Headline: News 2019

The cause of millions of premature deaths annually, air pollution is a global challenge. It affects both developing and developed countries, with cities, in particular, struggling to meet air quality standards. A new study by a team of researchers at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) investigates air pollutant concentrations in urban areas and the factors that affect air quality. The study includes a number of recommendations that will interest urban planners and citizens alike.

About 80 per cent of current CO2 emissions are caused by the member states of the G20. So it’s clear that they have a particular responsibility to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and encourage a shift to renewable energy. The leaders of these countries now need to act on that responsibility at the G20 Summit in Osaka on 28 and 29 June.

Germany’s Ministry of the Environment (BMU) and Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) have appointed IASS Director Ortwin Renn to the steering committee of the scientific platform for the German Climate Action Plan 2050. The committee, which is composed of up to ten renowned scientists and academics, is tasked with helping the German federal government advance and implement its long-term climate strategy.

Many different technologies already exist for converting the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2) into products like construction materials and chemicals. But which of them can make a real contribution to climate protection? A new study commissioned by the European Commission provides answers.

Hope was high when the Paris Climate Agreement was adopted 2015. Under the agreement, countries pledged to keep global warming well below two degrees Celsius. Five years later, the situation is sobering. In an article in Science magazine, Mark Lawrence and Stefan Schäfer of the IASS argue that the centralized approach to addressing global warming has failed and only greater democratic engagement can reanimate global climate politics.

Eighteen people were recently awarded the Order of Merit of the federal state of Baden-Württemberg by Governor Winfried Kretschmann. Professor Ortwin Renn, Scientific Director at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) was among them. Renn was honoured for his outstanding contribution to the transfer of scientific insights into politics, public administration and management and his unstinting commitment to a just and sustainable economic and social order.