Helga Weisz, co-chair of PIK´s research domain Transdisciplinary Concepts and Methods, held a keynote on tracking global resource use and emissions. Her recent research showed that cities can cut greenhouse-gas emissions far beyond their urban borders, a fact that offers local policy-makers more leverage to tackle climate change than previously thought. Other speakers included Hans Bruyninckx, Executive Director of the European Environment Agency, Achim Steiner from the UN Development Programme and S.P. Singh Parihar, Chairman of the Indian Central Pollution Control Board, to name just a few. The many eminent stakeholders present at the Dialogue exchanged their views and experiences on policy options and good practice examples for resource efficiency along the entire lifecycle of natural resources, products and infrastructure, also discussing resource efficiency as a key to reach the Sustainable Development Goals.
Scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research have been engaged in the G20 process on many levels. The team of PIK’s chief economist Ottmar Edenhofer took the lead of the task force on climate policy. PIK Director Hans Joachim Schellnhuber handed over a Special Report with concrete recommendations for action on a transformation together with the German Advisory Council on Global Change (WBGU). Hermann Lotze-Campen, head of PIK´s research domain Climate Impacts and Vulnerabilities, contributed to a G20 policy brief on sustainable agriculture and ending hunger.
