"It is unusual to conduct such a fateful change in a modern industrialized society by discourse and sensible compromise, rather than by government enactment. If this enterprise succeeds, the political culture in Germany will be a big winner - and of course the climate protection urgently needed, as increasing weather extremes show. As a scientist in the Commission, I will argue in particular that a hesitant phasing out of coal will be punished by the laws of physics."
Schellnhuber is also Chairman of the High Level Panel on Decarbonization Pathways of the European Commission. The German Coal Commission is chaired by the former Prime Ministers of Brandenburg and Saxony, Matthias Platzeck (SPD) and Stanislaw Tillich (CDU), as well as board member of Deutsche Bahn, Ronald Pofalla, and the political scientist and economist, Barbara Praetorius, former deputy director of the ecological think tank Agora Energiewende. Among the members are Martin Kaiser (Greenpeace), Michael Vassiliadis (IG BCE) and Jutta Allmendinger (WZB).
