“We cannot achieve sustainable development without tackling climate change,” said Sachs. The Sustainable Development Goals that he helped to bring about, and that now have been adopted by almost all countries worldwide, include climate action. “We have to get carbon emissions to zero – and governments have to say how. We cannot leave this to the market,” he stated. Former US-President John F. Kennedy “said we can put a man on the moon. That’s the spirit we need to achieve sustainable development! (…) We're extremely productive, the world's economical problem is solved. But we let people die."
Ottmar Edenhofer pointed out how climate policies could indeed help combatting poverty. “CO2 pricing does three great things,” he said. “Incentivizing clean technology. Penalizing fossil fuel use. And creating revenues.” Theses revenues might be used to provide for instance access to clean water to all of humanity. Referring to the SDG and climate stabilization, Edenhofer concluded: “United they stand – divided they fall.”
Melissa Eddy, Berlin correspondent of the New York Times, moderated the event, and it was opened and ended by Professor Christian Thomsen, President of TU Berlin.
Ottmar Edenhofer, who is also Director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change, started the lecture series in 2009; Stiftung Mercator supports this year’s event. Previous speakers include Lord Nicholas Stern from the London School of Economics, Nobel Laureate Elinor Ostrom, the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme Achim Steiner, and bestseller author Tim Jackson from the University of Surrey.
Weblink to TU Berlin: http://www.pressestelle.tu-berlin.de/newsportal/news_detail/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=2885&tx_ttnews[backCat]=148&tx_ttnews[backPid]=146768&cHash=41c8fa7f99
Weblink to Earth Institute: http://www.earthinstitute.columbia.edu/articles/view/1804
