Headline: News 2022

Many people would like to reduce their consumption of plastic packaging, but face barriers such as the limited availability of unpackaged goods and scarcity of zero-waste stores. An IASS Policy Brief presents three strategic policy recommendations that could help reduce the consumption of packaging in everyday life.

Solar power is booming across the globe, and public auctions have become the dominant policy tool for deployment. But a lack of solar-specific experience and capacity in newly adopting countries can result in technical failures and lower solar plant performance. International quality standards used as technical requirements in the design of public auctions could offer a solution. An IASS Policy Brief outlines the potential benefits and challenges.

The wicked problems of the Anthropocene present major challenges to traditional scientific methods. Transdisciplinary research is a way to overcome these challenges as it involves both non-academic societal actors and academics from various disciplines. Despite its increasing popularity, the transdisciplinary approach still has not quite caught on everywhere – and it is often misunderstood. A publication from the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) summarises definitions and characteristics of transdisciplinary research and outlines an exemplary three-phase model that transdisciplinary teams can use to carry out their research successfully.

Profound structural transformations are unfolding in Lusatia and many other regions of Europe as part of a broader shift towards sustainable development. Various European funding programmes,including programmes under the European Green Deal and national support schemes, have been adopted to cushion the impacts of the reduction and phase-out of coal-fired power generation.

Climate action, environmentally-friendly mobility systems and the decarbonisation of the economy are important elements of sustainable development. At its fourth meeting, held on 24 January 2022, the Sustainability Advisory Council of the State of Brandenburg discussed these topics with representatives from the Youth Forum for Sustainability (Jugendforum Nachhaltigkeit).

On the overarching theme of "Towards a Sustainable Transformation - Climate, Energy and Nature in a Changing World," the Potsdam Summer School 2022 will continue as a transdisciplinary and interactive series of events from 22d till 31 of August.

The current geological epoch is defined by impacts of human activities on the environment. The problems related to these effects are not adequately addressed by international environmental law. As Klaus Töpfer Sustainability Fellow for 2022 at the IASS, Louis Kotzé, South African scholar of international environmental law, will develop innovative concepts that can underpin new legal norms to protect the entire Earth system.

In Glasgow, Germany pledged 700 million euros to support South Africa’s efforts to phase out coal-fired power. But to secure South Africa's coal phase-out without economic and socioeconomic losses, a regional and national plan must provide for a Just Transition. The COBENEFITS team at the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Research (IASS) has presented an analysis on decarbonisation that makes data-based recommendations for action in South Africa's coal mining hub, Mpumalanga.