Headline: News

Mark Lawrence addresses the UN General Assembly

Mark Lawrence gave a presentation entitled “The Anthropocene – Humans in the Earth System” as part of a panel discussion addressing the United Nations General Assembly’s theme of scientific findings on how human activities are affecting the Earth system.

read more

TPEC chats online with staff members of international organizations: A joint project with the German Foreign Office

Potsdam, April 12, 2012. Answers to pressing energy change questions came speedily over online chat today from Dr. Kathrin Goldammer, project manager, and Dr. Dolores Volkert, researcher from the “Transdisciplinary Panel on Energy Change,“ (TPEC) in cooperation with the German Foreign Office. The questions were posed by staff members of international organizations, such as the European Union. The chat took place on the German Federal Government’s online platform “CommIO”, which is overseen by the Foreign Office and has over 1300 members. Ambassador Bernd Bordchardt sat in on the chat session as Foreign Office representative.

read more

IASS launches research initiative: "Transdisciplinary Panel on Energy Change"

"Changing energy communally: Intermediate results and ways to success” is the TPEC opening event with Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer and Prof. Dr. Matthias Kleiner on March 7th in Berlin.
February 23, 2012. The rapid, encompassing transformation of the energy system targeted by Germany’s energy change will succeed only with a broad, lasting social consensus as its base. This was the finding of Angela Merkel’s ethics commission “Secure Energy Supply” at the end of May, 2011.

read more

Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer inducted into the Kyoto Earth Hall of Fame

Fabruary 14, 2012. The Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies, Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer, was honored in Japan on Sunday when the Kyoto government administration inducted him into its Earth Hall of Fame. Kyoto selected Töpfer for this distinction in recognition of his many years of outstanding and path-breaking contribution and commitment to sustainability, the circular economy and environmental protection worldwide.

read more

IASS publishes first project results: Transgovernance: The Quest for Governance of Sustainable Development.

November 29, 2011. The Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS), Potsdam, presents the summary report at the closure of TransGov, its first collaborative project today. The authors examine dynamic questions of how – with an attuned understanding of complex societal mechanisms – better governance systems can be designed and implemented for sustainability reform, in which non-state organizations and civil society are more involved in decision-making. They argue that the existing governance approaches to social transformation processes, such as the energy transition, are not suitable. The English report by Prof. Roeland in’t Veld is available in print and as gratis download here. A German translation will be available shortly.

read more

Former president of Chile Lagos and Caritas-President Rodríguez lecture at the IASS Potsdam

November 28, 2011. The IASS lectures series “A Different Kind of Development? Perspectives from Latin America“ in Potsdam closes at the beginning of December with lectures by two outstanding Latin American personalities. Former president of Chile Ricardo Lagos Escobar and Óscar Andrés Cardinal Rodríguez Maradiaga of Honduras, president of the international organization Caritas, will speak about development and environmental protection in Latin America.

read more