Who led writing of the German Climate Action Plan 2050?
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The German Climate Action Plan 2050 () is a climate protection policy document approved by the German government on 14November 2016. The plan outlines measures by which Germany can meet its various national greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals through to 2050 (see table) and service its international commitments under the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), under minister Barbara Hendricks, led the development of the plan. The plan was progressively watered down since a draft was first leaked in 2016. Projections from the environment ministry in September 2016 indicate that Germany will likely miss its 2020 climate target.
Hermann-Josef Tenhagen
From 1988 to 1990, Hermann-Josef Tenhagen worked as a freelancer; among other things he did an internship for the Associated Press news agency and worked for local radio stations in Dortmund and Gelsenkirchen-Buer. From 1991 to 1994 he was an environmental journalist for the die Tageszeitung daily newspaper in Berlin, where he was involved in setting up the Environment and Economy Department in 1992. During a sabbatical year he then worked as spokesman for the "Klimaforum 95" (the Joint Coordination and Information Centre of German Environmental Organisations) and helped organise the activities of NGOs during the first world climate summit in Berlin in 1995.
Reimund Neugebauer
Neugebauer is a Fellow of the International Academy for Production Engineering (CIRP) and a member of German Academy of Science and Engineering (acatech). From 2010 to 2011 he was the acting president of the German Academic Society for Production Engineering (WGP). Since 2014 he has been a member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina. In 2015, Prof. Neugebauer was appointed co-chair of the German federal government’s High-Tech
Forum , the central advisory board for the development and implementation of Germany’s high-tech strategy. Since 2015, he has been serving as a member of the European Commission’s High-level Group of Personalities on Defence Research chaired by Elżbieta Bieńkowska.
John C. Dernbach
Dernbach has been the author of several important legal texts, most notably, "A Practical Guide to Legal Writing & Legal Method" which is widely considered to be the classic text on the subject and is currently in its fourth edition. Dernbach is also the editor of "Agenda For a Sustainable America," a highly influential collection of essays on environmental sustainability that has received praise from several leading academics and politicians including Russ Feingold, Fred Krupp, James Gustave Speth, Paul R. Ehrlich and Donald Kennedy. "Stumbling Towards Sustainability", Dernbach's 2002 book, sought to map U.S. progress regarding environmental policy. Dernbach also coauthored the amicus brief for the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark case Massachusetts v. Environmental Protection Agency.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
Regarding European Union policy, in October 2009 the Council of the European Union agreed that the appropriate abatement objective for Europe and other developed economies was 80–95% below 1990 levels by 2050 (consistent with Germany). 
In October 2014 the European Council endorsed a binding European Union target of an at least 40% reduction in domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 relative to 1990 (less stringent than Germany).
Angela Merkel
Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; Kasner, born 17 July 1954) is a German politician serving as Chancellor of Germany since 2005. She served as the leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 2000 to 2018. Merkel has been widely described as the "de facto" leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and by many commentators as the leader of the Free World.
Hans-Josef Fell
Hans-Josef Fell wrote the draft of the Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG), which was adopted in 2000 in the face of strong political opposition. The law, enacted 25 February 2000, guarantees cost-covering feed-in tariffs for electricity from biomass, wind power, and solar power, and aimed to increase the percentage of renewable energy used in Germany to 12.5% by the year 2010 and 20% by 2020. In 2011, Germany was already generating 20% of its energy from renewable resources. He was also involved in drafting the law amending the EEG in 2004.
Odyssey 2050
The promotional Odyssey 2050 comic book was released in March 2012 in London and was sponsored by Artists' Project Earth, a UK registered charity. One of the objectives of Odyssey 2050 is to reach out to young people from across the world, and especially marginalised and vulnerable groups who often don't have access to electricity, computers and DVD players. The comic book enables young people in areas of limited technology and financial resources to be introduced to the project and have fun while they learn about climate change and the need to take action on it. The comic has been distributed across schools in remote and neglected parts of Latin America’s poorest country, Nicaragua. The Odyssey 2050 association works in partnership with the Caribbean Coast Catholic Church coordinators that run schools for 17,000 young Nicaraguans and ensure that the comics are used well by the schools and compliment existing environmental education programmes.
Michael Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer is a long-time participant in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, serving recently as a lead author of the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report and then as a coordinating lead author of the Fifth Assessment Report as well as a Special Report on climate extremes and disasters. In the late 1980s, Dr. Oppenheimer and a handful of other scientists organized two workshops under the auspices of the United Nations that helped precipitate the negotiations that resulted in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (signed at the 1992 Earth Summit) and the Kyoto Protocol. During that period, he co-founded the Climate Action Network. His research and advocacy work on acid rain also contributed to the passage of the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act.
Nadine Schön
In the negotiations to form a "Grand Coalition" of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) following the 2013 German elections, Schön was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on digital policy, led by Dorothee Bär and Brigitte Zypries. In 2014, she was appointed deputy chairperson of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in charge of digital policy as well as family affairs, senior citizens, women and youth.
Climate-Alliance Germany
The Climate Manifesto is a manifesto initiated by Climate Alliance Germany in 2016 describing a vision of the climate movement. The text calls on politicians and society to work for a world that is oriented towards the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and the global goals for sustainable development. The member organisations of Climate Alliance Germany were involved in its creation.
Michael Oppenheimer
Oppenheimer has taken a leading role in various environmental and science policy related activities, with regard to acid rain, and contributed to the 1990 amendments to the Clean Air Act. With regard to climate change, he was a major author of the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report and a lead author of the Fifth Assessment Report.
Anders Levermann
Anders Levermann is a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and Columbia University. He is a Professor of the Dynamics of the Climate System at Institute for Physics and Astrophysics of the Potsdam University, Germany. He has been involved in the assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change since 2007 (contributing author to the paleoclimate chapter of the fourth assessment report, lead author of sea-level change chapter of the fifth report, lead author of the ocean, cryosphere and sea level chapter of the current sixth assessment report). Levermann advises political and economic stakeholders on the issue of climate change.
Nationale Plattform Elektromobilität
The German National Platform for Electric Mobility ("Nationale Plattform Elektromobilität") is an advisory council of the German Federal Government for electric vehicle introduction. It consists of the top representatives of industry (10 Members), politics (6), science (3), associations (3) and unions (1). It was officially established on 3 May 2010 during a meeting with German chancellor Angela Merkel. Its task is to push on the National Development Plan for Electric Mobility ("Nationaler Entwicklungsplan Elektromobilität"). The goal for 2020 of the NPE is to develop Germany to the leading supplier and lead market for electric mobility and to gain an employment effect of 30,000 additional jobs.
Energy policy
In September 2010, the German government adopted a set of ambitious goals to transform their national energy system and to reduce national greenhouse gas emissions by 80 to 95% by 2050 (relative to 1990).
This transformation become known as the "Energiewende". Subsequently, the government decided to the phase-out the nation's fleet of nuclear reactors, to be complete by 2022.
As of 2014, the country is making steady progress on this transition.
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber
In 2017, Schellnhuber was awarded the Blue Planet Prize of the Asahi Glass Foundation.
As one of the leading climate scientists worldwide, he has been a consultant to the former President of the European Union Commission, José Manuel Barroso. In 2007, he was appointed Chief Government Advisor on Climate and Related Issues during Germany's EU Council Presidency and G8 Presidency. 
Schellnhuber offers scientific insights to business leaders, as a member of the Climate Change Advisory Board of Deutsche Bank and chair of the governing board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology's Climate Knowledge and Innovation Communities (EIT Climate KIC).
In 2012, he was the lead-author of a report commissioned by the World Bank on possible impacts of a 4 degrees Celsius warming towards the end of the 21st century. This report received a lot of attention worldwide. That same year, Schellnhuber presented the keynote at the gala dinner that opened the high-level segment of the world climate summit COP18 in Doha, Qatar. In the presence of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon and UNFCCC's boss Christiana Figueres, a few days later Schellnhuber signed an agreement with the Qatar Foundation to jointly create a Climate change research institute in Qatar – a remarkable step as the country's wealth for decades had been based on exporting fossil fuels.
Walter Hallstein
Konrad Adenauer, the German Chancellor, called Hallstein to Bonn, at the suggestion of Wilhelm Röpke, and in June 1950 he appointed him to head the German delegation at the Schuman Plan negotiations in Paris, which were to lead to the formation of the European Coal and Steel Community.
Jean Monnet, the leader of the French delegation, and Hallstein drew up the Schuman Plan, which was the basis for the European Coal and Steel Community (ECSC), established by the Treaty of Paris in 1951. The ECSC was to develop into the European Economic Community, and later the European Union.
In August 1950, to general surprise, Hallstein was made head of the Office of Foreign Affairs (') at the Federal Chancellery ('). At this time, little was known about Hallstein, except that he had not been a member of the Nazi Party and that he was on good terms with US officials.
Manfred Weber
In 2015, Bavaria's Minister President Horst Seehofer nominated Weber as one of his deputies in the office of CSU chairman, making him part of the party’s leadership. In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, he is part of the working group on European policy, led by Peter Altmaier, Alexander Dobrindt and Achim Post.
Christiana Figueres
Karen Christiana Figueres Olsen (born 7 August 1956) is a Costa Rican diplomat with 35 years of experience in high level national and international policy and multilateral negotiations. She was appointed Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in July 2010, six months after the failed COP15 in Copenhagen. During the next six years she dedicated herself to rebuilding the global climate change negotiating process based on fairness, transparency and collaboration, leading to the 2015 Paris Agreement, widely recognized as a historical achievement. Over the years she has worked in the fields of climate change, sustainable development, energy, land use, technical and financial cooperation. She is a frequent public speaker and widely published author. She is the mother of two young women, and speaks Spanish, English, and German.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The plan establishes a commission for growth, structural change, and regional development. But unlike earlier versions, the commission will not be tasked with setting a date for an exit from coal. Instead, the commission will "support the structural changes" resulting from transformation and will "develop a mix of instruments that will bring together economic development, structural change, social acceptability and climate protection". The commission will be based at the economics and energy ministry, but will consult with other ministries, federal states, municipalities, and unions, as well as with representatives of "affected" companies and regions. The commission is scheduled to start work at the beginning of 2018 and to report at the end of 2018.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
Ottmar Edenhofer, a German climate economist and director of the MCC, criticized the plan. He said economy and energy minister "Sigmar Gabriel yielded to lobbyists and sadly put short-term interests before long-term interests".
CliSAP
The "Integrated Climate System Analysis and Prediction" (CliSAP) is a research association of the Universität Hamburg, the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M), the Helmholtz-Zentrum Geesthacht (Centre for Materials and Coastal Research, HZG), and the German Climate Computing Center (DKRZ). The Cluster of Excellence started in 2007 as part of the Excellence Initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. It is therefore funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). CliSAP conducts fundamental research on climate and climate change in the fields of natural, economic and social sciences.
German Advisory Council on Global Change
The Scientific Advisory Council on Global Change (German: "Wissenschaftlicher Beirat der Bundesregierung Globale Umweltveränderungen", WBGU) is an independent, scientific advisory body to the German Federal Government, established in 1992 in the run-up to the Rio Earth Summit (UNCED). The Council's principal tasks are to:The WBGU also comments on current events, such as the UN Climate Change Conferences (e.g., in Paris 2015), the UN Conference on Sustainable Development 2012 (Rio+20), the adoption of the Sustainable Development Goals (2015), the United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development Habitat III (2016) or Germany´s G20 presidency in 2017.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
Environmental groups have become increasingly critical of the plan as each iteration led to a watering down of its climate protection provisions. The NGOs were particularly concerned about the lack of detail concerning a coal phase-out. On 24 September 2016, Greenpeace Germany issued a report critical of the watering down of the results of the consultation process.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The building sector GHG target for 2030 is tonnes eq or a reduction of 66–67% relative to 1990. Under the plan, Germany's building stock will be largely carbon-neutral by 2050 and their limited energy needs will be met through renewables. Due to the slow turnover of buildings, the groundwork for this goal must be laid by 2030. The government will invest heavily in programs to implement high energy standards for buildings. Heating, cooling, and electricity supply will be progressively switched to renewables. The government will terminate support programs that rely on fossil fuels by 2020 and switch instead to support programs using renewable systems. The aim is to "make renewables-based systems much more attractive than fossil-fuel-based ones".
German Climate Action Plan 2050
On 14November 2016, the cabinet officially adopted and released the new plan. It was overseen by a CDU/CSU/SPD grand coalition government, led by Angela Merkel. The timing allowed environment minister Barbara Hendricks to present the German plan at the COP22 climate talks held in Marrakesh, Morocco. Canada, Mexico, and the US also presented climate action plans.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
A draft of the plan was leaked to media for the first time in 2016. It was the result of consolidating a long catalog of measures from the consultation process. The leaked plan included proposals for:The plan also suggested a "pluralistic" (meaning diverse groups are represented) commission be established, tasked with developing a coal phase-out plan by .
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The most significant part of the new package is a pledge to cut electricity sector emissions substantially by 2020. To do so, the government proposes to cap emissions from the sector at 22million tonnes between 2016 and 2020 or 4.4million tonnes each year. Once the cap is in place, energy companies will be allocated allowances based on their current emissions. If they cut their emissions by a greater amount, they may be able to sell their surplus to other companies. The package also contains measures to improve energy efficiency and the transport sector. Environmental groups criticized the package for not going far enough in reducing the reliance on coal-fired generation.
Energiewende in Germany
The fifth monitoring report on the "Energiewende" for 2015 was published in December 2016. The expert commission which wrote the report warns that Germany will probably miss its 2020 climate targets and believes that this could threaten the credibility of the entire endeavor. The commission puts forward a number of measures to address the slowdown, including a flat national price imposed across all sectors, a greater focus on transport, and full market exposure for renewable generation. Regarding the carbon price, the commission thinks that a reformed EUETS would be better, but that achieving agreement across Europe is unlikely.
Hans Zimmer
Zimmer composed the main theme for the 2016 BBC nature documentary "Planet Earth II", presented by David Attenborough. Zimmer composed the main theme for the 2016 Netflix production "The Crown". Also in 2016 Zimmer released an online course teaching the basics of film scoring. He next composed the score for Christopher Nolan's 2017 film "Dunkirk", basing part of the score on a recording of a ticking watch that he had been given by Nolan. Zimmer also worked on the score for "Blade Runner 2049". Hans Zimmer and co-composer Benjamin Wallfisch took over scoring duties after Jóhann Jóhannsson left the project. On 1 November 2017, it was announced that he will return to score the upcoming 2019 CGI live-action adaptation of Disney's "The Lion King" directed by Jon Favreau. It was reported in January 2018 that Zimmer would compose the score for "" directed by Simon Kinberg, contrary to his 2016 statements of not scoring another superhero film following his experience working on "Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice". On August 22, 2018, Zimmer was announced as the composer for Wonder Woman 1984.
Climate-Alliance Germany
From 2007 to 2015, Climate Alliance Germany organised nationwide demonstrations for the annual Global Climate Day of Action. The goal was to protest at the lack of environmental awareness in politics and the economy and to encourage climate protection measures.
Energiewende in Germany
The key policy document outlining the "Energiewende" was published by the German government in September 2010, some six months before the Fukushima nuclear accident. Legislative support was passed in September 2010. On 6 June 2011, following Fukushima, the government removed the use of nuclear power as a bridging technology as part of their policy.
After the 2013 federal elections, the new CDU/CSU and SPD coalition government continued the "Energiewende", with only minor modification of its goals in the coalition agreement. An intermediate target was introduced of a 55–60% share of renewable energy in gross electricity consumption in 2035. Germany imports more than half of its energy. Important aspects include ():
Peter Altmaier
Peter Altmaier (born 18 June 1958) is a German politician serving as Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy since March 2018. Previously he was Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety from May 2012 to December 2013 and Head of the German Chancellery and as Federal Minister for Special Affairs from December 2013 to March 2018. Altmaier is widely seen as one of Chancellor Angela Merkel's most trusted advisors and advocates for her more centrist wing of the CDU. He is respected for his "compromising style" and has been described as "The most powerful man in Berlin".
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The Climate Action Programme2020 (") is an attempt by Germany to help meet its official 2020 greenhouse gas emissions reductions target after a 'climate gap' had been identified. Projections from 2013 show Germany may miss its 40% reductions target by about without additional measures. The first draft of the programme was released in 2014. How best to control the contribution from coal-fired generation remained controversial, but economy and energy minister Sigmar Gabriel (SPD) dismissed plans aired in his ministry in October 2014 to retire 10GW of coal capacity.
Ulrich Eberl
Ulrich Eberl (born 1962 in Regensburg, Germany) is a science and technology journalist. After four years as a journalist, he took a position with Diemler from 1992 to 1995 working on their technology publications. In 1995, he took a position as Director of Siemens' worldwide innovation communications. He has also been Editor in Chief of the magazine "Pictures of the Future" since 2001. He is the author of several books, including 2011's "Life in 2050".
Peter Hintze
In autumn 2005, the Bundestagswahl 2005 ended the Gerhard Schröder era; Angela Merkel became chancellor of a Union/SPD-cabinet. From 2005 to 2013, Hintze served as Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Technology under ministers Michael Glos (2005–2009); Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg (2009); Rainer Brüderle (2009-2011); and Philipp Rösler (2011–2013) in the first and second cabinets of Chancellor Angela Merkel. Between 2007 and 2013, he was also the government’s Coordinator of Aerospace Policy.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The industry GHG target for 2030 is tonnes eq or a reduction of 49–51% relative to 1990. Good progress has been made and, , the sector must reduce its emissions by about another 20%. Notwithstanding, the plan emphasizes the need to maintain international competitiveness:
Jens Weidmann
From 1997 to 1999, Weidmann worked at the International Monetary Fund. Until 2004 he worked as Secretary of the German Council of Economic Experts. During his time at the Council, he played a key role in compiling a 20-point plan for boosting growth and employment that formed the basis of then-Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s Agenda 2010 reforms.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The notion of a climate action plan arose from the coalition agreement between the CDU, CSU, and SPD parties in 2013. The agreement stated:
German Climate Action Plan 2050
Following the leaked document, state governments became increasingly concerned that they were being railroaded into climate change goals that could damage their regional economies.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
If "possible and economically sensible", renewable energy will be used directly in all sectors, and electricity from renewable sources will be used efficiently for heating, transport, and industry. The utilization of biomass will be limited and sourced mostly from waste. The plan states that transitioning to a power supply based on renewables while ensuring supply security is "technically feasible". During the transition, "less carbon-intensive natural gas power plants and the existing most modern coal power plants play an important role as interim technologies".
Sibylle Günter
Sibylle Günter (born 20 April 1964) is a German theoretical physicist researching tokamak plasmas. Since February 2011, she has headed the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics. In October 2015, she was elected a member of the Academia Europaea in recognition of her contribution to research.
Uwe Corsepius
When Chancellor Angela Merkel assumed her office in November 2005, Corsepius was in charge of economic aspects of European integration and was negotiating the EU’s 2007-13 budget. Shortly after, Merkel promoted him to replace Reinhard Silberberg as head of Department 5 (European Policy). Subsequently, Corsepius coordinated the German European policy between 2005 and 2011, including the preparations for Germany’s presidency of the EU in the first half of 2007 as well as the drafting of the Berlin Declaration. From February 2011, he served as interim advisor on economic and financial policy and as G8 sherpa to Merkel, following his predecessor Jens Weidmann's move to become president of the Deutsche Bundesbank.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The land use and forestry sector offers opportunities for carbon sequestration. The government will prioritize improving the performance of forests as carbon sinks. Sustainable forest management will also be promoted and permanent grasslands and marshes are to be preserved. The expansion of settlements and transport infrastructure is to be reduced to per day by 2020 and to zero by 2050.
Thomas Heller
From September 2009 through March 2016, Heller served as Executive Director of Climate Policy Initiative (CPI), a policy effectiveness analysis and advisory organization that evaluates and supports the efforts of nations to achieve low-carbon growth. He was also a coordinating lead author for the IPCC’s Third and Fourth Assessment Reports and a contributor to the Special Reports on Technology Transfer and Emissions Scenarios. The work of the IPCC (including the contributions of many scientists) was recognised by the joint award of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Heller also served as a core team member directing Project Catalyst—an analysis-based project in support of the Copenhagen Climate Process—and currently serves as Vice-Chair of the Governing Board of the Global Green Growth Institute, with headquarters in Seoul, Korea.
Youth Climate Movement
In 2009, the UK Youth Climate Coalition worked with the Youth Movement, in particular the European Youth Climate Movement and SustainUS to launch the "How old will you be in 2050?" campaign at the United Nations Climate negotiations taking place in Bonn, Germany. The slogan has been used by the Youth Movement since then and was also the focus for the International Youth "Young and Future Generations Day" in December 2009. The campaign seeks to emphasise the need to cut carbon emissions by 80% by 2050 on 1990 levels, as young people will be the ones to inherit this world and decisions made today will have a direct impact on their lives in 40 years time.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
Regine Günther, director of policy and climate at WWF Germany, said "today's climate action plan is only a fraction of what is needed. The only plus point: all sectors get precise reduction targets, which WWF welcomes. However, the list of negatives is much longer: there are no appropriate measures to reach those targets. There is also a blank on the issue of coal. The plan completely dropped the urgently needed ban on further extension of open cast mining. The commission on coal will not start until 2018, after the federal elections. A minimum price on carbon is also missing completely. With this plan, the industry and energy lobbies have proven how well placed they are in the economy ministry. With such a plan there can be no ambitious climate protection."
Climate-Alliance Germany
Since November 2015, Climate Alliance Germany has hosted the Berlin Climate Talks on changing topics several times a year. The events take place in cooperation with its member organisations. The panel guests have already included several federal ministers, state secretaries and party leaders. The first event was dedicated to civil society proposals for a more climate-friendly air transport concept for Germany.
Fossil fuel phase-out
A coal phase-out for Germany is implied in Germany's Climate Action Plan 2050, environment minister Barbara Hendricks said in an interview on 21November 2016. "If you read the Climate Action Plan carefully, you will find that the exit from coal-fired power generation is the immanent consequence of the energy sector target... By 2030... half of the coal-fired power production must have ended, compared to 2014", she said.
Morgenthau Plan
In his 1950 book "Decision in Germany", Clay wrote, "It seemed obvious to us even then that Germany would starve unless it could produce for export and that immediate steps would have to be taken to revive industrial production." Lewis Douglas, chief adviser to General Lucius Clay, US High Commissioner, denounced JCS Directive 1067 saying, "This thing was assembled by economic idiots. It makes no sense to forbid the most skilled workers in Europe from producing as much as they can in a continent that is desperately short of everything." Douglas went to Washington in the hopes of having the directive revised but was unable to do so.
Climate change adaptation strategies on the German coast
The political framework for climate change adaptation in Germany is given by the German Strategy for Adaptation to Climate Change (2008). Regarding climate change at the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the strategy states that the expected magnitude of damage due to climate change is unclear. In 2011, the German government presented an action plan for climate change adaptation which includes resolutions from the Wadden Sea Secretariat for the North Sea Region. In behalf of the Federal Environmental Agency (UBA), the project "KüstenKlima" (2014) by the "Institut Raum & Energie" (...) published a strategy for climate protection and climate change adaptation at the German coast mainly due to coastal management. In the report, it was highlighted that an integrated coastal zone management (IKZM) is an important method for adaptation. IKZM is an informal management approach to strengthen sustainable development by means of integration, communication, good coordination practice, and participation. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) facilitates the project "KLIMZUG - Klimawandel in Regionen zukunftsfähig gestalten" "(2008-2014)" which includes adaptation strategies in seven model regions in Germany. The "KLIMZUG" program aimed to integrate climate change adaptation processes into regional development. Three of this model regions are located at the German coast. The program "KLIMZUG-NORD" focuses on the metropolitan region Hamburg, the program "RADOST" on adaptation strategies for the German Baltic Sea coast and "nordwest2050" is a research project for climate change adaptation and innovation processes for the metropolitan region of Bremen and Oldenburg.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
Media reports in 2016 suggest a deepening rift between the economics and energy ministry (BMWi) and the environment ministry (BMUB) over the plan and the exit process for coal-fired generation (""). Economy and energy minister Sigmar Gabriel opposes the setting of a coal exit date before job alternatives for lignite workers have been determined.
Edward Mazria
Mr. Mazria closed his architecture practice in 2006 and is currently the Founder and CEO of Architecture 2030, a think tank developing real-world solutions for 21st century problems including the AIA+2030 Professional Education Series, 2030 Palette, China Accord, and the 2030 Districts movement in North American cities. He developed the “Roadmap to Zero Emissions” and is currently working with cities across the U.S. to develop pathways for “zero” to “80%” greenhouse gas emissions reductions by 2050.
Axel Timmermann
Axel Timmermann is a German climate physicist and oceanographer with an interest in climate dynamics, human migration, dynamical systems' analysis, ice-sheet modeling and sea level. He served a co-author of the IPCC Third Assessment Report and a lead author of IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. His research has been cited over 13,000 times and has an h-index of 59 and i10-index of 146. In 2017, he became a Distinguished Professor at Pusan National University and the founding Director of the Institute for Basic Science Center for Climate Physics. In December 2018, the Center will begin to utilize a 1.43-petaflop Cray XC50 supercomputer, named Aleph, for climate physics research.
Hans-Josef Fell
Hans-Josef Fell (born 7 January 1952 in Hammelburg, German) was a member of the German Parliamentary Group Alliance 90/ the Greens from 1998 to 2013. He served as spokesman on energy for the Alliance 90/The Greens parliamentary group, a member of the Environmental Protection Committee, substitute member of the Committee on Economics and Technology and substitute member of the Defence Committee. Together with Hermann Scheer, he authored the 2000 draft of the Renewable Energy Sources Act, establishing the foundation for the technology developments in photovoltaic, biogas, wind power and geothermal energy in Germany. Fell is founder and president of the Energy Watch Group and an internationally renowned energy and climate change advisor, author and speaker.
Andreas Schulze (political consultant)
Andreas Schulze (born 1964) is a German political consultant for the Alliance '90/The Greens, and the designated Press Secretary of the President of Germany, Joachim Gauck.
Raimund Bleischwitz
His career began in the late 1980s in the German Bundestag as a political adviser to the Social Democratic Party of Germany. He later worked as a researcher at the Institute for European Environmental Policy in Bonn and London. In the early 1990s he was supporting Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker in establishing the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, where he headed the research management and later the "Factor 4" research desk. In 1996, together with Reinhard Loske, he coordinated the study "Sustainable Germany". In the late 1990s and early 2000s he was a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods in Bonn, Germany and held various lecturer positions at Cologne Business School and at University of Bonn. He also participated in the Japanese study program Millennium Collaborations Projects on climate, energy and eco-efficiency conducted by the Japanese Economic and Social Research Institute and was a fellow at the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science.
CliSAP
CliSAP is represented by a chair, currently Professor Anita Engels, and two deputy chairs, currently Professor Eva-Maria Pfeiffer and Professor Detlef Stammer. They are chosen by the Scientific Steering Committee, which sets the cluster’s strategic agenda. CliSAP was established during the first funding period of the federal Excellence Initiative of the German federal government and the federal states, 2007-2012. In summer 2012 the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) decided to continue the funding for another five years until 2017 within the second phase of the Excellence Initiative.
Holger Schmieding
Holger Schmieding (born 10 January 1958) is a German economist, the current Chief Economist at Berenberg Bank based at their London office (since 2010) and a frequent broadcaster and commentator on economic affairs in the media. Before joining Berenberg, he was a Senior Economic Advisor to the International Monetary Fund, a Senior Strategist at the Bank of America and worked for Merrill Lynch, based in Washington D.C., London and Frankfurt. The "Financial Times Deutschland" placed him at the top of the list of 50 analysts for the proven accuracy of his forecasts over the last six years in 2007. He worked as a journalist 1976–78 and studied economics in Munich, London and Kiel, obtaining a doctorate in economics at the University of Kiel with a dissertation on the integration of central and eastern European countries in the western European economy. He has also co-authored a book on German economic history since 1948, with Herbert Giersch and Karl-Heinz Paque.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The proposal for a Commission on Climate Protection, Growth, Structural Change, and the Completion of the "Energiewende" ("") remains, but now without the specific task of developing a roadmap for the phase-out of coal.
Air pollution in Germany
The German Climate Action Plan 2050 was approved by the German government on 14 November 2016. It is a climate protection policy document that outlines the measures that Germany will take to meet its national greenhouse gas emissions reduction goals by 2050, as well as service its international commitments under the 2016 Paris Climate Agreement. Projections from the ministry of environment in September 2016 indicate that Germany will likely miss its 2020 climate target.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
Notwithstanding, a coal phase-out for Germany is implied in the plan, environment minister Barbara Hendricks said in an interview on 21November 2016. "If you read the Climate Action Plan carefully, you will find that the exit from coal-fired power generation is the immanent consequence of the energy sector target... By 2030... half of the coal-fired power production must have ended, compared to 2014", Hendricks said.
Rainer Grießhammer
Rainer Grießhammer (born 14 July 1953) is a German chemist and member of the executive board of the Oeko-Institut. Besides his practical work, he is managing director of the Future Heritage Foundation (Stiftung Zukunftserbe) in Freiburg (since 2000). He is the author of numerous scientific articles and popular science publications. Since 2012, Rainer Grießhammer has been honorary professor for sustainable products at the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg.
Climate change adaptation strategies on the German coast
Climate Change Adaptation Strategies on the German Coast include European, national and regional politics, different economic and civilian sectors as well as coastal protection. In general, "climate change" refers to statistically identifiable changes in climate properties that persist over a longer period of time. The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) defines it as a change in climate caused by human activity that can be observed in addition to natural climate variability. This can be described as anthropogenic climate change. Climate change poses local level impacts on the German coast and for the present and future, suitable adaptation strategies are necessary. In 2008, the Federal Cabinet of Germany decided on a German Climate Change Adaptation Strategy with the objective of creating a national action framework for reducing the risks for the population, habitats as well as the economy."Adaptation" is a contested, widely discussed term with no general definition. For the German Adaptation Strategy the definition of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is utilized, stating that adapatation is the adjustment of natural or human systems to occurring or expected changes in climate in order to reduce harm. This approach views climate change as the major source of vulnerability and does not consider any social causes.
The "German Coast" comprises 1600 km to the west at the North Sea and 2100 km to the east at the Baltic Sea. In total, five states border the German coast. Lower Saxony, Bremen and Hamburg are part of the North Sea region; Mecklenburg-Vorpommern border the Baltic Sea and Schleswig-Holstein is located at both seas. "Coast" can be defined as the zone where the land is considerably influenced by the sea and vice versa.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
Simone Peter, co-chair of the Green Party, said "this is not a good plan anymore, it has become an empty shell, because the ministerial colleagues of [environment minister] Hendricks have removed anything that could be of relevance – be it the coal exit, the end of the combustion engine, or a transition in agriculture".
Edeltraud Günther
Edeltraud Günther is chairwoman of the DIN-working group for the development of the international standard DIN EN ISO 14051 “Material flow cost accounting” as well as ISO 14008 “Monetary valuation of environmental impacts from specific emissions and use of natural resources - Principles, requirements and guidelines” (since 2008). From 2008 to 2013 she was leader of the "Arbeitskreises Nachhaltige Unternehmensführung" (working group sustainable management) in the Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft für Betriebswirtschaft e.V. She is a member of the working group "Green Controlling" in the Internationaler Controllerverein e.V. (since 2013) and in the working group Integrated Reporting in the Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft für Betriebswirtschaft e.V. (since 2013). Furthermore she is a member of the DFG - Senate Commission on Water Research (2006 to 2011 and since 2015), member of the expert forum "Nachhaltiges Wirtschaften" (sustainable management) in the Hightech Forum (since 2015), member of the Class of Engineering Sciences of the Saxonian Academy of Sciences and Humanities in Leipzig (since 2014), as well as member of the Commission of Sustainability Management in the Verband der Hochschullehrer für Betriebswirtschaft e. V. (since1994).
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The plan also establishes a regional fund to foster new businesses in lignite mining regions. The government will need to ensure that EU competition law does not inhibit the operation of the fund.
Joachim Pfeiffer
Pfeiffer has represented the Waiblingen constituency since the 2002 election. During the first coalition government led by Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2005-2009, he served as the CDU/CSU parliamentary group’s coordinator for energy issues and as deputy spokesperson for economic affairs. In 2008, Pfeiffer led a legislative effort to cut price subsidies for renewable energies by as much as 30 percent the following year; lawmakers eventually compromised on an 8 to 10 percent annual decrease over the subsequent three years.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
A revised draft plan, circulated by the environment ministry on 4November 2016, was obtained by "Süddeutsche Zeitung". The plan has become more stringent and now includes passages that had earlier been removed during the negotiations between ministries. The new plan also precludes new coal-fired generation and the expansion of existing open-pit mines and calls on the government to lobby for an EU-wide floor price for auctioned EU ETS emissions allowances.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
A draft of the plan was leaked to media for the second time in 2016. The draft was dated 21June 2016 and is available for download in German. Unlike the first leak, this draft was compiled after consultation with the economics and energy ministry (BMWi).
Gerhard Schick
Schick has been the Alliance '90/The Greens parliamentary group’s spokesman on financial policy since 2007. From its inception in 2008, he has been a member of the Financial Markets Panel, which provides parliamentary oversight of the Financial Market Stabilization Agency (FMSA). Following the 2013 federal elections, he was elected deputy chairman of the Finance Committee.Additional to this he has written several publications.
Andreas Löschel
Löschel is an advisor to Aurora Energy Research Limited. Since 2005, Löschel has been a Senior Researcher at the Centre for European Economic Research, where he has also held the position of the Director of the Environmental and Resource Economics Department between 2007 and 2014. From 2010 to 2014, he was a Professor for Economics focusing on Environmental and Resource Economics at the University of Heidelberg. Since 2011, he has chaired the Energy Expert Commission on the monitoring process "Energie der Zukunft" (Energy of the future) project of the German federal government. In 2017, he was furthermore elected as a member of the German National Academy of Science and Technology. Löschel is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the research projects "Energiesysteme der Zukunft" (Energy systems of the future) of acatech and part of the "Research Platform Energiewende" of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.
Löschel is a lead author of the Working Group III contribution to the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report (2010-2014).
Climate-Alliance Germany
Coordinated by Climate Alliance Germany, more than 50 organisations published the "Climate Protection Plan 2050 of German Civil Society" in November 2016 as a result of a broad participation process. In it, they call for more ambitious climate protection targets and legal binding force.  As a national response to the Paris Climate Agreement, the German government had previously published its Climate Protection Plan 2050, which was criticised by Climate Alliance Germany as insufficient.
Dagmar Schäfer
Dagmar Schäfer is a German professor and the managing director of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin. She won the Pfizer Award in 2012, and the Association for Asian Studies' Joseph Levenson Book Prize in 2013, for her 2011 book "The Crafting of the 10,000 Things".
2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference
The purpose of the conference was to discuss and implement plans about combating climate change, including the details of how the Paris Agreement will work after it enters into force in 2020. The COP was presided over by the Prime Minister of Fiji, Frank Bainimarama, marking the first time a small-island developing state assumed the presidency of the negotiations. The German government provided considerable support that amounted to more than €117 million ($135.5 million) for the construction of the conference facilities.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The plan is predicated on a gradual transformation, achieved through a learning process involving the scientific community and accompanied by public dialogue. It is therefore intended that the plan can and should respond to changing technological, political, and social conditions. The plan will be reviewed every five years to align it with the evolution of Germany's nationally determined contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement. The first update is therefore slated for or . As early as 2018, the government intends to strengthen the plan by quantifying the various emission reduction efforts and their associated ecological, social, and economic impacts. The sector targets may be modified as a result. Annual reporting should help the government to evaluate and adjust its specific climate protection measures in the short-term.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The agricultural sector GHG target for 2030 is tonnes eq or a reduction of 31–34% relative to 1990. The plan acknowledges that agriculture cannot reach zero emissions, due to the biological processes inherent in plant cultivation and livestock farming. Instead the plan will focus on reducing emissions as much as possible and on the more efficient use of resources. About one third of agricultural emissions are due to nitrous oxide from fertilizer use. The government wants to reduce these emissions through better management and through research and development. Another one third of emissions derive from ruminant animals. The government will develop a comprehensive strategy to reduce emissions from livestock farming by 2021. The plan states that 20% of agricultural land by 2030 "should be used for organic farming", compared with 6.3% in 2014. The government also advocates the use of financial instruments under a reformed EU Common Agricultural Policy to reduce GHG emissions from the sector."
Jens Koeppen
In the negotiations to form a coalition government under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel following the 2017 federal elections, Koeppen was1 part of the working group on digital policy, led Helge Braun, Dorothee Bär and Lars Klingbeil.In June 2017, Koeppen voted against Germany’s introduction of same-sex marriage. Ahead of the Christian Democrats’ leadership election in 2018, he publicly endorsed Friedrich Merz to succeed Angela Merkel as the party’s chair.
Jens Weidmann
In 2006, Weidmann began working at the Federal Chancellery, where he was responsible for preparing the content and strategy of the G-20 round which was formed to counter the effects of the financial crisis. When he started, he was the youngest department head in the German government. Chancellor Angela Merkel promoted him in December 2009 to the influential role of the Sherpa of the G8 summits as she considers the G8 round to be only a pre-summit of the G20 round in the field of the world-wide financial system as well as that most other subjects need a wider context than the G8 as well (compare Heiligendamm Process for G8+5).
Heinz Maier-Leibnitz
Maier-Leibnitz was also a member of the "Arbeitskreis Kernreaktoren" (Nuclear Reactor Working Group) of the DAtK, and it was considered to be the most active and influential board of the DAtK. Some of the other members of the group were Erich Bagge, Wolfgang Finkelnburg, and Karl Wirtz. For the first decade of nuclear energy development in the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG), it was the center of decision making, and it had representative membership from German industry. Maier-Leibnitz was also the chairman of a special committee for designing the "Deutsches Atomprogramm" (German Nuclear Program). From this position, he became the architect of the first full-scale nuclear program of the FRG.
Climate change in Germany
Germany has taken steps to address anthropogenic climate change since the mid 1980's, starting with their participation in the international negotiations of the Montreal Protocol. The Montreal Protocol, alongside the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, acted as focusing events for German public in 1986 and subsequently pushed the environment to the top of the policy agenda. As a result, the German government under Chancellor Helmut Kohl established the Ministry of Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (Bundesministrium fuer Umwelt, Natureschutz, und Reaktorsicherheit, BMU) in 1986 and the subcommittee the Enquête Commission on Preventive Measures to Protect the Earth’s Atmosphere (Climate Enquête Commission) in 1987. The role of these committees was to research issues relating to the ozone depletion problem as well as the climate change problem, facilitate parliamentary debate, and produce reports for policymakers to create well informed programs. The reports produced by the Climate Enquête Commission created the beginning framework of German climate change policies, which have historically included consistent goal setting for emissions reductions, promotion of renewable energy, energy efficiency standards, market based approaches to climate change, and voluntary agreements with industry.
Annalena Baerbock
Annalena Charlotte Alma Baerbock (born 15 December 1980) is a German politician (Alliance 90/The Greens) and the current chairwoman of her party. Since 2013, she also holds a seat in the Bundestag, the German federal diet.
Europe 2020
The strategy identifies five headline targets the European Union should take to boost growth and employment. Originated from the Germany Digital Agenda in 2009 led by Henrik von Scheel for the Federal Minister of Economy & Technology and evolved in 2013 into Industry 4.0.
Odyssey 2050
A unique feature of Odyssey 2050 is that it is interactive. Young people from across the world have been invited to submit videos, illustrations, graphics, and written ideas to Odyssey 2050 to express how they think the script should develop or to highlight the actions they are taking in their communities to tackle climate change and protect the environment. Using these ideas and messages the script writers and technical team for Odyssey 2050 are developing and creating the story.
Patrizia Nanz
Patrizia Nanz is the co-chair of “Science Platform Sustainability 2030”, an interdisciplinary platform for research and dialogue to support the implementation of the German Sustainable Development Strategy within the context of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Development and its 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). The platform supports policymaking for sustainable development by generating, collating, and strategically disseminating knowledge. It provides a scientific perspective on both the progress towards and obstacles to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda in, with, and through Germany. Working closely with stakeholders from civil society, business and policymaking, the platform identifies relevant research deficits and fosters dialogue in order to facilitate a broad exchange of ideas among representatives from academia, policymaking, the private sector, and civil society. The platform, which operates independently, applies a transdisciplinary approach in its work and is a key part of the new architecture supporting the implementation of the German Sustainable Development Strategy.
Air pollution in Germany
The Climate Action Plan 2050 establishes a commission for growth, structural change, and regional development. However, unlike earlier versions of the Germany's climate change plans, the commission will not set a date for an exit from coal. Instead, the commission will develop a mix of instruments that will bring together economic development, structural change, social acceptability and climate protection. The commission will be based at the economics and energy ministry, but will consult with other ministries, federal states, municipalities, and unions, as well as with representatives of companies and regions that may be affected. The commission is scheduled to begin work at the beginning of 2018 and report at the end of 2018.
Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy
Following the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the implementation of Agenda 21 was high on the (environmental) policy agenda in many nations. The first attempts were very timid and showed the lack of experience in implementing the new leading principle called sustainable development. The 1995 report Zukunftsfähiges Deutschland (published as “Greening the North”), commissioned by BUND and Misereor, was to remedy this: The Wuppertal Institute team, headed by Reinhard Loske and Raimund Bleischwitz, pioneered a new methodology. Beginning with an estimate of the Earth's carrying capacity, the "environmental space", this study developed leading principles to help us Germans avoid overusing the environmental space to which we are "entitled". The principles are based on concepts such as efficiency and sufficiency.
Transatlantic Climate Bridge
The partnership was first proposed by German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier in an April 2008 lecture at Harvard University. He believed that climate policy was the core of transatlantic matters. On 29 September 2008, he and German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel wrote in the "Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung", "Together with the United States, we can make the technological breakthroughs required and successfully negotiate a follow-up treaty to the Kyoto Protocol. Only if we work closely with our partners on the other side of the Atlantic will we succeed in convincing emerging countries such as China, India and Brazil, as well as Russia, to opt for a sustainable growth model that spares the climate." The next day, the climate bridge was launched by Germany at a conference at the German Foreign Office in Berlin, where about 300 American, Canadian, and German representatives invited by Steinmeier and Gabriel convened. There, they "sought to identify innovative solutions for tackling climate change".
Barbara Hendricks (politician)
By early 2016, Hendricks entered in talks with various stakeholders on drawing up a plan over how to exit coal-fired power generation in Germany, later named 'Climate Action Plan 2050'.
Life in 2050
Life in 2050 is a 2011 futurology book by Ulrich Eberl. The book deals with the effects that climate change, peak oil and the 2000s energy crisis has on the year of the mid-21st century.
Christine Maria Jasch
From 2000 – 2006 she was member of the United Nations Working Group on Environmental Management Accounting. For them she wrote a book on principles and procedures for environmental management accounting, which was the basis for her later work on the IFAC Guidance document on environmental management accounting, released in 2005. UNIDO is using this approach to combine it with Cleaner Technologies and Environmental Management Systems and thus establish arguments and a baseline for environmental protection and related cost savings by improved resource efficiency. 
In Austria the national law for the implementation of the EU emission trading scheme requests a separately qualified accounting expert for data monitoring in the audit team, in addition to a process engineer and a chemist. Christine Jasch has qualified as such in 2005 and works on CO audits with TUEV Austria. On April 2008 she was voted into the board of directors of oekostrom AG where she served till 2013. 
Lecturing engagements exist or existed with the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, the University of Klagenfurt, the University of Applied Sciences Wiener Neustadt Campus Wieselburg, the University of Applied Sciences Kufstein, the University of Applied Sciences Technikum Wien, Vienna and the Danube University Krems.
Gernot Wagner
Wagner was an economist at the Environmental Defense Fund from 2008 to 2014 and lead senior economist from 2014 to 2016. While there he was a member of the faculty of the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, and he wrote "Climate Shock" (2015), a book emphasizing the importance of risk and uncertainty for prompting action on climate change. Wagner was a member of the six-person lead author team, including Suzi Kerr, that wrote the World Bank's Emissions Trading in Practice : A Handbook on Design and Implementation.
Angelika Brandt
From 2011-2015 Brandt served on the scientific steering committee for the Southern Ocean Observing System (SOOS) and is still one of Germany's national representative at SOOS. She served as a supporting session leader for session M-2 (Southern Ocean Life and Ecology) at the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Horizon Scan retreat, and was a member of the scientific steering committee for the international and collaborative Census for the Diversity of Abyssal Marine Life (CeDAMar) and project leader and ANtarctic benthic DEEP-sea biodiversity: colonization history and recent community patterns (ANDEEP) project. She still serves as a steering committee member of the SCAR Scientific Research Program (SRP) State of the Antarctic Ecosystem AntEco. Brandt is also one of Germany's representatives to the SCAR Scientific Science Group-Life Sciences (SSG-LG). She is currently a member of the Marine Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning project at the EU Network of Excellence, serves as a science advisor to the Atlantic Ocean Observing System (Atlantos) and is the head of Invertebrate II collection at CeNak.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The plan stresses to role of the European Union Emission Trading System (EUETS) as the primary climate protection instrument covering the energy sector and parts of industry in central Europe. The government wants to strengthen price signaling and will campaign to make the EUETS "effective" at a European level. Earlier provisions to set a floor price for emissions allowances were removed.
Climate change adaptation strategies on the German coast
The German North Sea is part of the North Sea Region (NSR) Program 2014 - 2020 of the European Climate Adaptation Platform (Climate-ADAPT). This regional European development fund includes coastal zones of the United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway. NSR developed a cooperation program, which was adopted by the European Commission in August 2015. The cooperation program focuses on adaptation to climate change impacts and on preserving the environment, stimulating a green economy, promoting green transportation and mobility as well as supporting growth in the North Sea Region. Another actor in climate change adaptation in the German North Sea Region is the Wadden Sea Secretariat, a cooperation between Denmark, The Netherlands, and Germany that has been established in 1978 to protect the Wadden Sea as an ecological entity. The Wadden Sea Secretariat addresses and communicates the impacts of climate change on the Wadden Sea. In 1998, the working group Coastal Protection and Sea Level Rise (CPSL) was founded, dealing with the impacts of climate change. Until 2010, the CPSL has published three reports, which provided information for governmental conferences.
Atlantic Initiative
The blog "Deutschlands Agenda" was officially launched on August 8 and has published numerous articles since then, including one from the Federal Foreign Office (Germany) Guido Westerwelle, and another from Thomas de Maizière, the Federal Ministry of Defense (Germany).
The "Deutschlands Agenda" regularly features themes reflecting topical issues. While the vigorous debates on Afghanistan continued to persist until the theme reached its end in January 2012, the next theme entitled "Germany in the EU" took place in the following month. The G8 & G20, BRIC-States, new global policy shapers and NATO's upcoming summit are among the other themes have been scheduled for the year 2012. So as to ensure more in-depth and thorough content, each theme will feature articles from experts, think tanks, bloggers, politicians and journalists.
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change
The work under the UNFCCC is facilitated by a secretariat in Bonn, Germany. The secretariat is established under Article 8 of the Convention. It is headed by the Executive Secretary. The current Executive Secretary, Patricia Espinosa, was appointed on 18 May 2016 by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and took office on 18 July 2016. She succeeded Christiana Figueres who held the office since 2010. Former Executive Secretaries have been Yvo de Boer (2006-2010), Joke Waller-Hunter (2002-2005) and Michael Zammit Cutajar (1995-2002).
Action for Climate Empowerment (ACE) is a term adopted by the UNFCCC in 2015 to have a better name for this topic than "Article 6". It refers to Article 6 of the Convention's original text (1992), focusing on six priority areas: education, training, public awareness, public participation, public access to information, and international cooperation on these issues. The implementation of all six areas has been identified as the pivotal factor for everyone to understand and participate in solving the complex challenges presented by climate change. ACE calls on governments to develop and implement educational and public awareness programmes, train scientific, technical and managerial personnel, foster access to information, and promote public participation in addressing climate change and its effects. It also urges countries to cooperate in this process, by exchanging good practices and lessons learned, and strengthening national institutions. This wide scope of activities is guided by specific objectives that, together, are seen as crucial for effectively implementing climate adaptation and mitigation actions, and for achieving the ultimate objective of the UNFCCC.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The weakening of the plan is also a result of industry associations repeatedly criticizing sector targets and itemized measures, which they fear would harm Germany's economic performance and international competitiveness.
Monika Griefahn
From 1990 to 1998 Monika Griefahn was Minister of the Environment of the state of Lower Saxony, which at that time was led by Gerhard Schröder, who became German chancellor later on. One of her central concerns in environmental policy was to quit to the use of nuclear energy. Her plans, which finally became reality in 2011, were blocked by directives of the Federal Ministry of the Environment, headed by Klaus Töpfer (1990–1994) and Angela Merkel (1994–1998). Parallel to her commitment against nuclear power Griefahn hurried along the extension of renewable energy in Lower Saxony with measures like an eco-fund or an atlas for wind energy. Her commitment contributed to the fact that the plans to phase out nuclear power became a reality between 1998 and 2005, when a coalition of the Social Democratic Party and the Greens led the Federal Government. In 2001 the law on the abandonment of nuclear energy came into power.
German Climate Action Plan 2050
The history of the Climate Action Plan2050 is quite involved. The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) is the lead agency for the plan, under the direction of environment minister Barbara Hendricks (SPD). A novel public consultation process was utilized to collect ideas from state and city governments, advocacy groups, and citizens and these ideas were then used to help create the first version. Internal drafts of the plan were leaked three times to the media in 2016, the first in , the second in , and the third in .
Peer Steinbrück
After the 2005 federal election, SPD and CDU formed a Grand Coalition under the leadership of new Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU). Peer Steinbrück became finance minister of Germany in November 2005. He was charged with reducing Germany's budget deficit, curbing public debt and introducing changes in the taxation system. Following his initiative, Germany introduced a flat rate withholding tax of 25 percent on private income from capital and capital gains, with the aim of preventing tax evasion. He oversaw and orchestrated the regulatory and fiscal efforts to counter the largest financial and economic crisis in post-War history.