Climate Action

To achieve the climate targets, emissions must be cut significantly, especially in the areas of energy, transport and industry. More consideration must be given to interactions between these sectors than has previously been the case. Reforms proposed in the past have often failed to go farenough because they ignore factors that could hamper the transition process – e.g. social and regional and cultural aspects. This is also one reason why many people regard climate policy as unfair. In turn, opponents and obstructionists take advantage of this shortcoming to mobilize forces against climate action. Furthermore, many actors in politics and business still argue that climate action is not compatible with economic growth.

By contrast, more and more companies are viewing climate action as an economic opportunity. They are designing strategies to lower emissions and are also advocating for them politically.

Public discourse is becoming increasingly entrenched along these lines. We therefore need ideas forhow climate action, economic upswing and social justice can be reconciled. After all, the complexity of these conflicting views makes it difficult to reach any consensus even within political parties and groups.

We want a climate policy mix that combines significant cuts in emissions with economic prosperity and social justice.

• We offer political decision-makers a solid analytical basis for creating regulations that will lower emissions, promote economic growth and reduce social injustice.
• We create spaces for a trust-based dialogue between interest group representatives so that they can jointly draw up concepts for effective climate action.
• We support civil society in its efforts to find answers to complex technical, economic, legal and political questions relating to climate action.
• We promote fact-based media reporting with a view to enriching public discourse and making it more objective.

Climate change affects all areas of life – health, foreign and security policy, migration, and the stability of financial markets. To date, these interrelationships have been reflected only to a very limited extent in political debates. It is therefore important for political decision-makers to understand that climate action is a cross-cutting challenge. For this to be achieved, pertinent capacity has to be built with influential information disseminators.

We want climate action to be relevant to decisions taken in every sphere of politics.

• We provide information disseminators and decision-makers who are not active in the area of environmental policy with an analytical basis for assessing the consequences of climate change for their political field, especially in the areas of health and finance. This will increase their awareness of the fact that climate action also plays a crucial role for them.
• We support science and civil society in their efforts to better reconcile proposed reforms in fields outside environmental policy with climate action.
• We are committed to ensuring that these interrelationships also receive more attention in the media.

Climate action is a response not to an environmental problem but to a societal problem. Humankind has brought about this situation itself and is destroying the vital resources it needs for life. Nonetheless, the public perception of climate action continues to be closely associated with environmental protection and ecologically oriented groups – despite it being an issue that concerns us all directly. For a long time, the political will to take ambitious action was therefore limited. This can change if many different societal actors commit themselves to climate action.

We want as many people as possible, including those not active in the area of environmental policy, to commit themselves to effective climate action.

• We support civil society actors outside the realm of environmental protection by helping them understand how climate action is relevant to them.
• We create spaces in which civil society actors can engage in exchange, network and forge new cooperative ventures and alliances.
• We help civil society actors to increase the visibility of their activities to support climate action.
• We create spaces for experimentation in which people can experience the transition to a greenhouse gas-neutral society at the local level.
• We raise awareness of good examples of effective societal participation and put them into practice.