Keynote Lectures and Workshops

During the last decade, climate change has become one of the most heatedly and publicly debated issues worldwide. The phenomenon itself is anything but new. Today, however, the term does no longer refer to climate changes caused by natural phenomena, but by human technology and human behaviour. Man has become both the causer and the victim of global climate change.

The indisputable evidence of global warming leads to the question of its effects: What, for example, is the impact of a possible exceedance of the global average temperature by two degrees Celsius on agriculture in South America, the water management in Africa, or urban systems in Germany?

There is an urgent need to find new approaches and solutions in order to deal with climate change. New technologies for energy efficiency, renewable energy sources or carbon sequestriation can thereby play a key role. Questions to be asked and answered are: How can technology-based inventions contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases? Will they lead to a sustainable development of industrial and less developed countries? How can the enormous energy saving potentials retained in buildings and transport be put into effect efficiently? Is it enough to face climate change with technological innovations, or does this challenge to the future of mankind call for even more fundamental changes?

Scientific Advisors:

Hans-Joachim Schellnhuber (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research)
Reinhard F. Hüttl (German Research Centre for Geosciences, also at Potsdam)