Convention on Climate Change, the above mentioned evaluation matrix and the energy scenarios contained in the “SRES” (Special Report on Emission Scenarios), the authors of the study recommend to the actors a development in favour of scenario “B1” in the direction of global de-carbonization and in favour of global equity and sustainability objectives. This recommendation is based, among other things, on the determined ethical convergence towards lower greenhouse gas concentrations. The extent to which these legitimate objectives are actually attainable substantially depends on the negotiation policy of the intermediary group of states of Russia, China, and the G77 as well as on their possible repercussions on the transatlantic differences.

The findings of this study serve as an orientation for German and European actors towards the continuation of an efficacious and acceptable, international climate policy.

 

Publication:

Konrad Ott, Gernot Klepper, Stephan Lingner, Achim Schäfer, Jürgen Scheffran, Detlef Sprinz (2004) Konkretisierungsstrategien für Art. 2 der UN-Klimarahmenkonvention (Reasoning Goals of Climate Protection. Specification of Art. 2 UNFCCC). Volume 37 of the publication series “Graue Reihe” of the Europäische Akademie GmbH (Chief Editor: C.F. Gethmann)

 

The study (German and English version) can be downloaded free of charge under the following internet address: www.europaeische-akademie-aw.de.

 

Press Contact:

Dr. rer. nat. Stephan Lingner, Dipl.-Geol.

Dipl.-Päd. Sevim Kiliç

Europäische Akademie zur Erforschung von Folgen

wissenschaftlich-technischer Entwicklungen Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH

Tel. ++49 - 2641/973-306, -313

Fax ++49 - 2641/973-320

Email Stephan.Lingner@ea-aw.de

Sevim.Kilic@ea-aw.de