Make Climate Policy "Just & In-Time"

WBGU policy paper

  • News 31.08.2018
From left to right: Prof. Dr. Ulrike Grote, Prof. Dr. Karen Pittel, Prof. Dr.Uwe Schneidewind (President, Wuppertal Institute), Prof. Dr. Sabine Schlacke, Prof. Dr. Dirk Messner, Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze, Secretary of State Dr. Georg Schütte (BMBF), Prof. Dr. Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Prof. Dr. Ellen Matthies, and Dr. Maja Göpel. Source: WBGU

Climate policy can only be successful if it is designed in a just way. This means that the urgency of climate action must be taken seriously and that the interests of all the people affected – both people harmed by climate change and those affected by the structural change necessary for climate-change mitigation – must be given equal weight. This is the message of a new policy paper entitled "Just & In-Time Climate Policy: Four Initiatives for Fairness", which the WBGU is presenting today to Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze and Secretary of State in the Ministry of Research and Education, Georg Schütte.
"With this policy paper, the WBGU takes a differentiated focus on the question of climate transformation that is appropriate both for those affected by climate change globally and for people in the coal-phaseout regions. Both dimensions also play a key role in the work of the Wuppertal Institute," says Prof. Dr. Uwe Schneidewind, President of the Wuppertal Institute.

The paper relates to the 24th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) to be held in Katowice in December. Among the topics to be covered there are how to deal with loss and damage caused by climate change, and how to organize a just transition in regions which, up to now, have been strongly characterized by carbon-intensive industries. Typically, those affected are on the one hand people vulnerable to climate change in developing countries, and on the other hand people employed in carbon-intensive industries, e.g. in coal-mining areas. Just and future-oriented solutions must be developed for both groups. The WBGU recommends that the German Federal Government should forge ahead with a just & in-time -climate policy via four exemplary initiatives. The aim is to combine a timely decarbonization-process with just solutions for the people affected.

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